SOUTH WEST AMIGA GROUP

UPDATED: Important Workbench 2022 Announcement!

The bad news…After much consideration, the SWAG committee have decided to postpone the Workbench 2022 event which was due to take place on Saturday 5th of February. We can’t be certain what restrictions will be in place by the start of next month and we don’t want to organise a massive event if we have to cancel it or if, due to rising infection rates, a large number of guests and attendees are unable to be there.The good news…We will still be going ahead with a SWAG meet on Saturday 5th February, but it will be a standard meet with the same format as the one we had last September. Turn up, set your kit up and meet fellow Amiga users. There will be no guest speakers or raffle.Workbench 2022 is NOT cancelled. We are looking to hold Workbench 2022 in May – actual date to be confirmed. With a May date the weather will be better – we’ll be able to ventilate the room better and by that point the number of COVID cases should have dropped significantly.Back to our February 5th meet (SWAG #12)…Can you give us a rough idea if you’re likely to attend the February meet, please? We just want to make sure the interest is there. PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS THREAD IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO ATTEND.

Tickets to SWAG #12 will be available from 8pm on 8th January.

Many thanks for your support and patience!

Robert

Previous announcement below:-

We had a great SWAG meet to finish off 2021, not everyone could make it but we did sell out within a few hours which means that you guys want more.  So we had to hold back this announcement and we have been working with Amiga Ireland to make sure our dates didn’t clash. We can now officially reveal that February 5th will be Workbench 2022, for this year we are breaking away from our regular pattern to bring you a packed Saturday of fun, raffles, tournaments, presentations, sellers and everything you love about the Amiga.  

We can also announce now that we have been sponsored by WavemStudios, Stephen Fletcher originally started a Kickstarter for the Amiga 2020 documentary and after a few revisions of content, he has now chosen a new name Alive and Kicking, we have been working with him recording footage for the last few SWAG meetups and now pleased to have him as the show’s main sponsor.  Stephen will also be doing a short presentation.

Further announcements will be made throughout the next few months. We are looking forward once again to bringing you Workbench at Dodington Parish Hall in February.  

The SWAG Committee.

SWAG #11 – Preview of the Meet

We cannot wait, we are only one short-week away from the weekend and it has been a while since we have set foot inside Doddington Parish Hall which is just outside of Bristol. We have been nervous and WE ARE GOING FOR GREEN LIGHT!

Former Commodore UK managing director David Pleasance will be joining us, he will be bringing his NEW Book that he has done in collaboration with Trevor Dickinson, which is hot off the Press and we will have the first sneak-peek of Vultures to Vampires.

After the success of his first book ‘Commodore: Inside Story’, they realised that not everything had been spoken about, like the aftermath of the Amiga and who owned it, who had the right’s to name and what happened next? David will be here to allow you to pick-up your copy of the book for those who pre-ordered and may have a few fresh copies floating around his table.

At the last Workbench event, which happened just before the virus locked us down, we had a very successful event, we invited Stephen Fletcher to include us in the forthcoming Amiga 2020 documentary, he was present and recorded plenty of footage to use for his successful Kickstarter, as events have unfolded throughout 2020, he had to re-think the documentary content and title as he didn’t want the documentary to be about the virus, he wanted to focus on why are people returning to it or never left in the first place.  Barry Morse (with Stuart Miles) from the Retro Shed YouTube channel will be joining us as they will be filming on behalf of Stephen, they will be conducting interviews, asking questions and filming you at the meet, if any reason you do not wish to be in documentary please let them (or SWAG know) on the day.

We will just be keeping this meet as simple as possible, to see how it goes and will be listening to your thoughts before we do the bigger ‘Workbench’ event.  This is a ‘ticket-only’ event, when you arrive we will have a table with sanitizers on and we will be checking that you have paid and then give you a badge to wear.  At 10am we will appreciate any assistance in setting up the tables, a map will be ‘printed off’ and placed with your name upon it, there has been some changes to the layout over the last few weeks so please refer to the map or ask the SWAG team where you are sitting, would help to wear the badge as I sometimes forget who you are.

At this time, we want to thank Scott (former RetroBench) for previously sponsoring our meets, he has decided to not do any soldering this time but to relax and enjoy the day without any stressful recapping work.  Zeb will be in the corner doing some recapping work, he does not hold stock of caps but you are more then welcome to bring your own, the two Derek’s will also be on hand if any questions about inner workings of your Amiga system and advice given.

There is too much to list but we do ask for you to Declare your SWAG, the meets are about you, what you bring and share with the rest of us, that what they are about and I already seen some amazing kit mentioned in the Facebook group.

Stay Safe everyone, please let us know if you are not feeling well before you travel and don’t forget to bring your power blocks / leads. Let’s make it a great meet.

ROB EDIT: Please note that we will have bottles of hand sanitiser located around the hall and kitchen on Saturday. If you could make use of them it would be appreciated.

Note that there is NO requirement for you to wear a face mask at this event. Many of you will be at the meet for a good 12 hours. Wearing a face mask for that length of time will not be pleasant. We shall leave the decision of wearing face masks up to yourselves.

If you’re lucky enough to have a PCR test kit please do test yourself the night before. The greater number of us who can test before the event the less risk we have of something spreading. Also, if you have potential COVID symptoms then please do NOT attend.

Many thanks. See you Saturday

Please be aware that there is a slight price increase of 50p, to £7. This is to cover Covid related supplies and any food / drink prices increases. The system is limited to book for four people, you maybe required to scan with the NHS App on arrival, although it is not required to wear a mask, more info will follow.

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