Plus, plenty of spaces still remain, so spread the word...
10 May: There are still plenty of slots available (and I believe there are also rooms available at the hotel for those that want to stay there). So do let me know if you would like to come. This is a great opportunity to come along if you have never attended before or are new to the Acorn scene. We are a very friendly bunch and no particular knowledge or expertise is expected in order to enjoy the weekend.
I am pleased to announce that we finally have a venue for a Southern ABUG.
The meet will take place from Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd June 2018 at The Ely, London Road, Blackwater, CAMBERLEY, Hampshire, GU17 9LJ .
The venue is a short distance from J4a of the M3 and pretty close to the M4 too. There is a reasonable amount of parking on site. There is a nearby station at Blackwater which is 8 minutes by car (and, as usual, I am sure that there will be volunteers to do pick-ups). It is just a branch line but is only 20 minutes by train from Reading and less than an hour from London Paddington.
Now the big news
: The meeting room is much bigger than anywhere else we have been in recent years. The official capacity is 110 (although I think that is perhaps a bit sporting). However, we can comfortably accommodate 40 people with a full table each and plenty of room to pass between tables. At present, therefore, I am not planning on putting any limit on the number of places. I suspect there will be room enough for all.The room also contains a large projector screen. So, if anyone has a Beeb compatible projector and cable they can bring along, I am sure there will be much fun to have with that.
f you wish to stay at the hotel, you can book direct through the hotel website: https://www.oldenglishinns.co.uk/our-lo ... blackwater or you can phone them on 0845 608 6040. I am told that the price of a room is £150 for the two nights. I am also told that the price is likely to go up closer to the time.
The food and drink seems to be good there, so I suspect the plan will be to eat at the hotel. Indeed, I would encourage people to make as much use of the bar as possible. We have been offered a very good rate on the expectation that people will do this.
As usual, here is the standard information about the meetups.
Acorn & BBC Micro User Group (ABug) meetups are open to enthusiasts of the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Atom and Archimedes/RISC OS machines. Attendees will typically stay for two if not all three days. The meets are always very informal and can involve:
- members bringing their own hardware to set up and show off**
- time spent working on hardware and programming/games projects
- exchange of ideas/knowledge
- upgrade and repair of poorly Acorn machines
- collaborative work on community projects, such as software preservation, preparation/planning for displays at other events etc.
- sale of items by members (not guaranteed, but there are often opportunities to buy bits)
- general socialising, food/drink and the odd hi-score competition!
** = Important! Ensure that any hardware you bring that features the RIFA/Paper-type capacitors with a tendency to go POP (e.g. Beebs) have had the caps changed! We can't risk setting any smoke alarms off as that may incur charges!
Please post in this thread or send me a PM to let me know if you want to come and what days you are likely to attend.
Tentative
- lazarusr (Robert) - full weekend - full table PAID
- sixxdog_uk (Alex) - full table - hopefully coming late on Saturday
- Arcadian (Dave) - full weekend - full table PAID
- mattyj (Matt) - full weekend - full table PAID
- z0m8ied0g (Stephen) PAID
- cmorley (Chris) - full weekend - full table PAID
- kieranhj (Kieran) - Sunday only - full table PAID
- hoglet (Dave) - full weekend - full table PAID
- SarahWalker (Sarah) - Saturday/Sunday - full table PAID
- Bagpuss (Andy) - full weekend - full table PAID
- IanS (Ian) - full weekend - full table PAID
- 1024MAK (Mark) - full weekend - full table PAID
- Prime (Phill) - full weekend - full table PAID
- BitWise (Andrew) - arriving Saturday PAID
- chrisn (Chris) - Saturday and Sunday PAID
- BigEd (Ed) - one day, not sure which PAID
- daveejhitchins (Dave) - full weekend - no kit, but Mrs daveejhitchins and a caravan PAID
- Elminster (Duncan) - Saturday - full table PAID
- flibble (Peter) - Saturday and Sunday - full table PAID
- tricky (Richard) - Saturday/Sunday - full table PAID
- helpful (Bryan) - Saturday and Sunday - full table PAID
- thomass (Thomas) - Saturday only - no kit PAID
- markdryan (Mark) - Saturday and Sunday PAID
- David Ruck (ROUGOL)
- Louie Ruck (ROUGOL) PAID
- jbnbeeb (Jason) - Saturday only PAID
- David Hale (Facebook)
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Another time! 
