Hi Folks,

I not forgotten that we said this...

It's just that we've got 3 competing ideas on what to do on the 19th December... and it'll depend on availability of the venues.

I had hoped to have got all the details by yesterday, but still waiting on a couple of places.

Either way... keep Tuesday 19th December (from 6:30pm onwards) free :P

Steven Maddox
Lantizia

Hello Everyone,

Just an update on this subject... some of you may know this from IRC / Discord over the last few months, but it's more official here...

In my last e-mail I mentioned the CoCoLab (where we do our Workshop meetings) needed to move.

It wasn't public knowledge at the time, but Internet Central (who we've appreciatively borrowed their 'Workplace Recovery Suite' room) are moving to the building next door... so that same room is going to be rebuilt.

Whilst in these last few months we've had few reasons to doubt we couldn't just continue using it once it moves... it's also been a good opportunity to talk with others (like Keele Uni directly) and we asked you all for suggestions of anywhere else we could move to.  However since the possibility of us just moving with Internet Central seemed likely, it's de-emphasised talks for places elsewhere.

Unfortunately 2 weeks ago, we got some more specifics about how the newly rebuilt room would work... which means our arrangement to borrow a room from Internet Central is now over.

We had a whole host of Workshop meetings planned for 2023 (we got about a third of them done... we'll fix the calendar on the website shortly), but with this looming issue and the uncertainty of using the room... it just didn't feel right to carry on using it for the last few months.  Instead volunteers have spent the time partially dismantling it and documenting how it all worked.

In the last 2 weeks however... we've emptied the room entirely. Luckily Internet Central has donated all of the equipment to us (e.g. the computers, switches, phones, the TV, etc...)... and we've found some free storage to put everything.  They've even let us keep some of the furniture too.

So when we do get a new place sorted (and talks have resumed), we'll have everything we used to have before... to go right back together again.

We've had a few suggestions for new places so far, but the more the merrier... please do get in touch if you know of anywhere.

Until then, we're not scheduling any more Workshop meetings.  We could try to do them online - but it never really worked well during the COVID-19 period... unless there is a huge resurgence of people really wanting to try that again.

However socials!  Well AHAA!  I'll be sending another e-mail shortly about that.

Steven Maddox
Lantizia

On 16/07/2023 09:38, Steven Maddox via StaffsLUG Meetings wrote:

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to drop a little update as we've been busy and it'd be helpful to explain what is going on :)

Due to a combination of things (that I'm not entirely sure how much I'm allowed to talk about publicly)... it is likely that the CoCoLab (which is where StaffsLUG Workshop events take place) will have to move at some point in the future... how soon?.. we're not certain yet, so we're doing all the preparation we can now to be ready.

Function Office is in talks with both Internet Central and also Keele University about finding a space for a new CoCoLab... so we've been spending a lot of time tidying things up, taking notes about what we've built up so far, meeting people, etc...

Suffice to say... if you know of anyone with a 900-ish sq foot space where rent would be either incredibly cheap or free... and that someone doesn't mind us using it for non-profits / charities / community groups (like the LUG) to hang out for events, training, telethons, etc... in the evenings/weekends... then let us know!

I've attached an inkscape/SVG diagram of the room (make sure your measurements are set as millimetres... so everything shows the correct size)... if people find it useful.

But hopefully, fingers crossed... we can work out something :)

We'll let you know when we have more...

Also with summer being here, I think a summer LUG social is in order in August if people are up for that?

Thanks :)


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