Twin Cities Drupal Meetup Page?

I think the idea of expanding outreach to find new people interested in participating in the local Drupal community makes sense. However, starting a completely separate Meetup group disconnected from this group runs the risk of fracturing the community. There is already vital, active and passionate local Drupal community. It makes more sense to leverage the strengths and experience of this group and extend it by reaching out to people via other venues (like Meetup) that may not encounter our community on groups.drupal.org.

Could we consider, instead, using the new Meetup group to funnel people to the existing community's events -- as posted on this site -- rather than starting a parallel set of meetings and events? There are only so many monthly commitments even the most passionate Drupal devotee can handle and dividing the organizing into two separate channels will be more confusing to the community than strengthening.

Let's combine efforts.

Barry Madore
Advantage Labs

P.S. Welcome Jenel and MPR to Drupal! I think I'm not alone in being excited that you are joining the community.

First - Hi Jenel! Welcome to Drupal! Thanks for setting up that page!

Can anyone post events on it? If so - what would we have to do? (Can you post to this page?) This would be great to know how to do - in case someone wants to use it to advertise their event.

I created a few pages (last year) that archive where in the Twin Cities are good to have meetings... in case anyone is ever interested in adding to that page.

How to make a Drupal Event Page (for those who don't already know)

To make a Drupal event. First, join the Twin Cities group (which should send you emails.) Then, when you are logged in, you visit the Twin Cities group page - and 'Create Event' - then you can describe the event & it will mail it out to everyone in this group. Anyone can make events. (Watch out though, it's really addictive!)

And you can create a meeting for all kinds of events... you don't have to be a business, or a Drupal expert.
Kind of meetings: classes, meet ups, drupalchix get togethers, workshops, code sprints/hackathons, design play dates, development environment setup, 'git practice', study groups, user groups, happy hours, meet up in a coffeeshop to work on 'Drupal issues, drupal camps, documentation sprints... etc.

Some of the new Drupal event plannings going on round the world are the 'local dojos' -- which are really just Drupal study groups - and that might be a good thing for new folks to know.

What is a User Group meeting?

For years I would never have gone to a "User Group" meeting because I didn't know what one was. But they are simply a get together, and people give a presentation. Everyone is always very nice, and most of us do some Drupal for our work. Everyone wants to talk about Drupal. Our local Drupal User Group meeting is usually help at Advantage Labs - it is a lovely old building that also houses some sort of Farm Law & Sustainability... it's very cozy & in a quiet neighborhood & accessible by Bus on the 2 Franklin. To date, Advantage Labs buys pizza for everyone - and people talk shop about Drupal while eating. It's a great way to meet other Drupallers.

Anyone can sign up to present. And doing a presentation (or rather, signing up for one) is a really great way to force yourself to learn everything there is to know about something in Drupal. Seriously, nothing works better. Usually you can sign up at the meeting to present during the next meeting, but you can also always just post a message on a Drupal group saying you would like to present and I am certain the organizers would think that was pretty awesome. (right Barry?)

I found going to Drupal meetings to be a really great thing as a web developer, because before I started going, my main way of learning Drupal was just by reading the web pages. I still do that, but now it's just totally different. I never would have commented on Drupal pages until AFTER I met other Drupallers (at a Drupalcon.) The anonymous thing of going to a meeting with people I didn't know was just weird to me. BUT going to the meetings was really helpful for me. And I think that the Local meetups are really really important because Drupalcons are infrequent and are expensive to get to - and really we need Drupal support all year!

I've met at least a hundred other Drupallers...so d.o and g.d.o feels more like reading a massive group blog of lot of friends... as opposed to than some weird web forum (though it used to feel like that). So - all this to say - those of you who have never gone to a meeting - you are more than welcome!

Other thoughts

Totally agree with you Barry. In general the groups.drupal.org Twin Cities group event pages should be the 'canonical' info page (that's the Drupally thing to do) & as someone who's tried organizing events in different systems - having just 1 where you funnel everyone to is a bazillion times easier to maintain.

I was reflecting on the way that we remember to publicize the happy hours:

We have a date reserved, but never a place, and no automatic reminders. I think it is special that we have distributed responsibility - someone remembers - and real humans actually take the time to invite and get together with other humans. Meetings start to get boring when they turn automatic. (I think.) When we really put ourselves out there and actually invite each other - it's special.

I was just remembering about how when zzolo left & stopped making the event pages, wylbur had the very good idea of whoever sets up the event gets to pick the location. I think that helped a lot. Having the planning distributed among different businesses is really good too - if we didn't do that, then the ongoing talks about drupalcamp planning probably wouldn't be happening at all.

Also, having different people announce our meeting gives practice in using the Drupal system of publishing events - which is also a good thing since it is a way into understanding the Drupal ecosystem.

The action of sticking together is really Drupally in itself. Without it, you can't learn the Drupal culture - or how to contribute & work smart & use Drupal in the smartest way. There are really so many things to learn. That's why support & user groups are so valuable... working in a silo (alone) isn't any fun, and when you meet other Drupallers you get to figure out how to make better decisions that take some of the frustration away & then you get to work on projects that are more fun & less gruelling. (So I'm so glad that this month is all about New Users & I'm so sad I'll be out of town.)

Someone from some sort of Python group was saying that they have some sort of monthly meeting, and it's just 1 person who remembers and hosts it - so it is taxing on that person. I think we are on to something. Distributed responsibility in event planning seems cool - even if it is a little slower to grow & less organized.

I know that there are some bigger Drupal events coming up - in the Twin Cities- and the Meetup page could be really helpful for inviting more folks in other web dev communities....whenever someone is ready to take a plunge and invite a whole bunch more people. :)

(Can you tell I'm going to miss Minneapolis!)

Hey Barry and Chacha,
Thanks for this input and your enthusiasm. MPR is excited to dive into this community! We at the beginning stages and have a ways to go, but we're thrilled that there's such an active community locally and we look forward to connecting with you!

Unfortunately, Joaquin, our VP of Digital Innovation, won't be able to attend tonight. He's the person leading the Drupal implement. We'll chat with him about hosting a Drupalcamp. I know that there's interest.

We're happy to come to Advantage Labs for the monthly meeting! Thanks so much for hosting! Let us know how we can help.

Look forward to meeting you all tonight!
-jenel