Anyone else in the Triad area?

Posted by Katrina B on November 11, 2010 at 1:15am

I am the "digital media designer" and webmaster for the daily newspaper in Asheboro (The Courier-Tribune). I had never heard of Drupal until late last year, when I began looking for a new CMS for our site.

I've learned a LOT in the last year, since I built our new site (to replace the old, outdated one) almost entirely on my own (with occasional tech help from a Stephens Media IT guy in Las Vegas, as I am a designer, not a programmer, coder, or developer). The new site launched in April 2010.

I want to continue to learn more ... maybe even learn PHP, JavaScript, and the like (an intimidating prospect for someone who thinks and learns visually and kinesthetically). I'd like to get to know other folks using Drupal in the area ... but the Triangle is a little far for me to travel very often.

Is there anyone in the Triad area besides me? If so, I'd welcome the chance to meet and "talk shop" and learn.

Comments

Does Fayetteville count? :)

Posted by dpickerel on November 11, 2010 at 1:46am

Does Fayetteville count? :) There are several, and there seems to be a Meet-Up in Durham. For some odd reason it's the same night as the PHP meet-up. And I think it was tonight.

Me too

Posted by bmorgan on November 11, 2010 at 1:54am

Hey Katrina -
I, too, am interested in a Triad-area meeting to discuss Drupal. I'm in Winston-Salem, and like you I've managed to get comfortable enough with D6 in a year to launch one website for work, for a small academic library. I manage several systems, including the website (library.uncsa.edu), so I don't have a lot of time to devote to Drupal and my knowledge is unfortunately not deep. But I have enjoyed working with it and plan to grow the site and my knowledge from here. Maybe Greensboro or High Point would be fair places to consider getting together, though I am not too familiar with either one.

Anyone else in the area?

Triad meetup

Posted by james.wilson on November 11, 2010 at 8:08am

I am a developer that has been working exclusively in Drupal for about two years now. I live in Winston Salem and would also be interested in a triad-area meetup.

Still interested in meeting

Posted by Katrina B on November 26, 2010 at 8:16pm

Maybe after the first of the year, we can look into finding a place to meet that's relatively convenient for everyone.

Katrina
Site builder, writer, trainer, graphic designer

Me as well

Posted by stuart.johnson on November 28, 2010 at 3:02pm

I'm in Thomasville during the weekends, and so is another guy I know, so We'd be interested.

Drupal meetup

Posted by james.wilson on November 28, 2010 at 3:38pm

Weekends work for me. Just need to pick a where and a when (preferably somewhere with wifi).

Where:

Posted by james.wilson on November 28, 2010 at 3:48pm

I am friends with the General Manager at the La Quinta in GSO. He said we could meet in their conference room for free. It holds about 40 people.. so I think we'd fit :) Thoughts?

Would we want to do this as a one-off or possibly a monthly meetup?

The hotel site is here:
http://www.lq.com/lq/properties/propertyProfile.do?propId=190

Sounds like a plan

Posted by stuart.johnson on November 28, 2010 at 4:02pm

The La Quinta sounds like a good place.

I'm thinking monthly or every 2-3 weeks?...

interval

Posted by james.wilson on November 28, 2010 at 4:06pm

I'm cool with anything.. It would be nice to get something regular set up though. Monthly might be easiest to keep track of.

interval

Posted by james.wilson on November 28, 2010 at 4:48pm

We could do it the first weekend of every month.. which would make it this weekend. It'd be great if we could get some consensus among the rest of the folks to see if this schedule would work for them.

Monthly on weekends?

Posted by Katrina B on November 29, 2010 at 7:13am

Meeting once a month on a weekend would probably work pretty well for me. I'm in Greensboro every Saturday for dance lessons at a studio right across from the downtown baseball stadium. If the Drupal meetings were scheduled so that I could attend the meeting before or after my dance lesson (which runs 4-5 p.m. this semester ... but the time of day could change when the new semester starts in January), that would make things much simpler for me.

I usually work on Saturdays -- I go in to the newspaper late in the morning, work a few hours, go to Greensboro, then come back and work until 9 or 10 p.m. So if the Drupal meeting and my dance lesson were within an hour or so of each other, that would be great.

Just a thought.

Katrina
Site builder, writer, trainer, graphic designer

Works for me

Posted by james.wilson on November 29, 2010 at 2:19pm

I could definitely do 5pm on saturday once a month. Is the first weekend of the month ok?

First weekend

Posted by Katrina B on November 29, 2010 at 5:59pm

The first weekend of the month should usually work for me. One caveat: With the distance between the dance studio and LaQuinta -- and the fact that there's usually a little chit-chat after my dance class -- I probably wouldn't be able to make it to the meeting until about 5:30 p.m. But if you don't mind me coming in late ... I'll be there as soon as I can.

Katrina
Site builder, writer, trainer, graphic designer

Triad meetup

Posted by pzimmer on November 29, 2010 at 7:19pm

I work at WFU School of Medicine in Winston Salem. I am responsible for launching an new company based around university research. I am not a web designer, but have managed to build a new drupal site including Ubecart ecommerce. It has turned into a much bigger effort than I had originally planned for, although it is now basicly complete. I was drawn to Drupal because supposedly you didn't need to know php or MySQL. What a lie! So, I too have had to learn from the ground up. Its a great tool, although I find that there are always little drupal gotchas that catch me by surprise.

I would be interested in meeting, but as I actually live in Chapel Hill, weekend meetings are out of the question. Weekday meetings would be my preference. I notice that there are several folks in Winston Salem. Lunch anyone?

I wish you all the very best.

Paul Zimmerman

Flexible

Posted by Katrina B on November 29, 2010 at 10:21pm

Well, I can be flexible; I could meet on a weekday as long as I have a few days' notice so I can arrange my work schedule accordingly. Greensboro and High Point are relatively convenient for me (35-45 minutes from Asheboro).

Katrina
Site builder, writer, trainer, graphic designer

Weekend vs. Weekday

Posted by james.wilson on November 30, 2010 at 6:12am

I can pretty much meet any day. To include everybody, we could alternate between a weekday/weekend meeting every other month. The other solution would be to have two a month. I'm up for either one and I'm pretty sure I could get the meeting room for both/either.
Just let me know and I'll set it up.

Meetup

Posted by james.wilson on December 3, 2010 at 5:14pm

Guess we'll postpone tomorrows until we get a bit more feedback.

Triad Meetup

Posted by Sarvasri on December 9, 2010 at 11:25pm

I'm in Walnut Cove. Winston is a little closer than Greensboro for a meeting. Either is OK. I would be interested in meeting with others. Just getting started with Drupal. I have several sites to work on. Used to do hand coding html, css. I want to move up to a CMS. I'm reading as many books and watching as many videos as possible to get up to speed.

Winston Drupal Developer

Posted by WeRockYourWeb.com on January 28, 2011 at 5:31pm

I've been working with Drupal for 5+ years and have deployed over 100 Drupal websites, including the Fleet Feet running franchise. I'd definitely be open to meeting with you guys.

Also, I'm currently looking for an assistant on a large contract - basically I would need someone to provide occasional, as-needed support (on weekends and when I'm on vacation) for a series of Drupal sites. My clients are mostly familiar with their website but have occasional questions. They should be able to contact you and receive support (via email or callback) within 24 hours. I would compensate you on a case-by-case basis. Their editing capabilities are limited to maintain branding consistency across all the sites (ie. they only have access to add text/ images to existing content areas), so most support requests should be fairly straightforward.

The support person I'm looking for needs to have good experience with Drupal 5.x/ 6.x and a list of modules I'll provide. They basically need to be ready to assist the client with basic site functions, and be able to troubleshoot the backend (work with modules, theme files, etc.). Contact me at drupal at cwdnow dot com or (888) 736-5921 if you're interested.

Either way, I'm up for getting a Drupal group up and running in the Triad.

Cheers,
Alex
CWDNow.com

Triad meetup?

Posted by james.wilson on April 6, 2011 at 4:51pm

We need some movement on this!
Anybody up for a meetup next week or weekend?

Very interested. I'm in WS,

Posted by bmorgan on April 6, 2011 at 5:26pm

Very interested. I'm in WS, so a place like Krankie's Coffee is easy for me. Greensboro and High Point are within reach as well, if someone has a suggestion there.

Triad

Posted by james.wilson on April 6, 2011 at 6:38pm

In WS here as well. Depending on where anybody else is located that wants to attend, I can get a conference room at a hotel in GSO for free. Otherwise, I'm up for meeting anywhere.

Greensboro, High Point

Posted by Katrina B on April 7, 2011 at 3:05am

Greensboro or High Point would be more convenient for me; I live in Asheboro, so WS is about an hour's drive (one way).

Katrina
Site builder, writer, trainer, graphic designer

Saturday the 9th?

Posted by bmorgan on April 7, 2011 at 6:22pm

Let's try taking James up on the offer of conference space at LaQuinta. I'm generally flexible in my schedule, but I recall Saturday at 5:30pm was already suggested. I know it's short notice, but is anyone available the 9th at 5:30pm? There will be some weekends I can't make it, but I think this would for me most of the time. Others?

The 9th

Posted by james.wilson on April 7, 2011 at 8:18pm

I'm actually heading out of town tomorrow and won't be back until the 10th. Something next week or weekend would work best for me.

Meetup

Posted by jjmonterey on April 24, 2011 at 2:01am

I'll throw my hat into the mix as well. I'd be interested in a Triad meet. No time like the present.

Meetup

Posted by james.wilson on April 24, 2011 at 5:40am

Jon,
I agree. What part of the triad are you in? What days/times work best for you?

Meetup

Posted by jjmonterey on April 24, 2011 at 5:15pm

Greensboro and I'm pretty flexible as far as time

Triad Group

Posted by RayAdams23 on April 24, 2011 at 10:21pm

I would like be meet other Drupalers in the Triad Area as well.

Ray

Wednesday (4/27/2011)

Posted by james.wilson on April 25, 2011 at 1:59am

How about this Wednesday evening? I could get us a place to meet in GSO. If nothing else, it could give us a chance to meet and tell each other a little about ourselves. I'm commuting to Charlotte now on a daily basis, so something around 7-8pm would work best for me.

Meetup

Posted by jjmonterey on April 25, 2011 at 1:03pm

I'm OK for Wednesday night.

I'm not available this Wednesday

Posted by Katrina B on April 25, 2011 at 3:10am

Sadly, I won't be able to join you; I'm in "tech week" for a theatre production in Asheboro (we open Friday night), so I have rehearsals from about 6-10 p.m. every night this week.

By the way, Friday was my last day at the newspaper; I start a new job tomorrow morning working remotely (from my home office) for a Drupal website design firm in Raleigh as a front-end developer/designer.

Katrina
Site builder, writer, trainer, graphic designer

Katrina

Posted by james.wilson on April 25, 2011 at 3:23am

Katrina,
Sorry to hear you won't be able to make it. No worries though, I'm just looking to get a first meetup over and done with. Afterwards, hopefully we can set something up regularly.
Congrats on the new job! I actually just started a new position on Monday at UNCC doing Drupal. It's quite a change from the tele-commute work I've done so far, but I love it.
James

Not this week

Posted by RayAdams23 on April 25, 2011 at 12:25pm

I will be in California through next weekend - sometime next week would work though.

Ray

Meetup

Posted by jjmonterey on April 25, 2011 at 1:05pm

Next week would be good too

next week

Posted by james.wilson on April 25, 2011 at 7:08pm

Next week can work for me. Any preferences on days/times?

Next week

Posted by Katrina B on April 26, 2011 at 2:32am

Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of next week would work for me, before we start performances again (with a pick-up rehearsal on Thursday). I get off work at 6 p.m.; I can be in High Point or Greensboro by 6:45, Winston-Salem by 7 (7:15 to be on the safe side).

Katrina
Site builder, writer, trainer, graphic designer

Get a Triad User Meeting Scheduled

Posted by RayAdams23 on May 5, 2011 at 2:24am

Still would like to meet other Drupal people in the area. Please let me know what work for the group and I really try to ensure to clear my schedule.

Ray

meetup

Posted by jjmonterey on May 5, 2011 at 11:26am

I suppose the folks who were tied up last week should check their calendar. I'm mostly flexible.

I'm often free

Posted by Sarvasri on May 5, 2011 at 1:45pm

I would like to meet. North Greensboro or Winston is better for me since I'm in Walnut Cove.
I'd rather a place that is not smokey (or a bar). Prefer a higher vibe if possible.

Maybe to give everyone a chance to schedule

Posted by RayAdams23 on May 5, 2011 at 3:19pm

Can we look at setting the meeting date on May 17th or 18th? If everyone agrees I can see if we can get the meeting room at the Moose Cafe. It is off Sandy Ridge Road in the Farmers Market. They have a private room with a Computer Overhead Projection system. No Whiteboard.

Ray