OK Dragon, that LOCO howto has all the instructions I need for setting up an IRC channel.
I will try to do some experiments in the next couple of days, and if I am successful, we can try and set up a meeting time.
Just so people can start thinking about it, what is better for people, a weeknight, or weekend ?
I assume most of us are working, and IRC does not work well behind a firewall, so daytime during the week is probobbly out for most (I know it's out for me ...:confused: )
Here is the snippet I snagged from the howto.
IRC Channel IRC is a great way for the team to have real-time discussions about the group. You should register a channel on the Freenode IRC network as #ubuntu-CC where CC is the ISO country code (such as #ubuntu-fr for France). For United States Teams, please use the full state name (#ubuntu-utah for Utah):
Register your nickname with a password: /msg NickServ register [password]
or if already registered:/msg NickServ identify [password]
Create the channel by joining it for the first time: /join #ubuntu-xxxx
Register the channel with Chanserv: /msg ChanServ Register #ubuntu-xxxx [password]
Invite the Chanserv bot so it can give you operator rights when needed: /msg chanserv set #ubuntu-xxxx guard on
Add yourself, and others as needed, to the operator access control list: /msg ChanServ access #ubuntu-xxxx add [nickname] [level]
If you want to log the channel, which is recommended for IRC meetings, you should contact MatthiasUrlichs to get a LoCoBot (a bot on irc.freenode.org). Ask him to add your channel to the list.
So I guess our channel would be #ubuntu-connecticut
Any way, more later