[chicago-lisp] Recap of 3/21 Chicago Lisp Meeting

[John Quigley]

Happy belated Chicago Lisp news!

Two weeks ago (March 21st), we had our first meeting to bootstrap the 
new Chicago Lisp User Group.  We had 7 people show up for the initial 
meeting:

Craig Luddington
Eli Naeher
Victor Kryukov
John Quigley
Shaneal Manek
Dave Morrow
Peter Christensen

*Items Covered:*

_Future meetings_ - We decided on monthly meetings, the third Friday of 
every month, 7pm.  The next meeting will be Friday, April 18th where 
John Q. will give a presentation on continuations.  The May meeting will 
have several lightning presentations - submissions welcome (please post 
a message on the Coordinatr event)!  All but one of the attendees live 
or work in the city of Chicago, so we decided that all meetings will be 
held in Chicago. 

_Meeting locations_ - The first meeting was held at Ambrosia Cafe (1963 
N. Sheffield, Chicago, map: http://tinyurl.com/2koztz).  It was a nice 
place for a meeting but we'd like to find a place to meet with a 
projector, so presentations can be given and recorded.  Some proposed 
locations are the IIT Institute of Design (350 N. LaSalle St) and the 
Harold Washington Library (400 S. State St).  If anyone has an office or 
location they'd like to volunteer, please let me know. 

_Scope_ - We decided to keep the group and meeting open to the greater 
Lisp family - Common Lisp, Scheme, Arc, etc.  That will be the focus of 
the group but all are welcome to attend.  Some people expressed desire 
to start or adopt a project that we could work on as a group.

_Name_ - Some people wanted a better name than "Chicago Lisp", and who 
can blame them?  One nomination as "LispChics" (inspired by NYC's 
Lispniks) but I thought it was false advertising (7 guys with laptops, 
Chics, ??).  The name is up in the air, nominations accepted.

_Web Presence_ - John Q. owns the chicagolisp.org 
<http://chicagolisp.org> domain and Craig L. has a server he volunteered 
for use.  A project we develop could be hosted there, and I recommended 
a CLiki instance for group notes.  I've also setup a group on 
coordinatr.com <http://coordinatr.com> that I'd like to try out for 
organizing meetings.  You should get an email soon. 

The common-lisp.net <http://common-lisp.net> chicago-lisp mailing list 
will still be used but only as a supplement.  The list is not great 
because of spam but there are a hundred or so subscribers still on the 
list that would have no other connection to the group.

_Intro to Lisp Workshop_ - John Q. informed of a planned, all day 
workshop designed to introduce programmers to using Lisp - from 
installing and setting up an image to programming basics to advanced 
concepts.  It is planned for a Saturday in May (date TBD, location 
probably Institute of Design) and volunteers would be appreciated. 

_Coordinatr_ - I'll be trying out a new site called Coordinatr.com to 
manage the meetings.  You can RSVP there, submit ideas for proposals, 
etc.  You should receive email inviting you to the first two meetings 
shortly after this email.  There is also a feed of new events created 
for this group here:  
http://coordinatr.com/feeds/rss/vcwxbvdrepk2blkbtwctez .  You can get 
updates and reminders by email and/or SMS, but I think the RSS feed 
doesn't get updated (the platform has only been out for a couple 
weeks).  Let me know how this works - I think it'll be better than a 
zillion back and forth emails.

You can view the feed without registering at the site, but you need to 
register AND be invited to see the event website, RSVP, post messages, 
etc.  Good news is that you can invite new people to an existing event 
once you've registered.

*Calendar:*

Friday, April 18, 7pm: Chicago Lisp Meeting
  Location TBD
  Presentation on Continuations
 
Friday, May 16, 7pm: Chicago Lisp Meeting
  Location TBD
  Lightning presentations, accepting submissions
 
Some Saturday in May: Intro to Lisp Workshop
  Location TBD (probably Institute of Design)
  Getting started with Lisp, all-day event
 

*Homework Items:*

Name the Group!  Send submissions to Peter

Lightning Talk Proposals for May 16 meeting

Locations for future meetings - 3rd Friday of the month, 7pm, ~10 
people, preferably with wireless access and a projector.  If you have a 
place, email Peter

Feedback on using Coordinator for managing events

Thanks,
Peter Christensen
DFGL (de facto group leader)

-- 
------------------------------------------------------
Peter Christensen
http://www.pchristensen.com/
peter at pchristensen.com <mailto:peter at pchristensen.com>