I recently graduated to a situation where I might have time to explore Perl in a more 'social' context: by that I mean in meat-space. To my mild consternation, a look at the map of North American Perl Monger groups only to find that I am on the eastern edge of the great northern void.

There are a couple of these desolate areas represented on the map, Some of these are perhaps more easily explained away than others I suppose. States with lower population densities or fewer urban areas are somewhat understandable as geographical deserts of Perl desolation. However, to my way of thinking, that does not explain all of these holes in the map of North America.

Looking at the world map is even more strange to me. Perl is such a friendly, though quirky sort of language. It seems like it would bring people together more readily....

One area in particular is odd to me, and the source of my mild regret. I currently reside on the Northwest corner of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota. This is not a massive or dense urban area, but it is not small either. There are numerous higher education institutions, a broad variety of industries are represented in the region, and yet no pm group. One would think that combined with the previously mentioned advantages, the winters we have here, would lend it to be an ideal place to attract a good number of Perl users interested in jaw-jacking over a beer or two. Come to think of it, there are some pretty good beers available here too....another reason which would support congregating on occasion.

Apparently not.

Searches on various engines indicate there have been efforts to establish such a group to no effect over the years. Once again, I find myself grateful for this site. I guess for now, my contact with the world of Perl will continue to be ethereal... . Not complaining, just saying... .

PS. If someone knows of something my quick search missed, please do let me know. I could use a beer....

Update:Thanks to those of you that responded. I am looking into opensource/linux and sundry tangential subjects in the area to see what might be leveraged. I do appreciate the encouragement, though I do want to investigate the reasons that it has not been done successfully previously first before I tackle something like this. Doing it poorly would probably be more damaging than not doing it at all...