A little background on me.
I am just getting back into BattleTech after about 20 years away. I played in the 90s, but there was no one at college who played (lots of RPGs, but no tabletop gamers). When I got out of college ClickTech happened, and I thought Classic had gone away. While I tried ClickTech, I didn't care for the stories or the changes to the setting and got out of the game.
A friend turned me onto the Game of Armored Combat box set, just as the Kickstarter launched (which I bought into heavily). Having been the event organizer for Warhammer 40K at Texas Toy Soldier for years, I am working with TTS to try to develop the BattleTech community there, with strong support from the owner. Starting in January, I have been running monthly demo events for Alpha Strike and Classic. Starting in April, I will be organizing a monthly narrative event, using Alpha Strike as the format initially, to help new players ease into the game.
As this is clearly an active thread for the area, and several people have already said this is their preferred connection point, I will post info for events I am running here as well as through the Facebook groups I have been using.
I am also look at starting up a campaign in the near future, set during the Clan Invasion, to coincide with the relaunch of the Clan Invasion era. I am working on the logistics of such that, people can play anywhere and any time they like, and report their games to a central location on a weekly basis, for me to tabulate the results and post the next missions.