Lo Folks,
Just wanted to send an update on behalf of myself, Richard and Mark regarding the state of the LUG.
As many of you know... we could no longer physically meet up due to the stricter (and entirely reasonable) policies enacted by Internet Central on visitors to their office, including the Workplace Recovery Suite which we use as our Workshop... and shortly after our last social, the pubs closed too.
Now the pubs are back open, I'd be interested in hearing if anyone wants a social. Naturally we'd understand if they didn't, as just because they're open doesn't mean we shouldn't be exercising caution.
Internet Central have severely modified their offices to make them more "COVID-19 Secure", so staff now have the option of returning to their desks as of Monday if they're able to do so. However there is still a policy of no guests, so this still rules out the LUG for a little while longer I'm afraid... since I work there, I'll let you know when that situation changes.
We'll be getting on with a bunch of improvements to the room in the mean time, such as upgraded switches, a bank of new USB pens with various distros and a dedicated new-ish laptop for testing distros on. The TV area has also had a bit of an overhaul and a lot of the PC's now have new headsets for using audio on the PCs and the VoIP phones.
When the lockdown started we said we'd be monitoring Discord and IRC and haven't seen too much activity (nor on this mailing list), but we've had a few people pop their heads in to the voice chat on Tuesday evenings sometimes. Suffice to say... there is some rebuilding to be done, the LUG had only been going 6 months since its reboot last year, before COVID-19 reared its head :(
You'll get another e-mail me momentarily, from a slightly different e-mail address... rest assured that it is me. This e-mail was planned before Christmas for release on this exact date, which is why the tone doesn't really reflect any of the above - but I'm sending it like it is anyway!
Hope you've all been keeping well through all of this.
Please do remember that everyone is still on the mailing lists if you ever fancy chatting (about anything really), just send an e-mail to general@lists.staffslug.org.uk to get the ball rolling.
-- Steven Maddox Lantizia