As my friends, family, co-workers in Boston (at Acquia), and some of my (now) co-members of this group know, I have decided to move from Boston to Chattanooga in the near future. That said, I'm now ready to begin actively dialogging with members of this group about starting a semi-regular Chattanooga Drupal meet-up group. I will be working remotely for Acquia until the end of December, but beginning in January, I will actually be looking for work. So not only am I hope that these meet-ups would be good knowledge transfer events, but they would also be a great way for people to meet each other and do some networking with other like-minded individuals.
I am creating this topic to find out who all is interested in participating, and if there is interest in holding our first meeting in December. I went to college right outside of Chattanooga (graduated 1 & 1/2 years ago), so I know the area very well, and have a lot of good friends in the area. However....
If you are interested in potential future meetups in the Chattanooga area, please reply with what days / times work best for you and if you have a suggestion for a location.
For example, do we want to meet at a restaurant or bar like Easy Bistro, or do we want to meet in an academic setting, such as a classroom at UTC?
Looking forward to meeting some of you!
- David
Comments
Drupal-chatta !
I'm still very much interested in a Drupal meetup here in Chattanooga.
I currently meet up with some non-drupal PHP guys once a month, and I'm busy trying to convince them that drupal is worth a look. I should be doing a Drupal presentation for them soon.
The only day that doesn't work for me is Wednesdays. Any other day is good.
As for location, I'm open to anything.
Look forward to meeting you.
Lee
Very interested in Group as Well
I am also very interested in helping get the group started. Name the time and place!
Covenant College?
I have a lot of contacts at Covenant College (on the top of Lookout Mountain, about 10 minute drive from St. Elmo) which I realize might be a slight drive for some people, depending on where they live in Chattanooga. However, it looks like I could get a room without a problem on campus; and if we had the meetup at Covenant, that some current students could be interested in joining us.
Does this sounds like a reasonable idea? Let me know if you guys have other ideas or preferences for a location.
David White
Founder of Barred Owl Web
Sounds reasonable to me. :-)
Sounds reasonable to me. :-)
location
Sounds good to me too.
Any More Takers?
I'd love to find out if there's anyone else interested in participating in the meetups besides the three of us. Seems like a small group, and while I'm sure it would still be beneficial (and good to meet you guys too), it would be even better if we could get more people on board with this (besides the folks at Covenant, of course).
David White
Founder of Barred Owl Web
More people
There are a couple guys from an IT affiliate of mine who said they would come once we get started. They are not even on the forum at this point I don't think. I also have a programmer from ATL that will probably come as well. I think I can pull at least 4 or 5 more. I was also wondering if we could allow some of my remote programmers to join us via skype. I use several programmer who live in remote areas (US) that don't have local groups. All of them like working with NFP's. What do you guys think?
I will end up being more the "recruiter" of the group since I am not a true programmer like you guys so just let me know what you I can do to help in this way and I will do it!
Great!
This sounds great. Thanks for doing this!!
Ironically, I'm not much of a backend Drupal developer either - although I've hacked the occasional module, I'm more of a systems administrator: setting up and configuring an actual server, monitoring and keeping a web server up and happy. Apache, MySQL, that sort of thing, as well as administering Drupal websites through its admin interface. I'm very experienced in USING Drupal, configuring modules, upgrading Drupal core / contributed modules, etc.... Sounds like we'll have a good group of people / wide array of skill sets with you, your programmers, and my background!
If that was all I was going to say, I would've responded to your post directly, Sparkle7337.... but:
For all of you interested in actually doing this thing, how does the 1st or 2nd week of December sound? Besides Wednesdays, any other times you'd prefer not to meet during the week on evenings?
David White
Founder of Barred Owl Web
Meeting Dates
Either week of December works fine for me. Tuesday nights are the best. My normal schedule is to be in Chattanooga Tuesday to Thursday. I usually drive home on Thursday, but I have been know to stop in ATL and visit until 1 am so staying in Chattanooga for a meeting wouldn't be much different.
David, can you email me directly @ sandywellingson@gmail.com. I have an off line question.
Sent
I've been meaning to ask you your name... I suppose it's Sandy? Nice to meet you. :) I've sent you an email from my 'personal business' email address.
It sounds like the earlier in the month, the easier for the students / professor at Covenant, so based on your comments, I'm thinking setting something up for the 1st Tuesday in December. That's Tuesday, December 7th.
If this sounds good to both you and Lee, I'll go ahead and create an Event for the group and then we can start promoting it. I'm thinking make this first meeting 1.5 - 2 hours, and start around 7:00 - 7:30ish. We could spend the first half hour or so introducing each other and talking about our Drupal experience, who we are, what we do, etc... Then we could maybe have someone demo their Drupal site, explain some of its "cool" features, etc.... and then at the end, maybe we could I'm thinking spend a bit of time (30 minutes - an hour) of opening it up for specific Drupal questions.
David White
Founder of Barred Owl Web
Works for me!
This works for me! And yes, I am Sandy (otherwise known as Sparkle!)
Chattanooga
Hey guys - Just ran across this thread. If I'm not too late to the party and if there's a future 'Nooga meetup in the works, I'd like to get involved.
I'm In.
Hello all - Thanks for your email, Lee! I'm in! See you at the next meetup @ Covenant. I've returned to Chattanooga recently myself and have a few drupal projects to pursue so this is great timing. Looking forward to meeting you all there.
Bob