Getting a steady meetup started

It seems we don't get much done unless we schedule it. Once it's on the schedule it's a no brainer. Meeting less than once a month does not create any momentum. So I'm in favor.

I agree, let's commit to something regular. Having a place to meet that's available regularly is a great start. I'm available most evenings if it's scheduled ahead, just not Thursdays.

I'm all for getting something regular set up. Thursdays can be a little rough for me as well, but any other day after 6 works fine. Having a regular place would also be nice, especially one where we could order drinks and have access to a projector screen. Does anybody have a projector they could bring?

As far as what we do, our meeting scheduled for tonight (discussed here) has a few topics the group chose that we will give introductions on and discuss. Feel free to drop in.
The topics for tonight are:
Drush
Local Dev Environment Options
Theming basics

We are meeting at La Quinta in Greensboro at 6pm.

Quick thanks to everyone who made it to last nights meeting...
Special Thanks to James for the Drush Intro, and John for his presentation on Local Dev with Acquia.

We are looking forward to a more structured meeting schedule, and we are glad to have 'B' onboard and helping with the meeting venue.

Everyone last night agreed with Wednesday nights with a start time around 6:15pm (to allow for drive time). So the question right now is the 9th or the 16th? My vote would be for the 16th (but the 9th would work for me also).

I will send out another thread to come up with an agenda.

Ray

Sarvasri - I love all of that. I especially like the idea of having a particular website each month to analyze and study, especially if I am to assume that we could have questions about "how did that website do XXX," and hopefully get some answers!

For some of that stuff, would we typically divide up into groups to talk about things? Such as, beginners are on one side, more advanced users on the other, talking about different things? Or everyone is always involved?

For the date, my vote also goes for the 16th. That gives a bit of time from the one you guys had last night.

Lastly, I've already spoken with the owner of the place here in Winston, and he's excited for everyone to show up. He did want to make sure I mentioned that he has a full coffee, beer, and wine bar, and they have sandwiches and baked goods. They don't allow outside food (they've had some problems in the past with the legalities of that - plus, he's trying to run a business). I can personally vouch for the quality of everything here - the owner's wife is a professional caterer, and she does all the cooking, baking, etc for the place.

For some information (and in case anyone wants to stop by sometime and check the place out), it's called The Community Arts Cafe, located at 411 W. 4th Street, Winston Salem. It's on the lower level, and there are several rooms we could use, depending on the size of crowd that comes - one room comfortably seats 12 - 20 people around tables, the atrium seats up to about 50 around tables, and there's actually a venue that's currently not being used on Wednesday nights, and it seats around 100 at tables. There is reserved parking in the back of the building, and if that fills up, there's a huge parking lot across the street that's free after 6:00 PM.

How long do the meetings typically last, and how many people do you suppose we could expect?

Does everyone think the 16th looks good and we could schedule that? If so, I'll go ahead and request the date on the calendar.

The 16th works for me. FYI the triangle group (TRIDUG) meets from 7-9PM with a 6:30 meet chat etc setup.
Something that might be interesting also is an "Module a Month" featured wher someone can present a module they like using, and describe any stumbling blocks or problems they encountered while installing and configuring that will save future users from the same issues.

Is there anyone who would like to volunteer to give a 30 - 45 minute presentation? Topic of your choice?

Ray

I'm not at a level that I would comfortable doing this yet, but I'm happy to do any sorts of other organizing, introductions, planning that's needed. Maybe in a short time, after I've goofed around with a few of the media modules I'm working extensively on right now, I may be able to do something with that, but not quite yet!

That sounds awesome! I've seen a presentation before on taking a photoshop file and converting to basic html/css, but never been involved with a drupal theme doing the same thing. I really look forward to seeing this.

I'll be there. I'm game for talking a little about the Omega Theme, its flexibility, and it's built in mobile adaptation. Is there a projector, or a large screen monitor. that we can use to view presentations?

I'm planning to attend.
I presume this is at the Community Arts Cafe in Winston. Lower level.

I'm tentatively planning to attend; I'll know better by the end of this week whether I'll be able to make it next week or not.

By the way, anyone have stories about transitioning sites from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7? That's something I've been assigned to research at my job.

I'll be there. With Katrina not being able to make it, I can speak a little bit about mobile. I tend to lean towards writing themes from scratch, though.

I won't be able to make it this month; I don't get off work until 6 p.m., and Winston-Salem is an hour's drive for me (one way), so I wouldn't be able to get there until 7 p.m. at the earliest. Maybe next time.

Sounds like you all had a great and productive meeting. Sorry I couldn't make it.

For December, I'll work on putting something together about taking a Photoshop PSD and turning it into a subtheme in Drupal. (The company I work for has been using Fusion, but I'm thinking of trying out Adaptive Theme for our next project -- and I really like what I've seen in Omega on D7, though I'm just getting my feet wet in D7 ... and Omega.)

I'm trying to buy a house in High Point, which will put me closer to Winston-Salem -- if we have a meeting there again. I made an offer on the house last Friday; I'm currently trying to get the paperwork together that I need for the mortgage loan.

I currently have Photoshop CS3; financially, I can't afford to upgrade every time there's a new version, so I use what works until an upgrade becomes absolutely necessary.

Are we thinking that December 14th will be the date for the next meeting. I would like to setup an event that members can use to Signup (so we can gauge how many will attend). We can also add the agenda to that event as well.

I will be able to make the 14th and will be happy to cover some of the modules that help Site Builders use in administration of the site. I would also like to see a continuance of Drush Learning - I can talk about Drush_Make and Profiles. Although I don't want to prepare for both for the December Meeting.

Ray