[Thamesvalley-pm] Welcome!

[Raf]

Greetings From Reading!

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007, Dave Cross wrote:

> Dave Cross wrote:
>
> It is, of course, up to Raf to decide what he wants the setting to be
> long term. And also to decide on a policy for top-posting and HTML mail.
> My vote would be for instant execution for either offence, but some
> people are more tolerant than me :-)

I'll try and be more tolerant about top-posting.  HTML will lead to 
lead to execution.

I use pine and lynx for visiting embedded URL's, so lets try and keep 
things uni-dimensional for the time being.


Dave:  Thank you for getting the list up.

All:

Welcome!

The idea for ThamesValley.pm popped up after attending the London Perl 
Teach-in.  I felt a desire to be more a part of our community of like 
minded/issued beings.  I felt inspired by the possibility to share 
experiences, knowledge and ideas, etc.  Since I live and work in the 
northerly regions of Berkshire, going into London isn't really all that 
convenient, so I figured that it might be of benefit to join a local 
group.

Since there didn't seem to be a local perl monger group, I had this vague 
thought that it might be cool to give back and start a local group. 
Within an hour of having the idea, I'd some how managed to secure the 
contribution of a venue and a whole bunch of Perl people interested in 
joining.  Then came the wait for the mailing list and here we are!

So, I figure that we should try to agree on a date for our first meeting. 
I'd like the focus of our meetings to be on the technical exchange.  From 
personal experience, I recognize that if you're traveling some distance, 
you want to maximise your gain.

Anyway, it is on this basis that I'd like to invite all of you to 
contribute.  We can aim to meet for about two hours, once a month and fit 
in as much as many speakers as possible.  Ideally, I'd like to see us 
being able to arrange about two long talks and a couple of lightening 
talks per meeting.

We can keep the topics as open as possible, as long as there's underlying 
shared value.  I'd also like to see a variety of content at all levels.

This is a community effort and I'm counting on all of us working together 
to make ThamesValley.pm a united community and a beneficial 
resource for all Perlies in the area.

* I'd like to propose that Wednesday 4th July for our first meeting. 
Please feel free to object and help us work towards agreement which suits 
most people.

* The venue would be:
http://servicedoffices.mwbex.com/serviced-office/reading.html

* We'll have projection and internet access for whoever is presenting - 
I've promised the centre manager that we won't be using this to 
collectively crack into the Bank of England.

* I'd like to thank MWB and Will, our centre manager, for offering us 
these facilities - in case he ever searches the archives.  I've promised 
to give them 'mention' on our eventual website.

* Adam - I'd like to renew my invitation for you to deliver your 
introductory talk at our first meeting.  I hope you can make it?

* Barbie from birmingham.pm has offered to include us in their world tour.

* Tom from Milton Keynes.pm has also offered to try and steer people in 
our direction.

Many of you have spread the word to local linux user groups - and there's 
been some word of mouth around here.  It looks like we might all be able 
to make a success of this.

Thanks to all of you for making this a reality!

Cheers,

Raf