We have just recently moved the location of the Northern NJ Drupal Meetup from Panera Ramsey to Panera East Rutherford after a general consensus that the Rutherford area was convenient for most regular participants of the meetup.
kaw3939 is offering us the NJIT in Newark. A few people have expressed interest and cocogodiva has suggested a vote. Before we take a vote i suggest we discuss it.
My initial reaction was reluctance to move from our current location since we just moved, it's convenient for me and those attending. However, kaw3939 made a proposal and cocogodiva second that proposal. Additionally kaw3939 has done some legwork and will need to do a little more to offer NJIT to the NNJ Drupal Meetup. It warrants a discussion.
According to kaw3939
- NJIT offers us "labs, food, coffee, etc..."
- kaw3939 has "approval from administrators to host the meetings"
- "Parking is a possibility, [kaw3939] would need to arrange it in advance."
- kaw3939 "can arrange for parking and there is public transportation within 100 yards of the meeting location"
- Projector
- "20+ seat lab with Internet of course"
- "a place to buy coffee down the hall"
- "we can bring a small amount of food / drink here without much of a problem"
- "During the fall / spring semester we can also get cheap pizza on campus"
- "there is a bar too"
cocogodiva also suggests "we wouldn't face the challenges of outlets" and that it may be about 7 miles from Rutherford.
Our current location, Panera East Rutherford offers
- food
- coffee
- easy parking
- convenient location
- assured meeting location
- committed participants
While you can take the train and bus (190, 192, 76) to Rutherford. It is still a short hike to the Panera East Rutherford.
mdorman, jpowell, cocogodiva have expressed interest in moving NNJ Drupal Meetup to NJIT because of access to public transit and they like the location.
I would also like to hear from Robbie, RichBaldwin, Ed (again), phunster, bok choy, lolascorpio, jzacsh and anyone that has attended the NNJ Drupal Meetups or may be interested in attending.
I have to admit that kaw3939's offer is attractive. The clinchers for me however, would be available parking, a short drive and a clear vote. A conference room with wifi would be more useful then a computer lab; most drupal meetup participants have their own laptop. Hence the need for multiple electric outlets. Does the computer lab include a conference table?
We have been meeting on the second Wednesday of the month. I would like to continue that schedule. The start time is either 7pm or 7:30pm. Endtime: 9:30pm - 10pm
I'm concern about traffic around 7pm. Is there any? Normally Newark is about 20 minutes from Rutherford down 21. If the drive is longer 30 minutes, then I would no longer be interested.
We still need to set our monthly and long term agendas. I'll address that in a separate thread so that we can get input from all around.
Comments
NJIT++
NJIT would be much nicer, I think. Also, it'd be nice to have our own room and I definitely thought it was kind of annoying to be in the middle of a busy Panera Bread last time (especially w/o outlets).
something I can program google calendar to repeat for me is always good (2nd-wed/mth).
+1 for ER
For me, it's not getting to NJIT that would be difficult, it's getting home. I live in Clifton, so for the East Rutherford meetups, I can get off the train, into my car, and be there (or home) in less than 10 minutes.
For NJIT, I'd have to walk to the train station in the morning, schlepping extra stuff like my laptop power cord. To get home after leaving the meetup at 9 pm, I'd have to take the light rail to a bus, and would take anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour, according to Google.
ride
I am somewhat ambivalent to having it at NJIT, it's more work for me to host it here than it is to show up at Panera bread. However, I'd ride you home to clifton I live by RT21 and clifton rutherford exit 10b. You also may not need any equipment because we have that here.
People would just need to show up.
I just would like to display peoples work on a projector and not hunch over a laptop, and/or I'd like to be able to have people give proper presentations without disturbing customers at a PB.
I am somewhat ambivalent to
Well, let me know if there is anyway i can help share the burden. Granted, i'm not alumnus nor employee, nor faculty. Nevertheless the offer is there . . .
Like kaw3939 I would be
Like kaw3939 I would be willing to work something out with you, if we decide to go with NJIT.
Give me a call to work out the details: 201-362-9836.
Clifton
If I can ever make it out to the meetup, I'd me happy to give you a lift home. I'm in Passaic. Keep me in the loop a few days before the scheduled meetups to remind me & I'll see what my plans are...
Thanks!
At least I know I'll be able to get home. :) Thanks to all for the offers.
Sounds like NJIT has a lot of potential.
Where's good to eat around there?
The chinese place near campus
The chinese place near campus isn't bad, there is a subway, world of wings, and we are very close to halsy street / rutgers campus that has great food places like mcgoverns or mix23. In the fall and spring the bar on campus is kinda cool.
Some answers
Some administrators at NJIT have actually asked me to do this. A number of professors here teach or use Drupal. I teach a web development class that uses Drupal as an example of an open source project. I teach skills like mod development, theming, and configuration, plus software engineering and project management skills. We use a lot of open source software here and we feel that it is good to facilitate the community. We use Moodle as our primary Learning Management system.
Parking is really not an issue, it is simply just me asking for passes or notifying the guard that people will be using a specific lot at X date and time. The lot will have a guard and is very close to the 280 on / off ramp. There is some construction going on but there are many easy ways to get here. I actually live in Rutherford, it's an easy commute.
Traffic into campus is easy at 7PM, since people are leaving or have already exited.
We can have a conference table / there should be one in the room.
The rooms we have available are brand new computer labs with 20+mac and 20+ PC, we have multiple labs next to each other that can be used.
These rooms are not used during the meeting time and there are alternate locations on campus, if someone on campus would need to use it.
Even if we don't use this for meetups I think it would be a fantastic Drupal camp.
You have to imagine that I already have access to a lot of resources because I'm a professor and an administrative employee at the university that researches and develops new technology.
I think one of the main advantages is that we can have a private room with a projector, seats, and meeting tables. We can hook our own laptops to the projector installed in the room, it has a whiteboard, etc... Its a very nice classroom / meeting spot used for computer training.
Some administrators at NJIT
Based on this comment, it sounds like you could easily set up a separate meetup. I appreciate your including the Northern NJ Drupal as your first option.
Well, well. There are definitely several half hour presentations right here for our meetup.
Ah. Perhaps, in that case, you could offer some suggestions on Rutherford-Community.net and LincolnSchoolPTA.net. No obligation of course.
Agreed.
I have a pretty rich imagination. However, i did not know you were a professor and administrative employee there. Although i did get a hint from your comments above.
Yes. It would be nice to have a whiteboard, a projector and a private meeting space.
Do we have a vote? Not sure
Do we have a vote? Not sure with the thread.
Praying to the Drupal Gods!
The discussion continues,
The discussion continues, coco.
Panera Breads with community rooms
I could make it to the NJIT campus. Its only a 20 minute walk through Newark's Business District & Rutgers Univ from the PATH train. That is, if I did not want to drive over to NJ for the cheap gas.
Panera Breads at East Rutherford is a great geographical location. But it doesn't have room for us to grow.
Here is a list of Panera Breads with a Community Room in Northern NJ, based on "http://www.panerabread.com/cafes/find.php"
165 E State Route 4, Paramus, NJ 07652
1300 State Route 17, Ramsey, NJ 07446
1551 US Highway 1, Edison, NJ 08837
PS: My local Starbucks (on Park Row) put in a big conference room size table that could seat 10+. Hopefully this will be a growing trend.
OK comments on this. Pros and
OK comments on this. Pros and Cons
For me NJIT is extremely convenient. Our offices are in Gateway Center in Newark (5 mins away)
and I live in Livingston...17 minutes west of Newark.
NJIT is offering lots of resources, academic environment which also would be good for a camp, etc.
Plus all the other pluses everyone else mentioned.
But I schlep to Ramsey +45 mins, Rutherford+35 mins for our previous NJ meetups.
I also go to NYC and Brooklyn to attend meetups and playdays. I'm more interested in getting better at Drupal than just having a convenient location to meet.
When Robbie said he had to move back to NY Tom was the only person to step up to keep the meetups going. I think we owe him a little courtesy rather than jumping at the first 'sexy' offer that comes along.
kaw3939 says '...Some administrators at NJIT have actually asked me to do this....' Can we depend on your commitment? Will we continue to have this space, even if you no longer wish to host? Or would we be looking for a new home in 3 months or at the end of the next semester? Is the space linked to you or the community? Also what happens on the days you are not available, go on vacation, etc. Just some questions I think are reasonable to ask.
At least with Panera...we know its always there. I'm all for NJIT if we can at least have a reasonable assurance that this would be a stable location that is individual independent.
As I said its super convenient for me, but I'm looking for more than convenience...community is as important.
-- r
I have been using drupal
I have been using drupal since version 4 and I built this website http://www.valenj.org.
I can't promise forever but I can say that this should last for a while. It really has no cost for Njit to do this and as long as I work there and people want to come we can have the space. I would also like to have some of my students come, it is a great networking opportunity for them. I think this is a winwin for everyone. Our group gets a great place to meet and NJIT wins by having more of the local community see the campus. They look at it from the point of view that peoPle coming for this group might take classes or hire students and it doesn't cost them anything.
Also I think because of having the labs we will be able to have mini workshops and hands on show and tells. I really don't think you could ask for a nicer place to hav le a meetup
...I have been using drupal
Yes I know. I can see from your history of posts that you've been doing stuff with drupal for a while.
I don't think that anyone has any doubts that the facilities available are top notch. Its NJIT...thats a given.
All of the other reasons, including having students attend are also compelling. Forever is also not required just a reasonable commitment.
The only little issue I would like to see us iron out is what happens on the days you are not able to attend? Would we still be able to meet?
For example the meetups in the city are held at Mansueto. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but we still get to meet even if there is no Mansueto staff present at the meeting that day. Would this also apply to NJIT?
Don't get me wrong I think its a really good offer. Just making sure we do a little due diligence up front...but I think it would really be great if it all works out.
Individual-Independent, Stable Location
Rich said:
Thanks, Rich. You're a gentleman and a scholar. Likewise I would like to give Robbie the courtesy of providing input since he started this meetup.
Rich also said:
Rich has a very good point. We need a stable location so that we can schedule at least 6 months worth of meetings and participant will not have to keep changing their routines to accommodate a changing location.
Based on kaw3939's comments, it sounds me like there is, in the very least, emerging support from NJIT for a regular recurring Drupal meet-up on their premises:
Also take note that kaw3939 took upon himself (after a request from NJIT administrators) to offer NJIT to us. We did not go to him.
On the other hand, kaw3939 has been honest to express his ambivalence about hosting the meetup at NJIT himself and indicates that having meet-ups there is dependent upon his employment. Which brings us back to Rich's point.
We need to be able to hold meetings at NJIT whether or not kaw3939 is available. But to be fair to kaw3939 and NJIT we still not some kind of accountability. I suggest therefore we select at least 3 people who will have the privilege of holding a meeting at NJIT and use the equipment. For example, kaw3939, myself and mdorman. mdorman mentioned that he was an alum. In place of myself could be another member of NNJ Drupal Meetup who is an alum or Rich since he works 5 minutes away.
Now we run into the same problem if all three hosts are absent at the same time. But the likelihood is greatly reduced.
I am game for co-hosting
I am game for co-hosting responsibilities. I've looked into my privileges as an Alumni, and it seems like there are options for me to request a classroom for events. If kaw3939 could confirm this with the folks he's talking to that would be great.
However, I have not yet attended a NJ Meetup so I defer to input from those currently attending on any final location decision.
Sr. Vice President | NorthPoint Digital | northpointdigital.com| 212-819-1700
My disclaimer
I also want to be upfront that I haven't yet attended any of the North Jersey meetups either. I want to be fair to those in the community who have already invested their time in getting the Ramsey/E Rutherford meetups going. I offer my input simply to note that, as a location, Newark is much more favorable for me personally and that the NJIT facilities sound great.
Alternates
Hi mdorman because of alumni status should work fine. I think the one problem with this may be that Njit is going to require staff to be there.
May I make a suggestion...
Let's have july's meetup at Njit and I can show you the place. I really don't think we ate going to have a problem and I think that once we have meetups I may be able to get other students and staff to become involved, so then we will have alternate people. My one suggestion I. This is that we may want to take advantage of the lab setting to have maybe an organized series of workshops on drupal.
Catch-22
kaw3939, your prediction that "once we have meetups [you] may be able to get other students and staff to become involved, so then we will have alternate people", and our preference not to move the meet ups to NJIT until we have a commitment on your end that we can meet-ups without your presence seems to create a catch-22.
You say that alumni status is fine but then you say that staff presence is required. So an alumnus or student is insufficient? This would require then one faculty or staff member to be present?
Hi all sorry to be slow to
Hi all sorry to be slow to reply. I would like to be more of a regular but I am expecting in late August, so I know this will make it tough for the first few months. I hope to at least make it to July and August and then I'll probably miss a couple of months. NJIT sounds like it has great facilities. I'm in the Montclair area so that's a great location (parking is ok here?) but I also did not mind East Rutherford or Ramsey either.
Thanks for all of your efforts. I can't really make it in to the NYC meetups and these meetups will be fantastic.
Lynnette
NJIT!!
It has direct access via NJ transit. Which is what is impeding me from coming to the Jersey meetups.
I'm an alumni if that matters. They used to have an alumni facility that might have different rules than the campus proper for outside use. I'm sure who ever is driving that could make it work.
NJ Meetup
Sorry to come to the conversation late, since changing my option to digest (daily) I no longer get email from the Drupal site, but that's another story.
First, IMHO Tom gets a weighted vote since he stepped up to the plate to keep this group alive.
Rich you have some good points as well.
Frankly, I am leery of this offer especially because of one comment from kaw3939: "They look at it from the point of view that peoPle coming for this group might take classes or hire students and it doesn't cost them anything." When I called NJIT to look into taking a class there, I was told I could go for a degree, or take courses for credit towards a degree but classes for instance for certification in MS were not available. So if there are other options than those that I was given I would very much like to hear about them. "
I realise that the campus offers many things that may not be available to us otherwise, but I think that as a group we have much to offer NJIT. The commitment of one professor who may or may not be available, does not show me a lot of commitment on the part of NJIT. NJIT hopes that some students may get some work by attending our group. How about some students show up for the meetup at whatever venue Tom chooses, I really need to see some commitment to our group from at least NJIT if not some students. "it doesn't cost them anything", doesn't give me the warm fuzzies either.
So far I see this a win win for NJIT, and a maybe win for NJ meetup. If NJIT wants what we have to offer I'd like to see a long term "official" commitment. I believe that kaw3939 is well intentioned, but intentions are not commitments and NJIT has not made a commitment.
Lanny
Yes. There are options for
Yes. There are options for MS and distance education contact me and I can let you know about them or direct you to the appropriate person. The director of continuing and profesional education has green lighted this and is fully supporting this. I think that once we have some face-to-face discussions about this, it will make sense and you will see that we have a long term commitment.
A group at NJIT is planning to offer instructor led high quality credit and non-credit web application development and drupal training. There will be foundational courses in javascript, linux system administration, mysql/pgsql, CSS/HTML, PHP, and drupal specific courses in theming, module development, and configuration. Courses on application planning, development, analysis, design, etc... may also be offered as they are available. Eventually this may be expanded to ROR, Django, Scala, etc... as the expertise and program grows.
The course materials created for this initiative would licensed under the creative commons license like Wikipedia and contributed to the open courseware consortium. Public input on the content of the courses would be encouraged, so that the best techniques, strategies, and technology are kept current for students. I think this is well within the spirit of open source and could be an important opportunity for individuals interested in ensuring a high quality education of people interested in web app. development as a career. The goal is to to keep the cost of the courses reasonable and flexible by offering them as non-credit courses that do not need to be run on the semester schedule or at the cost of a credit bearing course. These shorter focused non-credit courses may be packaged together to offer degree and graduate certificate courses and programs.
NJIT will provide the organizational structure, some marketing for the program, and the facilities such as web conferencing or physical space, so I think they are fully justified in charging for instructor led training. I think this is a good opportunity for people and is a win/win/win for everyone. As a good faith gesture, NJIT is offering the space with absolutely no strings attached, provided we don't mind about the AC situation, the room is clean, and I organize the meetings without assistance from other profesional staff.
Recommendation
After giving it some more thought, I recommend that we delay a vote until after the July meeting.
Let's go with kaw3939's suggestion to meet at NJIT for the July meeting. Potentially we have three hosts between kaw3939, mdorman and drhino for future meetings.
From NJIT's perspective we are an unknown quantity, so I can understand their offering their space while withholding a firm commitment.
Maybe, as kaw3939 indicates, we will get a better reception after we have met F2F. We should give them the benefit of the doubt and extend some trust.
And after meeting at NJIT we will be able to make a more sound judgment.
So the next meeting is scheduled for July 14 (second Wednesday). I would set the time for 7:30pm to 9:30pm.
Barring any major objections on our part and dependent upon kaw3939's ability to book a room, the July meeting could be at NJIT.
kaw3939, please e-mail me your real name at Tom (at) CommunityConsciousMedia (dot) com and please give me a call at (201) 362-9836.
The pros outweigh the cons at
The pros outweigh the cons at this point. It would be a shame to lose the space wrangling over what might happen. Realism trumps idealism .... at least in this case.
We've highlighted what the possible issues are..They haven't been addressed 100% but at least the discussion has been in the public square, so everyone is aware.
kaw3939 hsa given us some reasonable assurances. It would have been nice if we had some other NJIT people chime in especially if the support over there is as strong as he says, But as a member of the drupal family we assume his commitment is sincere and take him at his word. (He has been a member of the community longer than I have so I give him that respect.)
Panera isn't going anywhere...we can always go back if the NJIT glitter later starts to lose its lustre.
NJIT room reserved
kaw3939 must have been in a rush last night.
He left us a note on a different thread: http://groups.drupal.org/node/73753#comment-235658 .
He said he'll reserve the room and be back on line June 28th.
Thanks
Thanks kaw3939. Hope you enjoy(ed) your vacation.
OK, so when and where?
Oh my, that was a lot of posts, yet I dont see a final consensus. Do we have agreement on a final time and place?
Thanks,
Ken
So far? NJIT
The date is certain: July 14 (second Wednesday of the month)
Time: probably 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Place?
In all likelihood the July meeting will be at NJIT.
kaw3939 has reserved a room at NJIT for us.
We will confirm after Kaw3939's return from vacation on June 28.
We still need confirmation of parking area.
An "official" notice will be sent after that.
Updates
Parking is confirmed I just need the names and the number of people attending.
7:30 may be a little late to start. I would like to start at 6:30 or 7 for this meeting. The issue is that the director of distance learning wants to welcome you to the campus (not selling anything) and since she isn't coming to the meeting I don't want to make her stay. She has been very nice and is very supportive of this initiative, in the future we could have later meetings. Also, I prefer to have the meeting earlier myself.
Since 7:30pm has been the
Since 7:30pm has been the normal start time in the past I suggest we split it in the middle and go with 7:00pm. We also need to factor in travel time for all regular participants.
I'll set an event later today. You will be able to get names and headcount from the sign-up list. I suggest that everyone include their real name similar to the situation at the NYC Drupal Meet-up.
Ok so I think this has shaken
Ok so I think this has shaken out. I didn't want to jump and be me and take over. LOL So my opinion is it should go where the space is best, and not impossible to get to. I think NJIT would be a great option, I am going to try to make the next meetup and see if there is anything else I can do to assist with this transition. Looking forward to the new spot and glad to see that people are jumping in and taking over. It makes me happy that this meetup will stick around after I am not living in the area any more :)
Thanks to all especially Tom!
See everyone at the meetup.
Robbie
All Systems Are Go
Hi,
We have the room and this is the only issue... The AC is turned off sometime after 6pm, but the room should be fine, since we will be meeting in the evening.
The only agenda item that was request by NJIT was that someone from the school wants to welcome you to NJIT. Also, we can't eat in the room, but they will provide a conference room a couple doors down for that. Food is not available on campus, but is available close to campus during the summer. In the fall and spring food and beer are available. There is a kitchen available onsite a couple doors down from the room too. I need to work out the details of parking, but I don't expect that to be an issue.
I don't know if an agenda has been developed for the meeting, maybe we can start to do that now.
Looks like I will be
Looks like I will be traveling July 14, but hope to join you in the future (or come down to central NJ).
Would be nice to talk about possibilities for a future Drupal camp in NJ (or maybe Philly). The upcoming NY camp sold out at 300 people about 5 weeks in advance!
I will be coming from NY. I
I will be coming from NY. I am new to drupal and it will be my pleasure to be part of this meetup group.
Is there a group meeting in NY?
The fact that someone from
The fact that someone from NJIT wants to welcome us is positive.
My only addition would to take some time to discuss some of the issues (or non issues) raised, like what happens when you're not around, especially since we will have some from NJIT in an official capicity there.
I'm out from the 1st - 12th July but planning to be there on the 14th.
When I'm not around
I think we have a couple alumni as part of the group and there are other administrators interested in this. I think that we will be able to rectify this situation, but some face-to-face meetings will be needed and we need to confirm that alumni can have meetings. The main issue is that we are being given a classroom that has approximately 20+ brand new iMacs, projector, meeting table, etc... for the meeting. I think a compromise could be arranged that if no staff were present the meeting could take place in the Library. An assistant director of the Library and the someone else in the university library uses Drupal, so they may eventually attend on campus meetings and would be able to arrange for library rooms. I think that the only sensitive issue is using the iMac lab, which is reasonable due to the contents of the room.
Confirmed?
I have not seen a location/address/building/parking lot, etc. Tom, will you be sending out an "official" invite?
Thanks,
Ken
Confirmed
Ken,
for the "official" invite go here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/78618.
For the location go here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/78618#comment-245823