On 17 May 2011, at 13:58, Marco Chiesa wrote:
On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 2:37 PM, WereSpielChequers
<werespielchequers(a)gmail.com> wrote:
The current arrangements suit me, but I'm
conscious that under 18s and
moslems are unlikely to come to a pub. Having a loo that weelchair
users can't use doesn't help either. The advantage of a pub is that
provided you have a few drinkers such as myself the venue is free, but
with the current state of Wikimedia UK funds I think we might be able
to get some grant money to sometimes hire a different venue.
Have you ever tried contacting town councils to get a room for free?
Or maybe schools / colleges / university whose spaces are tipically
less used on weekends? Normally, it's mostly a question of finding the
right person to talk to.
Marco
In general, trying to get a room for free is a very good approach - but if it doesn't
work out, then I can't see a reason why WMUK couldn't provide funds to hire the
venue, particularly if there is an obvious benefit such as the "joint Wikimedia
UK/Bangla Wikipedia meetup" that WereSpielChequers suggested.
BTW, I've previously tried to get a free room at the university I work at on a weekend
for the WMUK AGM in 2009, but failed to get it for free because they would have to charge
to open up the building on a Saturday (we had a lack of money at the time of this AGM). We
ended up in a good room in a nearby pub that we hired for free - but again, it was not
disabled-friendly and had several other flaws as a meeting place. Moral of the story:
there are many obstacles that can present themselves when trying to get a room for free,
and sometimes the best way to get around them in this business-orientated world is with
some amount of money....
Thanks,
Mike