any interest in having user group meetings?

Posted by fending on February 3, 2009 at 10:17pm

Hi, all - I was wondering if anybody was interested in something like a user group meeting. You know - pizza, presentations, witty banter, whining, high-fiving... I'm located in Buffalo, and I understand that this group is intended to meet in Rochester exclusively, but I'm up for the drive if there's interest. Anybody else?

[And if there's anybody floating around in Buffalo, please drop me a message sometime and maybe we can organize something local to us!]

Anyway, I'll be at drupalcon DC in March - hope to see some of you there!/BF

Comments

You won't see me @

Posted by escoles on February 4, 2009 at 12:53pm

You won't see me @ Drupalcon, but I'd be game for a user group. (Pulling my hair out over Ubercart right now.)

User group meeting

Posted by eridanibrew on February 4, 2009 at 1:51pm

I would be very interested in a group meeting, perhaps a show-and-tell type of thing. I am very interested in how other people are implementing things.

I am in Rochester, will not be at DrupalCon.

Sounds good

Posted by eidolon night on February 4, 2009 at 2:22pm

Sounds good to me. We're actually using UC for our subscriptions so I may be able to help.

Won't be at Drupalcon because they sold out so fast :(

WebOzy: the web services company
About Me

Any interest still?

Posted by austinone on May 14, 2009 at 1:31pm

I'm still interested. I don't think it needs to be anything too formal. It would be nice just to have some connections in the Rochester area.

I was thinking

Posted by mgparisi on June 17, 2009 at 10:04pm

I was thinking It would be a bit strange and geeky to goto a Drupal meeting... but then I remembered that I am a geek, so count me in!

I might

Posted by smkeesle on June 17, 2009 at 10:51pm

Coming from Syracuse.

Sounds good to me but I am

Posted by Ninesvnsicks on June 18, 2009 at 12:36am

Sounds good to me but I am in Brockport.

Maybe Batavia?

Posted by eidolon night on June 23, 2009 at 2:07pm

I figured I just toss the idea out. Batavia is smack dab in the middle between Rochester and Buffalo. I honestly don't care where we meet as long as we get this thing off the ground. I'm getting sick of all the NYC emails in my inbox, and nothing for Western NY. So, let's get planning:

I'm assuming that weekends work best for everyone? I believe the NYC meetups are generally on a Saturday.
Does everyone prefer a day event or something at night? Maybe around dinner time?
Let's get this location thing sorted out. Batavia is between Rochester and Buffalo, but if we're reaching out as far as Syracuse then Rochester would be a better location. Rochester also has an abundance of possible venues.

Post info here, and would it maybe be possible to name this group the "Western NY" user group?

WebOzy: the web services company
About Me

Fixed income:(

Posted by mgparisi on June 28, 2009 at 6:40am

I live on a fixed income. I have a bit of a problem driving farther then Batavia. If anyone around Greece is willing to car-pool I can/will go!

Some weekends are preferable then others but I would just like to dive deeper into Drupal, so I would be happy to jump in.

Ohh and another thing, I would need to save for an extra keyboard (I cant type on the small laptops).

so about meeting...

Posted by fending on August 3, 2009 at 3:52pm

Okay, so Drupalcon was awesome and I've got a couple of sites in production for a show & tell. So when do we meet again?

Seriously, I'm under some time constraints (baby on the way!) that make Rochester travel pretty tough. There's an older post in the Roch group to not rename to WNY, so here's the Buffalo effort: http://groups.drupal.org/buffalo

Either way, best of luck with Rochester group. You'll probably see me there one day! :)

picking up this old thread

Posted by fending on April 9, 2010 at 3:42pm

The g.d.o admin made me change the buffalo group name to a more regional title (just to clarify the change in name - not trying to usurp anything here), namely: http://groups.drupal.org/western-new-york

So there's a thread over yonder about putting together a user group meeting - there are suggestions for buffalo and batavia locations, but what the heck: anybody from roch/syr interested? what about a local-to-you meeting? please continue in this thread or the active one over there ~ just trying to get us together! :) /BF

I could do Buffalo or Syr in

Posted by escoles on April 9, 2010 at 4:52pm

I could do Buffalo or Syr in principle, but Batavia would be a lot easier. Night time meetings at that distance would be iffy for me -- I would most likely not come on a regular basis. Would be better for me if we could get something going in Rochester.

Has anybody tried to work the regional group angle through Facebook?

funny you should ask

Posted by fending on April 9, 2010 at 6:32pm

Here's the facebook group, please join! http://bit.ly/bFhXTz

(Can you tell I have "start the user group marketing plan" at the top of my todo list today? :)

In the end, it's whatever people are going to come to - if that means some "traveling meeting" arrangement like happens for various large regional (upstate, wny, cny, etc) user groups so be it. I'm up for the drive every time, some people aren't. Days/times are hard, too - many people are saying "weekend mornings", but that's a bit hard for working folks who are frankly used to 7pm weeknight meetings when they happen -- but that shoots down many of the out-of-towners. I'm in both and neither camp - I'm self-employed, so I have flexibility.

Hopefully, we'll have enough responses soon to take another shot in the dark on picking a date in May 2010 to start the ongoing meetings.

Thanks for your feedback so far -- it's reassuring to hear some other voices chime in!!

I just joined the FB group.

Posted by mgastin on April 29, 2010 at 1:02am

I just joined the FB group. I'm in Rochester, but am happy to travel to Buffalo or Batavia if need be. I'd been keen for something during business hours, as it would be work-related for me, but I understand if the group needs to meet during the evening. I am not interested in weekends—that's my family time.

Mike Gastin
Bob Wright Creative
mike@bobwrightcreative.com

great!

Posted by fending on April 29, 2010 at 10:05pm

Thanks, Mike. You're actually the first person to bring up the business hours suggestion, which I've done for other user groups in the past. The problem comes in with the mass of people who aren't quite doing it for a living (yet). Any other support out there for daytime meetings?? One thing I have heard pretty strongly (but not unanimously) both on g.d.o and via other channels is that weekends are generally a bad idea for small events like this. Weeknight evenings (Tue, Wed) have had the greatest support. Other similar groups in our area do a 7pm time for weeknights.

There's been a lot of discussion in other user groups and at drupalconsf about adding a virtual component to mitigate the impact of geography and other commitments. UStream (for video feed) with somebody manning the #drupal-wny IRC for real time feedback, or a screensharing service (for presentation slides / a desktop in place of video) seem to be models that many are experimenting with. We should count on that being an option, and I volunteer to make it happen when we meet.

We've sort of been in this feedback solicitation mode for a while now, so here: Why don't we all start shouting our preferences pretty loudly, so we can maybe schedule something by early next week to meet as soon as, say, the third week of May. If you have a (college???) venue that you can offer up for such a DUG meeting, please shout loudest of all. :)

Rochester here

Posted by mikiciuk on April 9, 2010 at 6:24pm

i'm for a Rochester meetup as well. if i have to drive out to batavia for a meeting, it would make more sense to have a skype teleconference or something of that nature.