I think it was the September [2003?] 2600 meeting in St. Louis that the idea was born. I'd collected a friend or two to attend a casual meeting, and for the most part it was. However, a guy named w1nt3rmut3 (apologies if that's misspelled) had come down from Chicago, with a friend from Milwaukee, proposing that we form a new meeting place somewhere in Illinois between us... essentially, merge the Chicago and St. Louis groups. Sounded like an idea worth considering to me, as I'm definately willing to drive a few hours when I know it'll be worth it. However, it would only be done every few months, a larger crowd... it was starting to sound like a con! There had been a lot of voice about throwing one in St. Louis, Gateway to the West and such, but it takes a lot more planning and preparation than a spontaneous meeting. A few days later, I pitched the idea to Elonka (who'd missed the meeting), and she responded with two things: one, taking three/four hours to drive somewhere for a single meeting for a single night was way overboard; she absolutely refused it. Fair enough. However, she said, what -would- be a fabulous idea would be to start a base of networking for the Midwest. She used the example of SE2600, where there was a main site set up with general links to different regional meeting pages, FAQs and a listserv. They were well enough connected and had enough money (and brains) running around that they even threw annual cons (PhreakNIC, @LANta_con, interz0ne). If we set up something like that, then all the Midwest talent could join and eventually realize our own con!
The newsletter article that documents how MW2600 was born . . .
