GWANNO was originally conceived by James Carter and James Youngman as a purely social thing; a way for Linux enthusiasts to meet socially and chat.
However, organising the first meeting proved complex, since many several peoiple who were planning to come couldn't respond to email quickly enough to make it possible to arrange a meeting place by consensus, before the day of the meeting actually arrived.
For this reason, the initial organiser decided to make a decree regarding the venue, and organise everything on the condition that next time, someone else could to it. The ieda is to avoid getting fed up with the task, and to avoid people getting fed up with one person's choice of meeting or eating place. So, someone different organises the meeting every month, and gets to play dictator.
This kind of anarchic organisation pleasantly mirrors the free-software world in general. The job gets done very well, but not at the direction of one overall leader.
The group was initially called "GLUG", since it was a Linux Users Group devoted to the consumption of beer. However, as Ted Harding pointed out, the name conflicted with the Glasgow Linux Users Group, and so the then-current dictator, Andrew Bardsley (or "Our Glorious Leader", as we call the organiser for any given month) decided to ask members for suggestions. Interesting suggestions were made, but there was no consensus as to which was the best. OGL therefore re-named the group GWANNO, which stands for "Group With A Name Nobody Opposed".
GWANNO meets every month at a pub or restaurant somewhere in or
noear Manchester, UK. You're welcome to join us. We have a mailing
list which we use to announce where each month's meeting is. If you
would like to join this list, please send "subscribe" to
"gwanno-request@gnu.org". We look forward to seeing you!