Baltimore Area User Group

I have a suggestion -

I will be hosting the usability study at UB that add1sun brings up in the previous post. We'll have a great group of people in town to hang out with (some flying in from other countries) who will all need a break at the end of the day - doing these studies can be exhausting.

I'd be happy to host a meet-up somewhere in the UB vicinity (which is on Charles and Mt Royal, right by the train station) on the 27th or 28th. I'm thinking this will be more of a bar or restaurant meet-up, but if there's a conference room available close by as well and people are interested in having wifi that could work as well.

If anyone has a restaurant suggestion, please speak up. A fan of Iggies myself!

I get that. I'm personally involved in several collectives (those anarcho-artist ones you mention) and other meet-up groups in Baltimore, and have found that sometimes the best way to get them going is to just get people together :) so I hope people will take advantage of this meet-up.

Baltimore can be a tough town to organize in. I recommend keeping the location central and close to public transportation. I'd also recommend starting out informal - the restaurant route, to get a feel for who's interested in a regular meet-up and let things move from there.

Anyhow, I'll move this to another thread once I get more details together.

Hey,

1) Where would be the best place to hold meetups? If you had to choose between the Inner Harbor, Charles Street, Annapolis or Columbia, where would you choose and why? Are there any places you would not go and, if so, why?

I live in Annapolis, so naturally I'm partial to my fair city. I'm not really interested in dragging my laptop to a truly sketchy part of the Charm City.

2) What is the best venue for a meetup? In DC, meetups are generally held in bars and restaurants. In NYC, meetups are generally held in conference rooms. In SF, meetups occur in conference rooms, colos, bars and restaurants. Is it better to have beer and conversation or wifi and a way to take notes?

How about beer, conversation, and wireless? No need to compromise. I get plenty of conference rooms in my business life.

3) What kind of topics would be most useful to hear about in a meetup? Do you need to know more about what you can do with Drupal or how to carry out advanced preprocessing functions?

I'm a novice, so I'd like to hear about things in that vein. I don't want to hold anyone back from getting overly technical though.

4) How about the LAMP stack? Do you need to know more about MySQL, PHP and Apache to help you get started with Drupal?

I don't believe so, but I have not had to overcome any issues yet.

4) What day of the week would be the best to hold a meetup? Are Wednesdays still a good time for people to socialize after work / school?

Weekdays are out for me in Baltimore. I work in D.C.

5) Would you be interested in leading meetups? If not, would you be able to attend regularly?

I would be interested in attending.

6) Would you be interested in sponsoring a meetup? Do you have conference rooms, wireless access and / or a projector you could lend for a night each month?

Sorry, no.

7) If someone needed a ride from your burb, would you be willing to give them a lift?

Sure.

8) What interests you the most about Drupal? Are you looking to use it professionally? Is this for school? Do you belong to an anarcho-socialist artists collective and seek to spread the word? Are you just looking to learn about open source?

Professionally, yes. I work in the non-profit sector. I love the idea of using tech to get a leg up for the good guys.

9) Are you looking to building things with Drupal yourself or are you interested in just finding out more about it? Are you more of a programmer or a designer?

I would like to build some sites, and would love to join a community of like minded individuals.

Jesse

jechsoldaten - Sat, 2009-01-24 08:19

1) Where would be the best place to hold meetups? If you had to choose between the Inner Harbor, Charles Street, Annapolis or Columbia, where would you choose and why? Are there any places you would not go and, if so, why?

Columbia and/or Catonsville
1. Columbia, Catonsville (UMBUC area) is my 1st choice because they are closest to me and
2. Parking in Columbia or at UMBUC might be better than Baltimore or Annapolis
3. Lots of software companies around -- might have space for us or maybe UMBUC or HCC?
4. 2nd choice: Inner Harbor
4. maybe rotate the meeting to different areas?

2) What is the best venue for a meetup? In DC, meetups are generally held in bars and restaurants. In NYC, meetups are generally held in conference rooms. In SF, meetups occur in conference rooms, colos, bars and restaurants. Is it better to have beer and conversation or wifi and a way to take notes?

Any place that can set up for demos and talks -- its nice not to feel you have to buy something -- but its nice to have the option to get a refreshment -- nice to have a big room without a lot of noise or distractions

3) What kind of topics would be most useful to hear about in a meetup? Do you need to know more about what you can do with Drupal or how to carry out advanced preprocessing functions?

I'm just getting interested - so i would like some ideas on what i could do with it -- but also how to do it so i have no problem listening to discussions about technical functions too -- just would not be able to add much to at this point

4) How about the LAMP stack? Do you need to know more about MySQL, PHP and Apache to help you get started with Drupal?
I have experiece with MySQL and PHP -- but an overview with emphasis on Drupal would be great

4) What day of the week would be the best to hold a meetup? Are Wednesdays still a good time for people to socialize after work / school?

I have classes on Mon and Wed - other days ok for this semester -- but it may change next semester
if this group were in Columbia i might be able to cut part of my MW class to come or
what if these meetings were on the days that VA Group is NOT meetings -- that might increase attendance in MD with those whose schedules preclude attendance in VA and vice versa

5) Would you be interested in leading meetups? If not, would you be able to attend regularly?
Depends on the day of week and my current schedule

6) Would you be interested in sponsoring a meetup? Do you have conference rooms, wireless access and / or a projector you could lend for a night each month?
sorry i cant-- no facilities

7) If someone needed a ride from your burb, would you be willing to give them a lift
If logistically possible --since I get home late from work

8) What interests you the most about Drupal? Are you looking to use it professionally? Is this for school? Do you belong to an anarcho-socialist artists collective and seek to spread the word? Are you just looking to learn about open source?
Those all sound like fun -- I'd love to do them all -- could I use it to stop the ICC?

9) Are you looking to building things with Drupal yourself or are you interested in just finding out more about it? Are you more of a programmer or a designer?
all of above --I have been a programmer and a web designer but now work just with systems -- boring!

Gini

M

1) Where would be the best place to hold meetups? If you had to choose between the Inner Harbor, Charles Street, Annapolis or Columbia, where would you choose and why? Are there any places you would not go and, if so, why?

I am from the Severn Area.

These are my choices and why.

1) Columbia. Most of Columbia isn't going to have parking problems but you have limited public transportation for your college students.
2) Annapolis. I you pick someplace by Annapolis mall parking wont be much of an issue although there are parts that have major parking issues. Again public transportation is limited for the college student crowed.
3) What about north of the city? Areas like Towson and Golden Ring Mall are likely to have a coffee shop or something that will allow for parking and cheap space.
4) Last choices are somewhere inside the city although public transportation is probably better parking cost would be huge.

2) What is the best venue for a meetup? In DC, meetups are generally held in bars and restaurants. In NYC, meetups are generally held in conference rooms. In SF, meetups occur in conference rooms, colos, bars and restaurants. Is it better to have beer and conversation or wifi and a way to take notes?

As someone who has dealt with meeting generally the decision on were to have a meeting is more about the person planing and the venue's that are available. The best choice is somewhere that people can find and you can get private space for you to meet with little to no cover charge. From experience myself. You best options are 1) Find someone in the group were there company has a good size confess room and are ok with a public group meeting there (Not as easy as it sounds). 2) Try local Bar, Restraints, Bookstores, and see if they have space likely answer is no or they will want $$$ for the space or min order amount both will limit the number of people that will be able to attended unless you are willing to eat that cost. 3) Look at local churches and library many groups are likely to have grabbed up the space but you will be surprised to find space open sometime. Most churches will allow member to use the church if no cost if nothing else is planned.

3) What kind of topics would be most useful to hear about in a meetup? Do you need to know more about what you can do with Drupal or how to carry out advanced preprocessing functions?

Since I am a module maintainer now I tend to fall into the geeky end of things but with that said at 1st at lest plan short segments with room for questions because in small groups the topic tend to be more of a way to crack the ice then something everyone will follow compared to larger groups were Q and A actually takes less time as people are afraid to speak up since most people are afraid to speak in public.

4) How about the LAMP stack? Do you need to know more about MySQL, PHP and Apache to help you get started with Drupal?

Me no. Other might but outside of how to set those up on your laptop most people with either have the knowledge (me) or will have hosting services (also me) and you might find this topic will bore 90% of the people well 10% go into the mud.

4) What day of the week would be the best to hold a meetup? Are Wednesdays still a good time for people to socialize after work / school?

In other projects I have done meetings and can tell you there is no perfect day. Weekends always sound nice but I can tell you as someone who held a meeting on a Saturday before out attendance went up when we moved it to a weeknight. Most people on the weekends just don't have time to attend something like this. Monday and Friday tend to be bad as well. Monday are always busy at work for most people and Fridays are more part of the weekend then a week day. Generally Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday works best. For me Wednesday works fine.

5) Would you be interested in leading meetups? If not, would you be able to attend regularly?

This is a loaded question. It all comes down to when and where it is held.

6) Would you be interested in sponsoring a meetup? Do you have conference rooms, wireless access and / or a projector you could lend for a night each month?

Not at this time.

9) Are you looking to building things with Drupal yourself or are you interested in just finding out more about it? Are you more of a programmer or a designer?

I am a programmer. I currently mantain several modules but with that said I have no design abilty's to save my life.