Does anyone know if there is a IGDA netherlands chapter and if there is if GMT is in contact with them? If there isn't I say we can show some effort to create one. I checked digiDarc but it was in dutch and didn't see anything regarding the IGDA.

Well, I'm on the DGDARC board (and one of the oldest "surviving" members), so let me give a quick introduction about how things happened.

The club was originally started almost four years ago, with the intent to promote game development among students. The idea was proposed by university staff, and assumed to be picked up by students. Initially there were a good amount of participants (around 20), and the club was formed. Several concepts were proposed, and four groups took off. However, the board let never hear much of them, and the forum that corresponded with it died half a year later, to be completely void of visitors when colleges ended. Only one project survived because the designer was active enough to poll for interests outside of the club, and by that project kindof got independent of the club to survive its demise.
After summer, the board reassembled, and they decided to regroup in order to make a more successful start. Being that many of them were master students about finished, they went to Sticky to get some promotion from the group, and tried to deal with the promised subsidies that never wanted to materialize. They managed to regroup a few people and participated in the IMGA, after many of the last remaining people quit. The board decided to give up their wish to become an official group, and united with Sticky, in the hopes people would pick up when they would leave university.
The following year, we started from scratch, and decided to actively promote the group among sticky members. We got a room from Sticky where we got in and parked all the electronics we gathered over time. The promotion was not unsuccessful. Some projects did take off and there were good results, and by christmas we got hold of some of the subsidies. This year we were well on time to redirect all the first-years past our room and get them subscribed, got a few pagesfull of email addresses and that is about where history ends.

There were initially attempts to indeed become an IGDA chapter, but for that we needed some stability in the group, something that is only starting to happen this year, and hopefully from this year onward.

Because of our association with Sticky, we have mainly been targeting bachelor students. The advantage of those people is that they tend to stay for 5 years, while a master student has about one or two years, which means they will leave again after a year or two.

There hasn't been a board meeting since this forum's creation, but if you (and others) want to join it should IMO be made possible. You can come along on Wednesday's afternoons (We're in CGN-C106), or send a mail to dgdarc at stickyutrecht period nl

Ah! nice to finally hear from dgDarc
I actually tried to contact dgDarc when I first came here, and I e-mailed them but never got a response back. Then I was told that every wednesday there was a meeting, but it seemed to me that it was mostly Dutch students, and they were having their own thing going on, (or rather I had no idea what was going on because there were no information on dgDarc on the web). So being an international student I was sort of excluded by means of "what's going on, I have no idea" factor.

That is actually why we decided to create this forum, to create a platform where people of all languages (as long as they speak english) can get to know what is going on. So I would be thrilled if dgDarc would post here its meetings, social gatherings and everything else. I will open a thread for dgDarc if you wish and again would be thrilled if you let dgDarc people know about this little initiative.

I will talk to Twan Maintz or Mark Overmars about the IGDA chapter thing. On the web site I think it says that Arno is the guy to contact but I have a feeling that going to the top might be more useful.

Also I am planning a movie gathering, the details are posted in the cyberpunk thread, if you know how to organize such a thing please tell me the details.

I think social gatherings are more important at this stage than game projects. Bachelor students are mostly too busy with other projects, and Master students are usually not much different. But once a social bond establishes I think it will be more fruitful for the future of the forum, dgDarc and (if it comes to that) the IGDA chapter.

I don't know which email address you used, but the correct one is dgdarc at stickyutrecht dot nl. I personally can't remember any English mails at our address over the past months. Of course you can always hop into CGN C106 on wednesday afternoons, because we're pretty much guarantueed to be there at that time.

As for going to Twan Maintz: he hasn't much of a prominent role in the game world. Mark Overmars knows quite a bit more, but I have the feeling he will tell you to go talk with Arno Kamphuis "for more information" anyway.

Since an IGDA Chapter would have to do a lot with the running industry, you might want to alternatively contact one of the organisations that tries to bridge that gap between the industry and students: http://www.dutchgamegarden.nl/ - They do have an "English" button

As for the social stuff, there is a meeting on october 2nd from 15:00 in Sticky's room, together with our collection of consoles.