Hej all,

Yesterday, 28th of August, we had our first I Love Free Software Day call for the upcoming I Love Free Software Day 2025: Hidden projects.

In this call we had various people from different local groups, country teams and coordinators. First of all, thanks to all of you who made the time and joined us in talking about local group events for the I Love Free Software Day 2025! It was a pleasure to meet you.

For all of you who weren't able to join us, do not worry we decided to have another call in December or January. The date for this will be announce in October.

Here are the main points we talked about related to organising events: 1. The FSFE staff, mainly Ana (in CC) and me, will prepare a tool-kit with some games (bingo, quiz) you could play on this day, some basic presentation you could present as a talk, and some general information about organising events for I Love Free Software Day. This kit is meant as a general one and you will need to adopt it to your specific event. The idea is to provide an easy entrance point to organising events. However, to make it suitable for you, our local groups, we will need your feedback on this as you are our experts on local groups and their working :)

2. If you are planing to organise an event for I Love Free Software Day, here are some general tips we came up with in yesterday's session. All of the points are depending on the audience you want to attract. If it is only an internal event, this is absolutely fine for I Love Free Software Day, do not worry about the tips and just go with your usual set-up. For events, where you want to attract new people this might be useful: a) Choose a suitable location (easy to find, providing space for social interaction as well as some presentation or games, open for everybody) b) Ensure there is some content happening like a talk, game, etc.. It does not need to be a high profile talk but something easy to understand. c) Collaborate with other local groups (e.g. hackerspaces, Linux User Groups, Digital-rights groups, etc.). This has worked great for past events from local groups. d) Your event does not need to take place on the 14th of February but in the week of the 14th of February. So you can either celebrate earlier or a bit later. This is especially important for countries in which the 14th of February is very important and celebrated by couples, like for example the UK or Ireland. e) Promotion of the event and external communication

!! Let me or Ana know in advance if you are planing on organising an event for the I Love Free Software Day. So we can also share the news.!!

General communication could take place via social media platforms, mailing lists, companies, etc. But as has also worked in the past for some of our local groups, via flyers or similar printed invites handed out at dedicated spaces or just on the streets.

I look forward to meeting you in the next session!

Best regards, Bonnie