Hello glorious comrades!
Tonight's meeting got off to a slow start, with most people filtering in
about 30 minutes after the scheduled starting time. Once it did get going,
however, it flew by very quickly.
A few things of note:
1. We are tentatively scheduled for a *second* Wikipedia Loves Libraries
event, this one in Cambridge, for 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM on November 17th. I
am serving as the coordinator for our end of the event. This would be
exactly a week after the Wikipedia Loves Libraries event happening in
Boston on November 10th, however because of the needs of our partner
organizations, and because of Thanksgiving, that's really the only date
that works. Speaking of Thanksgiving, there is a very high likelihood that
I won't actually make the event the event, because I'm flying out of town
that day. I will try to get a later plane (in which case I would still have
to leave at 3:00) or if I can't reschedule, at the very least make the
first hour of the event. What that does mean though is that going forward I
am going to need volunteers to commit not only to being at the WLL event,
but also to helping run the show. It's not an ideal situation, and I'm
sorry, but it's the best I can do, and the Cambridge folks are *really *excited
about this. Further details forthcoming as they are finalized.
2. At some time in the near future you're going to hear more about Gabe and
my efforts to get governmental offices (Mayor of Boston, Governor of
Massachusetts, maybe others) to release their photos under free licenses.
We are targeting the Mayor's office first, as the Governor will likely be
preoccupied by the election for the next few months. If we're going to send
elected officials a letter representing us as a group, we need have at
least a few vice presidents and/or active members of the group say that
they are okay with us doing so. It'll probably also involve signing the
letter, which... well... requires people to be committed enough to sign the
letter. Again, further details forthcoming as they are finalized.
3. Clover Food Labs was a great location for the Cambridge folks, but other
than myself, we drew none of the Boston based members. This does likely
have to do with that the meeting wasn't publicized very far in advance, but
also has to do with location. SJ floated the idea of a meeting in two
weeks' time in Boston. There are a number of locations that would work;
apparently the meeting space used for the last Boston meetup (I forget the
name) was fine. There's also Peach Farm Restaurant in Chinatown, which a
large number of us went to after the mega-meeting before summer break. I'm
thinking that we might get more people if we did it on a Sunday afternoon,
say Sunday the 23rd, but am open to suggestions for both timing and
location. That and... well officially I'm not the one planning it. But hey,
whatever, details.
4. There were some other projects that were discussed, however I was
speaking to the Cambridge folks during that time. SJ or Gabe will have more
information, and I'm sure that they'll fill the list in if anything
important was brought up.
Cheers everyone. Hope to see you soon,
Sven