As many of you surely know, the #neuros IRC channel on the freenode network is one of the preferred meeting places for the Neuros community.
While the channel still works well, some people have voiced concern regarding the current lack of users with administrative powers. This has some consequences that range from simple problems such as not being able to change the topic to more serious potential issues that might arise if "evil" users decide to mess up the channel with spam or worse.

The cause of this lack of authority is the disappearance of the person who founded the channel and who still retains full administrative rights over it. No one seems to have seen this person online since several months, and he left no one else in charge.

Since it appears that no one is able to contact this person either, I had a talk with the freenode staff asking them for ways to regain some control over the channel. The answer I received is that the best way would be to register the channel as "official IRC channel" for Neuros.

There is a freenode rule that states that "recognized groups" like companies, organizations, foundations etc. have first priority over the channels named after themselves, if they register. This rule allows us to preempt the orginal channel registration and regain control.
Freenode has a document that explains group registration in more detail which you might want to read for more background.

When I contacted Joe and explained him the idea, he approved it.
The last thing that remains to be done is to find a volounteer who is willing to act as "group contact" for the channel.

The only responsibility you will have as contact person is to be available to be reached by freenode staff members and answer questions they might have pertaining the channel.
Also, the contact person will need to provide some real contact information, included phone number. This is almost never used, according to the person I talked to, but of course you still have to be confortable in giving that out.
More information about the role of group contact can be found in the last chapter of the group registration page i mentioned before.

Anyone willing to volounteer can either contact me directly in the IRC channel (if i'm not around to answer, please leave me a PM or even better use memoserv), or simply email me (nerochiaro at gmail dot com).