I want to gather some information from the group about the DUG meetings. My hope is to see where we can improve and/or change to increase participation at each meeting.
Currently, we have the meeting the second Thursday evening of every month. If we changed the day of the week or the week we have the meeting, would you be more likely to attend? What days of the week work better? Would a weekend be better?
How about the topics of the meeting. Sometimes the topic is based on questions someone has and other times it's just something cool someone is doing. But we are generally choosing the things that the regulars want to do... Just to make sure we have some variety; what kind of topics would you like to hear? Is there anything you'd like to present? Sometimes the topic can get a little too technical for some, does that bother you? If we made sure there was always beginner topic and a moderate to advanced topic, would you be more interested?
The location of the meeting has been Downtown Salt Lake for a while now. Thank you JC for helping us with that! I know a meeting location can be difficult for people depending on where they live. Downtown appears to be relatively central for those coming in from the north and south. But, since I'm asking about the other stuff.... would you be more likely to attend if the meeting was held some where else? Where do you suggest? Since we don't have a budget we depend on organizations allowing us to use their space. If you have a space that we could use, let us know.
I know that was a lot of questions, but if you have the time please speak up. I'm interested in hearing from the regulars, those who have never been to a meeting, and those Provo guys. Thanks!
Comments
Another Thursday?
I think things have worked really well so far (huge thanks to JC). I would love to see more groups in other parts of Utah using this group to have meetings. It is meant for all of Utah not just Salt Lake. I have no control of that but one can hope.
As for scheduling, I recently found out that second Thursday is going to be bad for me moving forward. Apparently it is the same day they use for Scouting.
I'm still okay with Thursday but I would prefer it to be another Thursday (1st, 3rd, 4th). Any other is good for me.
Tyler Smith
Developer
My two (or three) cents...
Spanish Fork is an available location.
I can offer Nebo District Office Facilities for the regular DUG meetings too. There is a guest network (SSH, SFTP etc are open), projector, and access to a small kitchen area.
During Business Hours?
I am fortunate enough that my Drupal work is part of my regular work, so my employer is easier to convince in allowing me to attend during business hours, than my wife is to convince in allowing me to attend after work. So I would vote to do meetings during business hours.
Virtual Meetings?
Has anybody had any experience doing virtual meeting formats? Perhaps we could experiment doing one DUG meeting as a Google Hangout, or some other means of virtual meeting.
(I think Drupal Camp should still be a meet-in-person event.)
Forward Thinking
I think both of those are ideas worth exploring.
If you have it during business hours on location you severely cut down the distance people are likely to be able to travel to come. That doesn't mean that it wouldn't still be successful though. I wonder if something like that wouldn't be more or less successful placed towards the end or beginning of the day. Employers might prefer that.
As for the virtual DUG, you would likely have to play with how to get everything working correctly. Some of the best parts of the DUG are the informal questions asked and input received before and after the event. Presentations are good as well and help to draw people out. I'm curious about the value of a virtual DUG but I'm willing to try it out. I'll make sure I'm in attendance if someone plans one.
Keep in mind that we do have an IRC channel where questions can be asked at most times during the business day (I'm not sure about the evenings as I haven't ever been on at that time). Keep in mind that we probably don't want to just recreate another IRC-like location an divide our labors. But outside of duplicating work, I'm up for trying to reach out to our other local Drupal users in any way.
Tyler Smith
Developer
Drupal Camp Utah will be
Drupal Camp Utah will be during regular business hours. DUG meetings, however, I have not considered that. But, I am curious to know who would be interested in that...
Would anyone else like to see it during business hours?
How many of your employers would allow you to go to a meeting during work hours?
And Tyler is correct about IRC, there is almost always someone in there during work hours. And every once in a while I'm in there over the weekend. That's an easy way to be connected to the other local users.
times
I'm mostly familiar with the community at BYU. Most students have classes during business hours as well as work. Commuting to SLC during business hours probably wouldn't work for most of us. I have attended one meetup and really enjoyed it...its just the commute once again that gets a lot of our community. In the past we had monthly meetups at BYU for Utah County. After we lost 1-2 of the people who headed up those meetups, they died out though.