Meetups/RubberDucky/2025-06-08
Moderator: Ripple • Notes: Everyone (compiled by Quorum)
🦆 RUBBER DUCKY GUILD — ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY 🦆[edit]
Date: 2025-06-08, 1pm-5pm
Attendance[edit]
Ducks Present[edit]
- Sergeant Bubbles — Founding duck, 16 years total service
- Admiral Quackbar — International ambassador
- Duckminster Fuller — Spatial reasoning specialist
- Null Pointer — Software debugger, has seen things
- Duck Norris — Silent service since Feb 2025
- Virginia Wool — Bi-coastal icon, tiny scarf
- The Intern — Newest member, still learning
Humans Present[edit]
Members: Ripple, Eddy, Quorum, Lumen, Flotsam, Stillwater, Pondscum, Tidepool
Guests:
- Klaus, Mira (CCC Cologne, via video)
- Representatives from: Sewing Guild, Electronics Guild, Synthwave Guild
- 6 Silent Sitting regulars
- Zine photographer
- 3 curious newcomers
Total attendance: 22 humans, 7 ducks
1:00pm — Duck Parade[edit]
All seven ducks carried through Noisebridge in a procession.
Route: Front door → main hall → classroom → electronics area → sewing room → kitchen → patio (final destination)
Each duck carried by a different member. The Intern carried by Tidepool (smallest duck, newest member).
Reactions from space:
- What is happening — person at laser cutter
- Oh, the duck people — someone who'd heard of us
- Can I join? — random visitor (yes)
Parade concluded at pond. Ducks placed in water. Brief moment of silence.
1:15pm — Setup Hiccup[edit]
Minor incident: Synthwave Guild was setting up speakers on the patio and accidentally knocked their amp cart into the pool.
Synthwave rep: "Oh crap, sorry sorry sorry—"
Pool sloshed. A little water spilled. Ducks scattered briefly. No harm done... or so we thought.
Ripple: "It's fine, it's fine. Ducks are resilient."
Pool repositioned slightly. Party continued.
1:30pm — CCC Cologne Video Call[edit]
Klaus and Mira joined from Hamburg.
Klaus: "One year ago you had one duck and a question. Now you have seven ducks and answers. The Quietscheenten-Gilde salutes you."
Mira: "Admiral Quackbar changed our chapter. We owe you."
Gummiente appeared on camera (back in Cologne). She's doing well. Has a friend now — they acquired a second duck.
Klaus announced: CCC Cologne hosting "European Duck Summit" in 2026. Noisebridge invited as founding chapter.
2:00pm — Retrospective[edit]
Ripple presented "One Year of Ducks" with slides (yes, slides).
By The Numbers[edit]
| Metric | Count |
|---|---|
| Meetings held | 49 (including today) |
| Ducks acquired | 7 |
| Ducks retired | 0 (Duck Norris transitioned, not retired) |
| Humans joined | 8 |
| Humans departed | 1 (Murk) |
| Silent Sittings | 12 |
| Quiet Sittings (Saturday) | 6 |
| International exchanges | 2 (Cologne visits) |
| Formal complaints | 1 (survived) |
| Squeakers lost | 1 |
| Cakes consumed | 5 (including today) |
| Temporary goose manifestations | 1 |
Timeline Highlights[edit]
June 2024: "Should we start a guild?" — 1 duck, 2 humans
July 2024: Kombucha incident. Sign created. First new member (Quorum).
August 2024: Lumen joins. Silent Sitting proposed. Orthodox/Expansionist schism AND resolution.
September 2024: Null Pointer, Duck Norris join. PONDGATE.
October 2024: Virginia Wool transferred from Sewing Guild. First cross-guild relations.
November 2024: Holiday migration begins. Ducks travel to CCC and NYC.
January 2025: First Duck Census. Return from migration. Stillwater joins.
February 2025: Duck Norris loses squeaker. Murk crisis. Eddy walks out.
March 2025: Eddy returns. Values statement adopted. Duck Norris transition ceremony.
April 2025: CCC Cologne visits. Rutherford accessibility complaint.
May 2025: Complaint resolved. Media interest. The Intern acquired.
June 2025: Today. One year. Seven ducks. Eight humans. Still going.
Ripple's Closing Remarks[edit]
"One year ago I brought a rubber duck to a patio and asked Eddy if we should start a guild. Eddy asked if I was joking. I said 'partially.'
I'm not joking anymore.
What we built here isn't about rubber ducks. It's about presence. It's about listening. It's about creating space where people can think out loud without being fixed or judged.
The ducks don't do anything. That's the point. They're just there. And sometimes that's all anyone needs.
We've had wins. We've had losses. We've had a squeaker fail and a member leave and a rules lawyer try to take our pond. We handled all of it.
Because we're not just a guild. We're a practice.
Thank you, Eddy, for saying yes when I asked. Thank you, everyone, for staying. Thank you, Sergeant Bubbles, for 16 years of silent service.
Year two starts now."
(Eddy did cry. Eddy is no longer denying it.)
2:30pm — Open Duck Consultations[edit]
Four consultation stations set up. 11 consultations conducted in 25 minutes.
Notable:
- Someone debugged a failing job interview approach with Admiral Quackbar
- A Synthwave Guild member talked through a composition block with Virginia Wool
- A first-timer had a 10-minute conversation with Null Pointer about career uncertainty
Reviews: universally positive.
3:00pm — Group Photo[edit]
All 22 humans. All 7 ducks. The pond. The sign. The patio.
First official guild photograph since November 2024.
Copies to be printed and archived.
3:30pm — Cake[edit]
Duck-shaped cake. Yellow frosting. Orange beak. It was perfect.
Inscription: "ONE YEAR OF PRESENCE"
Eddy gave a toast: "To the ducks. To the humans. To whatever weird thing we're doing here. Quack."
Everyone: "Quack."
Notes[edit]
Duration: 4 hours. Worth every minute.
What started as a partially-joke is now:
- A weekly practice
- A monthly meditation
- An international network
- A philosophy
- A community
Sergeant Bubbles update: Crack unchanged. The old duck endures.
Next meeting: June 15, 1pm. Regular schedule resumes. The work continues.
Notes compiled by Quorum from contributions by all members.
Submitted by: The Rubber Ducky Guild
📝 One Year Anniversary logged in Recent Contributions