northwestengland.pm (nwe.pm for short) is the group for Perl Mongers in the areas of Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside, the Western part of Greater Manchester and now serving North Yorkshire and Cheshire (though we welcome anyone who wishes to attend our meetings from any location in the world).
Those on the Yorkshire side are generally considered to be in the region of Leeds.pm - but as of December 2009 the Leeds.pm group merged with northwestengland.pm. (Of course, anyone is free to join whichever Perl Mongers group they feel happiest with!) If you live in the region, or are just interested in following the happenings here, please join our mailing list. Feel free to introduce yourself or just lurk! The archives are also available: list archives.
We can also be found on irc.perl.org in the #northwestengland.pm channel.
You may be wondering why we chose a name representing an region rather than a city, as do most Perl Mongers groups. We had two related reasons in mind when we decided this (and if you require a different reason, drop us a line and we'll make one for you).
The population of the North West is spread over several major areas, none of which had a Perl Mongers group supporting them. We felt it would be difficult to select one city to represent the whole region, and furthermore, it would restrict possible meeting locations, though we generally meet in either Manchester or Lancaster.
Each town or city within our region has its own distinct history and culture, there is a certain identity and sense of common purpose among the people who live here. We hope to share in that, and that it will bring us together to create a vibrant community which will grow interest in, and the use of, Perl in the region.
At some point we may merge into an amorphous mass that could be called North of England Perl Mongers, and if anyone wants to come along and feel that this title suits them better, then please do, even feel free to think we may be called northwestengland.pm but we are really northofengland.pm.