History

StaffsLUG has been going for over 20 years and seen many changes in that time. This page is a nice place to keep a track of the past and properly acknowledge those who were involved.

This page is extremely incomplete! There is a lot to be recalled and recorded here and if you feel you’ve got something to add you should definitely contact us, even if its just a minor clarification or extra detail to add.

We’ll be digging through the older archived mailing lists to get a better feel for details we can add too.

The beginning

Staffordshire Linux User Group was formed in March 1999 by Dave Roberts and Mark Leese.

Somewhere in the middle

Lots of social meetings in Wetherspoons pub ‘The Yard’ down in Stafford and also the occasional workshop meeting at the Stafford Navaho offices. Plenty of chat back and forth on the #staffslug channel on the Freenode IRC network as well as a single mailing list.

Later still

Around 2012 a new LUGMaster took over and around the same time things started to tail off a lot in terms of mailing list and meeting activity. This was inevitable with core people moving away and a lack of new faces and different venues. By 2013 the mailing lists unfortunately show barely any activity at all.

Talks began around 2014 to transfer the assets of the LUG over to Function Office and this concluded in 2016. Over the next 3 years a small handful of people kept the effort alive, but whilst appearing dormant there was an ongoing quest to find new faces and what they’d want in a LUG ready for a proper relaunch.

2019 onwards

Things are back to being alive and kicking. Three new mailing lists (and new ways to access them) and also new ways to chat. New venues and new sources of people who want to participate. You can find more information about the LUG as it stands to today on this entire website, especially the FAQ page.