Note: This entry has also been cross-posted over at The Multipack Blog - you can get involved with the group and find out more about us there.

It's been a year since we started our little midweek group over in Leamington, so it seemed like a good idea to have a bit of a birthday party!

If you didn't already know, The Multipack meets twice a month - every second Saturday in Birmingham and the last Tuesday of the month in Leamington (an iCal feed is available). Our little group in Leamington started a year ago so, on the anniversary of our first meet-up, we celebrated with cake:

Our cake, adorned with an iced version of Paul Robert Lloyd's logo masterpiece, went down very well. So much so that we're attributing our best ever turn out to its presence. Many new faces, including some who'd previously not been able to find us, but who had a cake to look out for this time!

Sadly, whilst the cake worked in giving some people a beacon to find us, we can't bring cake every month, so if you've got any suggestions on how to help people find us, we'd love to hear them.

Staying with the same format

The reason we formed our group in Leamington was to give those who couldn't make the Saturday meet-ups a choice of when to attend. It's worked really well, and whilst we've had the odd month where only a handful of people have turned up, there's usually always a good, friendly crowd at our Tuesday night events.

Over the past 12 months, we've been joined by designers, developers, project managers, social media luminaries, other halves and even the occasional prospective parliamentary candidate, and it's been nicer still when some of our newfound geeks have hooked up with the larger group in Birmingham on the second saturday meet-ups.

We think it's worked, so we're going to stick with it - we'll continue meeting from 7:30pm on the last Tuesday of the month at the White Horse in Leamington Spa, where you can find good ale, good food and a good atmosphere. If you work in or around the Leamington Spa area and fancy joining us, we'd love you to join us!

Dear Chris,

Firstly, congratulations on your election to Parliament as the MP for Warwick and Leamington.

I'm guessing your first few days there must be a lot like your first few days at secondary school - learning the new systems and protocols, everything being exciting, disconcerting and humbling in equal measures.

But I'm guessing it's also like going to a school where all the teachers are having a bit of a silent protest. Whilst I'm sure it would have been nice to have hit the ground running and started doing some real, political work, I'm guessing we've dealt ourselves a representative government. It's just a shame that, under the current system, it can't seem to do anything with itself.

I don't know which way the alliance will go - whether the Liberal Democrats will side with your party, or whether they'll choose to become part of a 'progressive alliance' with the Labour party, the independents and the other left-of-centre MPs - and I'm guessing that whilst you've probably been sounded out on it, you know little more than us. 

I also don't know how long an alliance will last, whether it will be long enough to truly pass any electoral or political reform, or whether it will gain widespread support. The last thing I want to see is MPs voting in their party's interests over their constituency's interests, however, especially on matters as important as representation.

It's for these reasons that I'm getting in early, before the campaigns for everyone to contact their MP begins, to ask you to support electoral reform. We've got a real chance to change our voting system to a new one, picked from a selection of those which are successfully used in other parts of the world, in Europe, and even here in the UK. It was a proportional voting system which saw Boris Johnson elected as the Mayor of London, and one which saw the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elected fairly, and represented proportionally by their electorate.

Having looked into systems such as Single Transferrable Vote and the Additional Member System (also known as MMP in New Zealand, where it's used for parliamentary elections), I can't help but think something like this, with a fixed-term parliament, where a prime minister is decided by the party who has the greatest number of seats, would work wonders for this country. 

I think the majority of the country would like to see changes to the constitution which make outcomes like this the norm, in which hung parliaments aren't a problem, but an opportunity to shape policy and law based on the wishes of the country. I expect what we'll likely see is an enhanced Alternative Vote (or AV+) system at first, before a full transition to a full proportional representation system. 

It's about time that we saw all of our elected MPs working together, not simply blocking electoral reform because it goes against the wishes of the party. A first hand demonstration that coalition governments can work in the UK, just as they work in other countries around the world. Think about it: under these systems, David Cameron would be Prime Minister, sitting in number 10 by now, leading a democratic government which represented the wishes of the electorate. Sadly, it's not the case, and we're deadlocked in a process where parties are now battling it out to form alliances and gain a majority in the Commons. 

First Past The Post is a broken system, which only allows for massive disparity between representation and the popular vote. I believe it's time for a change.

When we spoke on the phone, prior to the election, you mentioned that if enough of your constituents were concerned about a particular topic, that you would always try to put your constituents' wishes first - even going so far as to go against the party whip.

I can't speak for the entirety of Warwick and Leamington, but I'm sure all of us would like to see a balanced parliament, full of politicians that actually represent our wishes. With that in mind, when the time comes for parliament to vote on electoral reform, please don't waste your vote by not using it, but actually vote in favour of reform.

 
Sincerely,
Anthony Williams

On the last Tuesday of every month (excepting December) from 7:30pm, we run a little social in Leamington for anyone with an interest in anything web-related. Run under the Multipack banner, it was something we thought up last year as a way to promote interest in the larger Multipack meet-ups which take place in Birmingham.

Last night was April's social, and my thanks go to Richard Cunningham (@rythie), David Wilkinson (@dopiaza) and Daniel Newns (@danielnewns), who are fast becoming our band of regulars for the group, for turning up and taking part.

We discussed next week's general election and our frustrations with politics, politicians and the electoral system; buying big-ticket items on the web and the technical, social, economic and psychological barriers in place; iPhone OS 4.0, the forthcoming 4th generation iPhone, Android devices and the differences between them; and the gap in the market for social networking tools aimed at businesses.

So if jovial conversation that doesn't necessarily involve talking about computers coupled with a few beers and a place to meet some local digitally-inclined folk sounds like something you'd be interested in, why not keep the evening of May 25th free in your diary and pop along to the next one?

Update: An edited version of this post is available over at The Multipack's Blog, where you should get involved and leave your comments.

Around this time last year, I heard about an event called Geek in the Park, through Jon Hicks' blog. Given that it was being held in Leamington Spa, a few minutes walk from my door, I figured that it'd be silly not to go along - especially given that it was a free event.

From that point on, I've been going to the regular monthly Multipack Socials in Birmingham, and on the second Saturday of every month - with an alternating schedule that flips between social meet-up and seminar-style events - we meet up, socialise with our peers, have a drink or two and talk about all things web, tech and general geekiness.

A lot of us understand, however, that it's not always possible to give up a Saturday afternoon every month in order to travel up to Birmingham. Weekends are premium time, to spend with your families and where you deal with your other out-of-work, weekend commitments.

Weeknight Socials

It's often easier to meet up for a quick beer or two straight after work and so, with that in mind, we're going to meet up, regularly, on a weeknight to complement the larger Birmingham-based meet-ups. I know there's a burgeoning web design and development community bubbling under the surface in Warwick and Leamington so, with help from Si Jobling (@Si) and Tim Print (@timprint) - who hail from Rugby and Stratford-upon-Avon respectively - we've started a local Warwickshire chapter of the group and will be holding socials in Leamington Spa, with the scope to expand throughout south Warwickshire on a rotating schedule.

Our first meet-up was held last night, on Tuesday, June 30th, at The White Horse in Leamington Spa and, as launch meet-ups go, it was relatively successful, with a number of new faces from the area joining us for a few beers to discuss local community groups and efforts, such as PHP West Midlands, WXWM and a number of others. The weather was fantastic, and our choice of The White Horse and their courtyard worked out really well, with a handful of us staying a little later to sample the excellent food.

Getting Involved

As part of our discussion on getting people to attend, we discussed the fact that it’s not always easy - especially for people who are on their own - to make the jump into attending an event such as this. Meeting up with a bunch of like-minded individuals you’ve never met before can often be difficult for first-timers - a valid point that Richard mentioned - which means it’s all the more important to talk to your friends, colleagues and local contacts who are interested in the web and encourage them to join in.

We’d like more Warwickshire-based geeks to meet up with us and, occasionally, join up with us at the larger Birmingham-based Multipack meetings. If you’re interested in coming along to our next one - the date of which is still to be decided - then please keep your eye on this website, follow @Multipack and @abitgone (me) on twitter, and join the discussions over at the Multipack Forums, where we’ll notify everyone about upcoming events.

The only thing we'll need next time is something to draw newcomers' attention to us!