I'm considering getting the Sacramento Area Drupal user group going again (it has been defunct for 6-8 months now), with the intention of making it the kind of user group that is fun to be a part of and that the region and the larger-Drupal-community can be really proud of ™. In that spirit, I think we should switch up a couple things that were already being bantered about concerning improving the user group before things drifted along:
1) Venue - The restaurants the group met at previously were nice enough and conducive for socializing, however after several meetings it was becoming obvious to everyone that restaurants did not necessarily provide the best facilities/atmosphere for giving presentations or unencumbered discussions. Optimally, what we need is a small-to-moderate amount of space (enough for 10-15 people initially), internet access, and a downtown-ish location seems to have been the best in terms of convenience for the most people (given that people came from as far away as Davis on one extreme, and then Roseville from another).
2) Group objective(s) - It will be useful to be more organized concerning the monthly meetings. This time around let's try to plan a presentation(s) and/or agenda ahead of time so that the meeting can be more productive and fun. Swapping casual conversation and socializing will always be part of things, but a little direction to keep things moving is good too. My personal objectives include things such as, a) figuring out how to participate in promoting Drupal in the local area, b) possibly coming up with a group-wide effort to contribute to some aspect of the Drupal project, c) offering presentations about various aspects of Drupal and/or Drupal development.
Last but not least we'll need a time. I propose keeping the previously set time of the third Thursday of every month at 6:30pm, in order to give people travel time from work, but am open to other ideas if they work better for the majority of people involved.
Sound good?
Comments
Hi all, long time
Hi all, long time lurker...I'd be interested in going to this. I've been trying to play around with Drupal for my company, could use some new ideas. For a Sacramento venue, have you ever tried Crepeville on L and 18th? It has some nice sections in which 10-15 people can meet...however, on a busy Thursday dinner night, it'd might be hard to get an entire section. It does have wireless access though.
For non restaurant places, there is a Starbucks on 38th and J that I think is open till 8pm, that has a large table that alone can seat about 10 people, and at night, it's not hard to monopolize. There's also Old Soul Coffee, 1716 L St. which is essentially a medium size warehouse with seating (I heard that it might be moving locations, not sure if this was in the near or far future)...
Hi dnguyen
Glad to hear that your interested in participating - at this point that's the important part. I am sort of hoping that someone might chime in with available office space or some such thing just to get us out of the general-public-type of places, but short of that I guess we can just do the best we can and move up from there. Since today is the first day of this discussion it will be interesting to see what, and who, else pops up. :-)
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HigherVisibility
looking forward to it
I really enjoyed the meetings when they were happening. I would be very pleased to see them start up again. I have access to classrooms and a computer lab at UC Davis which we can use. We have Internet access, of course. I know that it's on the outskirts of the optimum area, but I thought I'd offer of up anyway.
Hey Shawn!
Glad to see you're interested in getting the DUG back up, too. As you say the facilities in Davis are a bit far for part of the Sacramento area, but given the choice of lesser alternative maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
Maybe a good course of action is to plan for us all (e.g., whoever wants to show up) to meet on March 20th at 6:30 - and we can withhold the decision of where until the week before to see if something more central pops up?
UC Davis as a venue
To further the discussion of a venue, I think I should mention some complications of having the meeting here at UC Davis.
Aside from the distance thing, which has been mentioned before, there is a problem of parking. UC Davis charges $6 per car for parking on campus M-F until 10pm. This means that everybody who wants to come to the meeting would have to drop an additional $6. Bummer.
Also, the choices for food are rather slim. Davis has many great restaurants, but none are within convenient walking distance to my classrooms.
So, I would like to once again invite better recommendations for a venue. I don't really know the Sacramento area very well, but I know a few places in Davis that have free Wifi:
Common Grounds (coffee shop in south Davis)
Dos Coyotes (tex-mex in north and south Davis)
Also, here are a few maps of wifi joints in Sac. Anyone want to give it a look and see if there are any possibilities?
http://hotspotr.com/wifi/map/23-sacramento-ca
http://www.jiwire.com/search-wifi-hotspots.htm?result_display=map&techno...
Hm.
Hm. I think with the downsides you mention about meeting in Davis, aside from the distance (which is, of course, substantial for someone coming from say Roseville or something) it makes total sense to just go ahead and try to keep it somewhere near downtown Sacramento.
Maybe we should just focus on the fun parts - e.g., plans for the group or individual presentations, etc - and meet March 20th at 6:30 at the old stomping grounds? I'm thinking that if everyone shows up there with some ideas and plans-to-make-plans we'll probably be so busy and having so much fun that we won't really care. Sound good?
Newbie from the sticks
Coming from a bit past Jackson, so downtown sounds great to me :) See you guys there!
Can anyone...
...other than Sloane and I confirm for a 3/20/08 meeting at 6:30pm at River City Brewing? If not I think I'd prefer to wait until at least 3-4 of could agree on a time to get together.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I'll be there.
I'll be there.
barring last-minute
barring last-minute arrangements, count me in
Awesome!
I've gone ahead made a reservation for us for 6:30 at the <a href="http://www.rivercitybrewing.net/contact.html>River City Brewing Company on Thursday March 20th.
Bring your laptops if you have 'em and if you anyone wants to start brainstorming in this thread ahead of time, please do. Some possible topics:
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HigherVisibility
Count me in
Newbie drupaler here. I'll be there, looking forward to meeting you all..