Drupal Café in Jamaica Plain on November 16, 2009 (6:30-8:30pm) - Drupal and CiviCRM

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christefano's picture
Start: 
2009-11-16 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
Organizers: 
Event type: 
User group meeting

A few of us are having coffee and talking Drupal and CiviCRM on Monday, November 16, 2009, in Jamaica Plain. You're invited!

This event is free and no RSVP is required, but if you plan to attend please sign up by logging in and clicking the "Sign up" button below. Knowing how many people are interested in attending can help us better select good locations in the future. People who sign up will also have last minute details (if there are any) sent to them before the meeting.

When: Monday, November 16, 2009 from 6:30-8:30pm
Where: BNN, in Egleston Square at 3025 Washington St, Roxbury MA 02119

Location

Google MapWe are being hosted by BNN, the non-profit media center that runs Boston's public access cable television channels (BNN News and Information Channel on 9 Comcast/15 RCN) and Community Access Channel (23 Comcast/83 RCN) and offers affordable training and access to media technologies and resources including two television studios, digital field production and editing equipment, a multimedia lab, and a mobile production truck, as well as a wealth of low-cost, hands-on media training classes.

This location is easily accessible by public transportation (take a bus or take the T to the Jackson Square station on the Orange Line) and there is plenty of on-street parking as well as free parking at the public lot directly across the street.

Topics

Only local images are allowed. Sean Madsen from Bikes not Bombs in Jamaica Plain will be presenting on CiviCRM, the free and open source constituent relationship management platform. CiviCRM can be used stand-alone or integrated with existing Drupal sites, which is exactly what large organizations such as Amesty International, Wikimedia Foundation and our own Drupal Association have done.

There is a Drupal-based public demo site that you can try (check out the work-in-progress CiviCase functionality!). Out of the box, CiviCRM is made up of several, optional components that make it stand apart from a basic contacts database:

  1. CiviContribute offers fundraising and donor management
  2. CiviEvent manages event registration and participant tracking
  3. CiviMember makes signup and membership management easy
  4. CiviMail enables personalized email blasts and newsletters
  5. CiviReport generates reports and offers template management

The presentation will be approximately 45 minutes long and will be followed by questions and answers. There will also be announcements, food and refreshments and -- if you download and install CiviCRM after hearing about this Drupal Cafe and tell the organizers about it -- a chance to win a prize at the meeting! As always, if there's something that you want to talk about, just bring your laptop, a copy of Pro Drupal Development or whatever else you need.

Food and refreshments

In the past we've pooled our funds and ordered pizza from a nearby pizzaria (and even had an espresso machine brought in once to make it a real Drupal café) but we've also had fresh fruit and hors d'oerves catered courtesy of Exaltation of Larks and pizza paid for by Veronica at Agaric Design Collective. If you and your company or organization would like to be a food sponsor for this event, please contact Christefano or speak with one of the organizers before the meeting. Thanks!

Comments

It's been ages since I've

christefano's picture

It's been ages since I've used CiviCRM and I look forward to seeing what's included in the big 3.0 release that came out in September. Many thanks to Sean for presenting!

It's clear to me that CiviCRM is an excellent solution for non-profits and NGOs and I'm curious if CiviCRM can meet the needs of for-profit businesses as well (i.e. tracking relationships with vendors and contractors rather than households). I'm also interested in what tools are available for syncing CiviCRM with Drupal (users, nodes, organic groups, etc.) and what performance-related issues to look out for.

I'll be there

Ed Carlevale's picture

I know nada about CiviCVM, but I think it's time for me to bump up my event management from magic markers and mailing labels. Count me in.

Ed Carlevale
Drupal Developer, MIT Energy Club

Same here...

ChrisRut's picture

I also know nada about CiviCRM, but I heard a little bit about it during the Boston Drupal Meetup (11/3) and I am looking forward to learning more.
Thanks,
-Chris

Several people shared their

christefano's picture

Several people at the meetup tonight shared their concerns with me about the safety of the Egleston Square area. The Drupal Cafe will be held at a respectable non-profit, with immediate, on-street parking that is well-lit. The only problems I've had in this area were when I was approached by people of questionable character at the nearby gas station very, very late at night.

That being said, the last thing I want is for people to end up not attending this Drupal community event because of feeling unsafe. Please contact me before 4pm on Monday the 16th if you'd like a ride to the Drupal Cafe from the Stonybrook station on the Orange Line and I'll arrange a Drupalshuttle.

I plan to be there

rcrusoe's picture

Christefano, thanks for putting this together - I'm looking forward to it. Several projects and opportunities have come up regarding CiviCRM that might be worth talking about with the group.
Regards,
Howard Johnson

It will be good to see you

christefano's picture

It will be good to see you again, Howard! I'm looking forward to hearing how you've used CiviCRM in the past, and especially interested how you'll use it in the future.

Ride

Machinerebel's picture

I'm coming from the Somerville area, and I could use a ride over. Is anyone able to pick me up? I live halfway between Porter and Inman squares. Email me at ride2bnn@machinerebel.com.

Thanks!
-Mike

I'll be taking the subway

hefox's picture

I'll be taking the subway over from somerville; it's a bit annoying but not too bad. Red line to orange, get off at the closest stop, which name escapes me ATM.

Jackson Square

lbourn's picture

The nearest T stop to BNN is the Jackson Square orange line stop, about 4 blocks / 10-12 minute walk (Google says it's 11 minutes FROM BNN and 12 minutes TO BNN, FWIW; save another minute and jaywalk, and another by cutting through the Walgreens parking lot).

There are also buses that run from Jackson Sq down Columbus Ave around the block from BNN (closest stop in that direction is W Walnut Park & Columbus Ave; on the right just after the Walgreens on the left). The bus transfer is free with a Charlie Card/RFID tracking device after a subway trip. Apparently buses 22, 29, and 44 all go to this stop. It would be good to ask a T employee to verify this because I am NOT familiar w/ the buses in Boston, although I have taken one of these in the past -- it's a VERY short bus trip from Jackson Square, once you're on the bus.

-- Lane

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=jackson+square+station,...

Boston

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