Place to discuss potential meetups north of the Watford Gap.
Currently most of the meetups are organised in London which is hard for some people to get to. There are also various opportunities popping up that might be better served by people who eat tea.
Thereās a space run by Co-op Digital called the Federation here in
Manchester would be a great place to meet and next to a tram stop pricing
is good also, world be happy to help organise a meet-up here
Manchester is an obvious centre for meeting up in the North. On a good day I might be able to make it to Manchester from Lancaster. We also have meeting space run by a co-op right here in Halton (Halton Mill)
(I should specify that itās Halton, Lancaster, not any other of the Haltons)
@edrussell @shaun @chris @Graham - who else should be looped into this thread?
It obviously canāt be in everyoneās home town - we did the Scotland meetup in Glasgow and the South East meetup in London.
Maybe agree to rotate the venue for CoTech north?
I thought, ālets check the mapā, but I canāt see any co-ops there, has it stopped working? Do we need to raise an issue for this?
There is probably more co-op stuff based in Manchester than anywhere else so holding the event there makes sense.
Co-op Web (Brum) would more than happily host something if someone would like. Unfortunately Iām far to stacked at the moment to organise anythingā¦ But if someone would like to weād love to hostā¦?
Iād probably go to a meetup in Manchester, and Iād assume that @shaun could probably be coaxed also.
Yep - someone forgot to escape the address data and Apitivate are based in āSwannās laneā - Iāll fix now
Perhaps it would make sense to do the CoTech North planning meeting via Skype?
the map is working again by the way CoTech Ā« Cooperative Technologists
The map shows we in the north are spread out, both sides of the Pennines, so I agree with the idea of an online meeting. Perhaps with an open source/non-commercial equivalent of Skype?
I think Jitsi Meet is what youāre looking for?
We use Mumble for meetings in our co-op as it is more stable and has good native clients that do noise gating or push to talk. Youāre welcome to use our server for the odd meeting if you want 
Lolz. Yes - I meant skype not Skype.
I actually had to google āhow do I make a phone call using the skype android appā when stuck in a foreign country with data but no calls. As I was about to click āsearchā I thought, āIām an information architect and usability consultant - I must be able to work it outā. 10 frustrating minutes later, I was back on Google.
We use https://appear.in/ the Loomio crew swear by https://www.zoom.us
Personally I think we should use the best tools possible to organise ourselves whoever makes them. I donāt normally quote Lenin, but the idea of the capitalists selling us the rope to hang them with seems pertinent - at least when translated to organisational rather than organic āhangingā.
āCapitalist organisations will provide us with the services that we need to build a movement which will ultimately produce a better economic systemā ā Harry Robbins, 2017
Doesnāt really have the same ring to it though.
For what itās worth, Iād prefer a face to face meeting to a online meeting.
+1 for a face to face.
+1 for both. Initial on-line meeting to share views on arranging the face-to-face.
Iām up for a face to face meetup.
The obvious options would seem to be Birmingham or Manchester. The event itself is now less than a month away, so an agreement would need to be reached fairly quickly.
Please do add me into any online meetings, Iād love to persuade you all to
come to Manchester lol
If there was an opportunity to engage with āCo-op Digitalā then for me that could be most important for CoTech. I do feel the need to point out that Birmingham is not in the North (although Iām aware thatās perhaps a relative thing).
If anyone wants to meet IRL informally quite soon, there is this a general worker co-op meeting coming up in Brum on the 14th of Novemeber which I will be attending.