Meetups/RubberDucky/2025-12-15

🦆 Rubber Ducky Guild • Meeting Archive • Template

Moderator: Ripple • Notes: Tidepool

Rubber Ducky Guild Meeting

Date: 2025-12-15, 1pm

Attendance

Ducks Present

• Sergeant Bubbles — Presiding, as always
• Admiral Quackbar — In fine form
• Duckminster Fuller — Spatial awareness on point
• Null Pointer — Observing quietly
• Duck Norris — Silent service continues
• Virginia Wool — Scarf freshly adjusted
• The Intern — Getting better at this

Humans Present

• Ripple, Eddy, Quorum, Lumen, Stillwater, Tidepool
• Assorted party setup crew passing through

Agenda

1. Quick meeting (party prep happening!)
2. Duck placement for the event
3. Enjoy being the pre-show

Discussion

Context:

NB16 party today. Main festivities don't start until 6pm, but setup started early. The patio was buzzing with people hauling speakers, stringing lights, arranging tables.

We held our meeting anyway. The ducks don't cancel for parties. The parties come to the ducks.

The Pre-Show:

Something beautiful happened. As crew members moved through the space, they kept stopping at the pond.

Random setup person #1: "Oh hey, the ducks! I forgot about these guys."

Random setup person #2: (carrying a speaker) "Wait, is this the rubber duck thing? My friend told me about this."

Random setup person #3: (just stood there for a full minute watching them float)

Eddy: "We're basically the lobby entertainment."

Lumen: "Pre-show ambiance. Setting the vibe."

Admiral Quackbar was particularly magnetic today. Something about the afternoon light. Three different people took photos.

Duck placement discussion:

Should we move the ducks inside during the party? Protect them from the chaos?

Ripple: "They've survived worse. Remember the anniversary?"

Quorum: "The pool's solid now. Ken's patch is holding."

Stillwater: "I think they should stay. They're part of Noisebridge. People should see them."

Decided: ducks stay in the pond. We'll check on them throughout the evening. The Intern might get overwhelmed but that's part of learning.

Quorum volunteered to do a duck check at 8pm and 10pm.

Quactions

• [x] Hold meeting despite chaos — done
• [ ] Duck check at 8pm (Quorum)
• [ ] Duck check at 10pm (Quorum)
• [ ] Enjoy the party

Notes

Duration: 22 minutes. Hard to focus with all the energy around us, but in a good way.

Shortest meeting in a while. That's okay. Sometimes presence is enough.

Snacks: Someone from the setup crew gave us leftover pizza from their lunch run. Unexpected. Appreciated.

The ducks floated through it all. Unbothered. As they should be.

Party Prediction

Eddy: "I bet at least one person tries to talk to a duck tonight. Like, really talk to them."

Ripple: "That's not a prediction, that's a certainty."

Lumen: "That's the whole point."

Next Discussion Item

Prompted by tonight's talk: Are we creating enough masters?

What does mastery look like in the Rubber Ducky Guild? How do Listeners become Witnesses become Vessels? Are we documenting the path clearly enough? Could someone put this on a resume—and should they?

The James Joyce Society started as a book club.

What are we becoming?

Next Meeting

Sunday, December 22. Last meeting of 2025. We should do something special. And we should talk about this.

Submitted by: Tidepool

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Post-Party Addendum

Added later by Quorum, based on reports

The 8pm check: Quorum arrived to find the pond... missing two ducks.

Brief panic. Then: explanation.

What happened:

Around 6:30pm, Loren picked up Admiral Quackbar. Shortly after, Nthmost picked up Duckminster Fuller.

The 10 Minutes of Fame:

At 7pm, Nthmost gave her talk: "Create More Masters: An Unironic Anarchist Manifesto."

She did not give it alone.

Admiral Quackbar and Duckminster Fuller sat with her at the front, facing the audience. Witnesses describe them as "looking out proudly" during the entire presentation.

Loren: "Rubber ducks are Gregorian creatures. They understand the value of repetition in community. The Admiral needed to hear this."

Nthmost: "Duckminster Fuller is all about decentralized spatial reasoning. He got it."

The ducks did not squeak. (Duck Norris's legacy of silence continues to influence.) They simply witnessed. As ducks do.

On the talk itself:

Nthmost's thesis: Guilds are how we create more masters. Not gatekeeping—the opposite. Structured paths for people to level up, teach others, and eventually become the ones who define what mastery looks like.

She cited the James Joyce Society as an example: started as a book club, became something people put on their resumes. Not because it was prestigious in the traditional sense, but because sustained participation in something meaningful—with other people who care—becomes its own credential.

Duck reflections (interpreted):

What does this mean for the Rubber Ducky Guild?

Sergeant Bubbles has 16 years of service. That's mastery. Duck Norris lost his squeaker and kept serving. That's resilience. Admiral Quackbar has done international diplomacy. That's range.

And the humans? Ripple went from "is this a joke?" to Vessel. Lumen built a practice. Quorum runs the Census. Stillwater led their first Silent Sitting.

Are we... a path? Are we creating masters of presence? Masters of listening? Masters of witnessed thought?

Tidepool: "Wait, can I put 'Rubber Ducky Guild, Listener' on my resume?"

Quorum: "You could. Would anyone understand it?"

Tidepool: "Maybe that's the point. It filters for the right people."

Something to discuss.

After the talk:

Loren continued carrying Admiral Quackbar around the party, introducing him to attendees.

Overheard introductions:

• "This is Admiral Quackbar. He's seen things."
• "Have you met the Admiral? He's a good listener."
• "Rubber Ducky Guild benefitted from embedding Schelling points into its culture early."

Meanwhile, Duckminster Fuller was carried upstairs and placed in the newly cleaned-up radio receiver stereo setup. He now overlooks the equipment with quiet authority.

10pm check: Admiral Quackbar returned to pond. Duckminster Fuller remains at his new post upstairs—temporary assignment. He'll return to the pond after the party dust settles. Spatial reasoning is needed everywhere, but the laser cutter area is his true station.

All other ducks accounted for. The Intern seemed slightly overwhelmed but held it together.

Eddy's prediction: Confirmed. Multiple people "really talked" to ducks tonight. One person was seen explaining their startup idea to Null Pointer for approximately eight minutes.

Good party. Good ducks.

Addendum submitted by: Quorum