Not a "Job" - yet - but I'm curious...

Hi all,

I'm hoping it's OK to post this here - please someone let me know if I've committed a faux pas... It's just that I'm looking to keep this close to home, here in the Vancouver area...

I run the website for the BC Mountaineering Club (http://bcmc.ca) and it's time for us to update our website. I'm planning (and have started fiddling with) moving to a Drupal solution.

I'm looking at going with the 5.x right now (though not committed - 6.x looks good, I just find there are more developed modules I want for 5.x). But there are a couple of features that I can not find, and would like to custom develop. However, I don't have a "real" coding background, and any scripting I have done is in JavaScript (including server-side with ASP - I know, in JavaScript?!?) In other words, I'm looking for a hired gun...

Here's an example of what I'm after:

I want to create a content type for "trips" on the BCMC trip schedule. Easy enough - using CCK, Date, Calendar, Signup, etc. However, I want people with one role (TripAdmin) to enter a trip in anyone's name (using a user reference from CCK). People with another role (TripOrganizer) can only enter trips in their own name. Thus, when it's time to enter "trip" content, the layout of the form - specifically the content of the Trip Leader field - varies depending on the user role. An Admin can enter any name, an Organizer can only enter their own.

Another: I need to keep track of memberships based on payments. Currently I have a record for each member. I have another table full of membership payments. However, we have couple memberships available, so some payment records are valid for TWO members. I need to enter payment information (thus keeping track of monetary stuff) and validate either one or two members for a year of membership. I don't know of a way to do this with existing modules. By the way, we don't currently permit online signup/renewal, for legal - liability - reasons, but hope to soon.

These are the two main things I've got on my mind right now. As far as design goes, I'm happy to work with the default theme / free themes for the moment. I'm sure we will modify slightly to get a look we're happy with. We also have a couple of graphic designers in the club who can help out on that front (and I'm happy to dabble with themes.)

The thing is, I don't know how serious these items are. I plan to get involved in learning the back end of Drupal, dissecting modules and teaching myself as I go. However, I don't do this for a living, and don't plan to ever do so. So if I want to get things done in a reasonable amount of time, I'd like to look at having someone else (who already knows what they're doing) help out with certain areas.

I and a couple of other members will be getting together soon to discuss our actual needs for features to launch with, and will then be able to come up with actual detailed requirements for those features.

In the meantime, as a club that operates on a fairly small income (we have around 350 odd paying members, at around $45/year - you do the math - and we manage to spend it year after year) it's tough to budget a lot toward this kind of thing. Thus my desire to do a lot of the work myself (deploying and configuring the site myself, looking at developing our own theme, etc.)

So, to the nub of my enquiry:

Who does this kind of thing? Is it possible to contract for such granular work? If so, would I be looking at amounts that would be hard to justify for such a small organization? i.e. are we talking $2 000 in work, or $10 000 - or something in between?