Tony,
Doug Vann here.
I found this group dormant back in January. There had never been a meeting and the only posts that were on here were dated and poorly responded to.
I did make a good effort at reviving it. Here's what happened.
I had a meeting in January. One other person showed up.
I had a meeting in February One other person showed up.
I had a meeting scheduled in March for a town about 2 hrs away. Communications with the locals fell through
I had a meeting in April. Of the expected 9 ppl who said they were coming 6 showed up. {this was very nice actually!}
I had a meeting in May. Of the 10 ppl who said they would come only 7 showed up. This time I we had pizza too. Even the founder of the group, whom none of us has ever met, was among the no-shows
I attempted to enlist the aid of one of our attendees to assist in managing and running the group. It was a luke-warm response.
We made a decision as a group to move to weekdays. The venue we were meeting at stopped returning emails. Another person who offered their venue did not return emails either. I had a heavy player in the Drupal community lined up to join us on Wednesday evening but I never heard back from any one.
So I have suspended my involvement with the group for the summer. I would be happy to hook up with anything that anyone else is doing, but the hunger for Drupal knowledge just hasn't hit Indianapolis yet.
I realize that I am one of those rare people who makes a living off of Drupal and that not everyone is as dependent upon Drupal as I am. That being said I could not continue to buy pizzas, and books and take the time to send un-answered emails.
Drupal is a global community I am thankful to be involved in a variety of networks that provide me with enriching experiences.
Perhaps in the fall we can re-group and see what happens?
I'm quite interested in maybe hooking up at The Abbey some time. I am hoping some one else will take the "Abbey" idea and run with it. I'd love for some one else to say, "Hey! I want to meet at Penara, or The Abbey, or Starbucks, or the Library... on such and such a day and time, Who's with me?"
If I saw a post like that I'd be inclined to show up for sure. Maybe others would too.
conclusion... When the June meeting fell through I looked at the group site and saw that I was 99% of the postings. That's not a group, that's a monologue....
Maybe this thread can be a launching pad for something new in the group. Maybe even someone else will take some leadership position.
- DV
I am glad to see you put it out there like this. I was really looking forward to the next meeting but being one of the very inexperienced participants in Drupal had no idea the meeting was in jeopardy. I did notiice that the site looked quite differently from what it looked like in May and wondered about that but I've been doing nothing but reading through drupal.org, and whatever other resource I can put my hands on to bone up on the technology. I've even played around in drupal 6 and am currently working on a new project for my domain. With that being said, I guess I'll be the first to say that hey, I'll meet at Panera, the Abbey, whatever it takes. In fact, I was hoping that we would get a few people to the meeting who did not have quite the experience it seemed most had so that some basic level sharing could take place. My thought was to create some sidebar project groups. Me, I'm new and everything about it is new but I'm catching on but having 'homework' to delve into and compare notes would benefit me greatly. I am more a hands on do it type learner vs. reading and appreciated the format the group was moving towards. I've joined another group and have a drupal.org subscription as well so I guess you can say I'm fevered with learning Drupal as if my life depended upon it. There is a possibility that it just might.
Hope to see you and some of the other Indiana Drupal group members soon.
Doug, I too make much of my living on Drupal, or at least I intend to do more and more of it. I'll do my best to do my part to keep the group going. Thanks for the great effort so far!
Tanisha,
Thanks for the comments.
I know you well enough to say that a "Drupal Basics" class would be somewhat remedial for you, but would still cover some key points about Drupal that you may not know.
I wonder if a "Drupal6 Basics" would be good for all?
Here's the deal.
I would be more than happy to spend as much time as needed to get anyone further along in their Drupal knowledge; D5 or D6, for that matter.
What I will not do is pick a date and a place.
If the interest is there to have me show up and share what I know then some one can get the interested individuals together and I will be there too. If you prefer the conference room that we used in May and April I wouldn't mind contacting IndyAssociates.com to get the room available for us. If The Abbey or a Panera is preferable and closer to those interested, then that's fine as well.
Those who want to meet-up need to find more who do and let me know. Out of 32 members to this group I know 3 that are from other states, and at least 5 who are not very close to Indianapolis. that's 27 people who conceivably might want to meet up with fellow Drupal users.
Tony, Tanisha, You are the only non-admins making noise about meeting up. Keep it up and we just might get something together soon.
For that matter, if the 2 of you want to meet me somewhere next week, let me know.
- dv
Doug - I am surprised to say the least that the future of the group is in danger. The main problem that I noticed is that there isn't a large core to sustain a monthly meeting. Your observation about the small numbers of Drupal users in the Central IN area is also dead on - not sure why this is the case but I thought it was interesting that an out of state agency redesigned IMA website using Drupal. May be smaller meetings or going virtual completely is the way to go until a critical mass is reached.
I think personally that the problem isn't necessarily generating interest in the group. The main problem is meeting all the different skill levels of the people in the group. I mean honestly I don't want to sit in on a beginners drupal meeting. But, then others may want this. It may be something that the people that want advanced help/teaching meet while the beginners have an "IRC meeting" or vice a versa.
I was at the meeting and I didn't feel that help was asked for. It was mentioned but it seemed to be in passing.
Maybe over the summer we just need to have IRC meetings until we can get things figured out and running.
Summers are tough for most people. Lots of other things going on and with so much daylight in the evenings, you hate to waste it by sitting in a meeting...no matter how interesting the topic. My suggestion would be to try to fire things back up in September or October. By then, the kids will be back in school, the evening daylight will be getting shorter, and folks will be turning their thoughts back to indoor projects.
There is definitely a broad spectrum of interest and expertise among the users of this group. You have the folks who are deep into Drupal and are making a living from Drupal site design and management. At the other end you have folks like me who run a few hobby and personal sites. We don't live and breathe Drupal like some of you.
Frankly, I was a bit blown away by the one meeting I attended. There's a great opportunity for the experienced users to help the inexperienced users, but that kind of group format won't hold the interest of the high-end Drupal geeks. Finding the middle ground will be difficult.
Comments
Thanks for asking.
Tony,
Doug Vann here.
I found this group dormant back in January. There had never been a meeting and the only posts that were on here were dated and poorly responded to.
I did make a good effort at reviving it. Here's what happened.
I had a meeting in January. One other person showed up.
I had a meeting in February One other person showed up.
I had a meeting scheduled in March for a town about 2 hrs away. Communications with the locals fell through
I had a meeting in April. Of the expected 9 ppl who said they were coming 6 showed up. {this was very nice actually!}
I had a meeting in May. Of the 10 ppl who said they would come only 7 showed up. This time I we had pizza too. Even the founder of the group, whom none of us has ever met, was among the no-shows
I attempted to enlist the aid of one of our attendees to assist in managing and running the group. It was a luke-warm response.
We made a decision as a group to move to weekdays. The venue we were meeting at stopped returning emails. Another person who offered their venue did not return emails either. I had a heavy player in the Drupal community lined up to join us on Wednesday evening but I never heard back from any one.
So I have suspended my involvement with the group for the summer. I would be happy to hook up with anything that anyone else is doing, but the hunger for Drupal knowledge just hasn't hit Indianapolis yet.
I realize that I am one of those rare people who makes a living off of Drupal and that not everyone is as dependent upon Drupal as I am. That being said I could not continue to buy pizzas, and books and take the time to send un-answered emails.
Drupal is a global community I am thankful to be involved in a variety of networks that provide me with enriching experiences.
Perhaps in the fall we can re-group and see what happens?
I'm quite interested in maybe hooking up at The Abbey some time. I am hoping some one else will take the "Abbey" idea and run with it. I'd love for some one else to say, "Hey! I want to meet at Penara, or The Abbey, or Starbucks, or the Library... on such and such a day and time, Who's with me?"
If I saw a post like that I'd be inclined to show up for sure. Maybe others would too.
conclusion... When the June meeting fell through I looked at the group site and saw that I was 99% of the postings. That's not a group, that's a monologue....
Maybe this thread can be a launching pad for something new in the group. Maybe even someone else will take some leadership position.
- DV
Oh Wow!
Doug,
I am glad to see you put it out there like this. I was really looking forward to the next meeting but being one of the very inexperienced participants in Drupal had no idea the meeting was in jeopardy. I did notiice that the site looked quite differently from what it looked like in May and wondered about that but I've been doing nothing but reading through drupal.org, and whatever other resource I can put my hands on to bone up on the technology. I've even played around in drupal 6 and am currently working on a new project for my domain. With that being said, I guess I'll be the first to say that hey, I'll meet at Panera, the Abbey, whatever it takes. In fact, I was hoping that we would get a few people to the meeting who did not have quite the experience it seemed most had so that some basic level sharing could take place. My thought was to create some sidebar project groups. Me, I'm new and everything about it is new but I'm catching on but having 'homework' to delve into and compare notes would benefit me greatly. I am more a hands on do it type learner vs. reading and appreciated the format the group was moving towards. I've joined another group and have a drupal.org subscription as well so I guess you can say I'm fevered with learning Drupal as if my life depended upon it. There is a possibility that it just might.
Hope to see you and some of the other Indiana Drupal group members soon.
Tanisha
Doug, I too make much of my
Doug, I too make much of my living on Drupal, or at least I intend to do more and more of it. I'll do my best to do my part to keep the group going. Thanks for the great effort so far!
Tony
Tony Valle
Promethius Consulting, LLC
How can I make a living on
How can I make a living on Drupal? Guess I'll find out Tuesday. Thanks!
Drupal Basics
Tanisha,
Thanks for the comments.
I know you well enough to say that a "Drupal Basics" class would be somewhat remedial for you, but would still cover some key points about Drupal that you may not know.
I wonder if a "Drupal6 Basics" would be good for all?
Here's the deal.
I would be more than happy to spend as much time as needed to get anyone further along in their Drupal knowledge; D5 or D6, for that matter.
What I will not do is pick a date and a place.
If the interest is there to have me show up and share what I know then some one can get the interested individuals together and I will be there too. If you prefer the conference room that we used in May and April I wouldn't mind contacting IndyAssociates.com to get the room available for us. If The Abbey or a Panera is preferable and closer to those interested, then that's fine as well.
Those who want to meet-up need to find more who do and let me know. Out of 32 members to this group I know 3 that are from other states, and at least 5 who are not very close to Indianapolis. that's 27 people who conceivably might want to meet up with fellow Drupal users.
Tony, Tanisha, You are the only non-admins making noise about meeting up. Keep it up and we just might get something together soon.
For that matter, if the 2 of you want to meet me somewhere next week, let me know.
- dv
Some observations....
Doug - I am surprised to say the least that the future of the group is in danger. The main problem that I noticed is that there isn't a large core to sustain a monthly meeting. Your observation about the small numbers of Drupal users in the Central IN area is also dead on - not sure why this is the case but I thought it was interesting that an out of state agency redesigned IMA website using Drupal. May be smaller meetings or going virtual completely is the way to go until a critical mass is reached.
Interesting
I think personally that the problem isn't necessarily generating interest in the group. The main problem is meeting all the different skill levels of the people in the group. I mean honestly I don't want to sit in on a beginners drupal meeting. But, then others may want this. It may be something that the people that want advanced help/teaching meet while the beginners have an "IRC meeting" or vice a versa.
I was at the meeting and I didn't feel that help was asked for. It was mentioned but it seemed to be in passing.
Maybe over the summer we just need to have IRC meetings until we can get things figured out and running.
Freelancer
Twitter sdudenhofer
seth@osjournal.net
Summers are tough for most
Summers are tough for most people. Lots of other things going on and with so much daylight in the evenings, you hate to waste it by sitting in a meeting...no matter how interesting the topic. My suggestion would be to try to fire things back up in September or October. By then, the kids will be back in school, the evening daylight will be getting shorter, and folks will be turning their thoughts back to indoor projects.
There is definitely a broad spectrum of interest and expertise among the users of this group. You have the folks who are deep into Drupal and are making a living from Drupal site design and management. At the other end you have folks like me who run a few hobby and personal sites. We don't live and breathe Drupal like some of you.
Frankly, I was a bit blown away by the one meeting I attended. There's a great opportunity for the experienced users to help the inexperienced users, but that kind of group format won't hold the interest of the high-end Drupal geeks. Finding the middle ground will be difficult.
BOB makes some good points
thnx Bob!
We hope to see you in the fall if not sooner.
- DV