Linuxchix New Zealand was founded by Brenda, Joh and Penny in January 2007. The Chapter quickly grew and now has approximately 30 members.
Activites include installfests, keysigning parties (gpg + cacert), monthly meetups, an irc channel, and a low traffic mailing list.
The Wellington chapter hold monthly g33ky social meetups, as well as monthly tech evenings, where linuxchix members present new and interesting uses of technology to the group.
Linuxchix NZ is run by women and for women. Membership is free - the only requirement is that members be polite and be helpful. To join, subscribe to the mailing list.
There is also a New Zealand channel on the irc server, #nzchix.
Women make up approximately 42% of NZ's IT Industry (Stats NZ), but once data entry and unskilled work is excluded this drops to somewhere nearer 15%.
Linuxchix and the New Zealand chapter of Linuxchix exist to connect women working in the IT industry, contributing to FOSS, as well as female users of the Linux operating system looking for support and community.