Today, we had a good DUG (Drupal User Group) meeting down at the Smart Rhino office. As the SL Area DUGs grow, we talked about the need for more structure and leadership to take things to the next level while spreading the work across more people.
Toastmasters International has thousands of clubs that follow a leadership pattern (http://www.toastmasters.org/~/media/E51A693193F749AE91FD79F6DB839534.ashx) which may be good to copy.
Would a discussion like this work for the next Sugarhouse DUG meeting? The deliverables could be:
- Clarify purpose and goals of group, plus roles needed to carry it out
- Elect officers for a one year term.
- Identify other volunteers who would be the pool we would probably elect from in future years.
This group of leaders can then get head up planning for existing monthly meetings and the upcoming DrupalCamp, plus decide on a one year strategy for anything else they choose to meet the group's objectives.
What do you all think? Good? Overkill? Please add a comment if you're willing to attend a meeting like this and make yourself available for a leadership/volunteer role for the coming year.
Comments
As we venture into this topic
As we venture into this topic I strongly suggest that everyone read Greg Dunlap's post titled "Stay for the Community". You can read it here: https://medium.com/@heyrocker/this-article-was-originally-a-keynote-pres...
This is a written form of his key note presentation at the 2014 PNW Drupal Summit. It was excellent. It also brings to light issues that we currently face and some we will face as we grow our local community. His observations are applicable to us as both at a small user group level as well as on the larger Drupal Community as a whole.
Let's make sure we take his thoughts into consideration as we start discussing this.
Some gems...
Great read Jeremy. Here are some gems.
...structurelessness disempowers new contributors with its lack of transparency.
Its funny because for all the time we spend talking about Drupal the software, I really couldn’t give a shit about Drupal the software... I got involved because of Angie and Jeff Eaton and Boris Mann.
The world is run by those who show up.
Joe - You're hired as the DUG Cat Herder for a term of one year.
Seriously....I'm all for some structure, and more importantly, for others to step up and take some of the work off Jeremy, who's been driving the bus for far too long. But multiple officers? Really, for a monthly meeting where we are psyched when 8-10 people show up? That's a little like overlaying a full Agile / Scrum methodology on a team of 2.
I'd like to see a single post (Cat Herder) for a year term that somebody COMMITS to showing up for most (80%+) of the DUG meetings (or coordinates with somebody to faciliate / run the meeting(s)) , rounding up presenters, etc. It should also be that person's job, in an ad-hoc manner, to recruit volunteers for assistance on DCU.
For the record, I'm not volunteering for this position, just adding to the conversation.
The most important item that needs to come out of this is an increase in involvement to take some load of Jeremy's back. Frankly, he's a bit burned out and could use spell from driving the bus. Or from driving, and pumping gas, and being the mechanic.
Depends on the goal...
I see what you're saying aytee. If our goal is to duplicate the past, then we don't need to change anything.
Cat herding happens when you're trying to get people to do something they really don't want to do because they're "busy". This is just another way of saying that people don't see value and they're more than happy to let some other sucker stress about it while they're doing something they want to do. If this is about cat herding, we should just drop the pretext of being a Drupal user group and have a monthly beer and foosball night. I'd totally make time for that every month!
My understanding of a well-functioning user group:
This is just my quick brainstorm and it sounds like way more than any one person should or could do as a volunteer in 2-5 hours per month. I believe this is the kind of user group that will attract interest and commitment from developer and others in the business and nonprofit community around us.
I always thought the plan was
I always thought the plan was to rely solely on Jeremy until he burns out and moves to Oregon?
I like the idea of a single leader, the Head Cat Herder, but agree that it's too much for one guy to do alone, even if it's only for a year at a time. I think a small committee should be formed to share the responsibilities.
Here's what I suggest:
Head Cat Herder (we might need to get a hat or large walking stick to accompany this role)
- Treasurer
- Camp organizer
- Website administrator
I don't think we need to overthink this, just maybe organize ourselves to act as big as we'd like to be.
Joe, I'm loving the
Joe, I'm loving the enthusiasm and big-picture thinking here. It's getting me motivated to find a way to be more active in the group myself. With your comment about everyone appreciating the value of these meetings, I think the two biggest hurdles to overcome are 1) how do I make these meetings an effective and worthwhile part of my career? and 2) how do I add this meeting to my already-busy life without sacrificing something more important?
Personally, I think your vision of this group would make something valuable enough that employers would happily pay for employees to attend meetings, camps, etc. as part of the company's training budget, and self-employed members would be confident that attending the meetings would get them better jobs, bigger clients, and ultimately more money. It's going to require some sacrifice up-front to make these meetings as worthwhile and beneficial to both employees and businesses, but I see a great future if we all jump on board with your vision.
Clearly, we need a roadmap to get from where we are now to where you envision us being in the future. Like aytee pointed out, a full leadership hierarchy is probably overkill for where we are now, but I'm sure we can start with one or two leadership positions that will help build the group up to where it would benefit most from being.
For me, the logical first steps in our roadmap have to be exactly what Joe just posted in his first two bullet points: we need really effective learning opportunities at our meetings and perhaps in additional vehicles such as newsletters and blog posts, and we also need to network like crazy to get more than just a small group of (what I assume is pretty much) just developers. I'd really like to get membership from people who oversee Drupal developers, who hire Drupal contractors, or who are in charge of Drupal projects in some other way but are not developers. If we could get some marketers or recruiters on board, I'm sure they would expand the group exponentially with their skills.
I'm talking to one of the sales guys from my employer (SolutionStream) about having the company host some meetings, and I know there's a huge need for Drupal devs in SolutionStream right now, so I'll talk to him and our recruiters about the possibility of being part of the group. We could also work together to come up with presentations that we could take to people in charge of operations, hiring, etc. (I'm specifically thinking of Andrew or someone in management below him besides devs, for you Posh peeps) to get their support, as well.
I think webchuck's idea of a
I think webchuck's idea of a smaller committee is a good one, just because of our small user base. If we did something like
-Head Cat Herder
-Treasurer
-Camp Organizer
-User group rep
I think that we can split the web admin role into those four. Also having a user group rep would be nice because then he/she could get the information to each of the user groups and then get feedback directly from the users themselves. If all the officers were, lets say, in the Sugarhouse group, then the Draper meetup would be almost out of the loop. Thoughts/disagreements?
Also maybe an outbound-rep as well, to go to other meetups and attract more devs? Maybe 5 is pushing the "small" committee a bit.
You know, there's really no
You know, there's really no reason why every active member of the group couldn't take on a leadership role. Seems like a pretty standard practice for getting a small group moving, if you ask me. I'm not sure if those roles are exactly what we need, but I do like the idea of having someone coordinating different meetup groups so everyone can stay in the loop regardless of which meetings/lunches/events they attend.
Also Jeremy and I have been
Also Jeremy and I have been talking about a code of conduct for a while and so I just quickly wrote one that I think could work.
https://groups.drupal.org/node/452103
Thanks Logan! I would
Thanks Logan! I would appreciate anyone reading and commenting on this thread to go over to Logan's and post on that.
We have a great start
I'm excited to see all the engagement in this conversation. That's a great sign. Aytee, I think the Cat Herder title might stick. It's started to grow on me too!
So what's next? Do you all want to wait until the next scheduled DUG meeting? Or plan something sooner? I could do it this Wed or Thurs evening? With the fourth Thurs on Christmas, I doubt there will be many then.
December DUG meeting
Due to the holidays, we discussed and decided in early November to have a single holidays DUG meeting in early December in lieu of the end of month November and December meetings. That happened on the 11th of December.
https://groups.drupal.org/node/450078
Super special planning meeting?
From our meeting last week in South Jordan, it sounded like a lot of DrupalCamp stuff still isn't finalized and we're just 10 weeks away (location, speakers, sponsors, communication to people besides developers we already know about, etc...). If we wait until the fourth Thursday of January, we'll only be a month out.
Anyone for a special leadership planning meeting this week? It would be nice to go into the holidays with group leadership in place and the DrupalCamp to-do list finalized and assigned to reliable volunteers with deadlines. For example, if we don't know our pricing because we don't yet know our venue, nobody can register!
Suggested sessions
I just suggested a couple of sessions for DrupalCamp. Jeremy, I don't know if the new vote up feature integrates with this or if we'll just need to move stuff over, but it would be nice to have more suggestions here so we can finalize presenters: https://2015.drupalutah.org/sessions.
Voting doesn't generally go
Voting doesn't generally go up until after we have a number of sessions proposed. This should give people a chance to submit their session and have about the same amount of time to be voted on. Unless you guys want to do it differently this go around. However, I think it's a topic for separate thread.
Sounds good
For now we just need to get 10-15 options to choose from.
What's the rush?
Is there a fire? It's the week before Christmas. Personally, I'm trying to clear my ToDo list as best as I can before the holidays so I can relax with friends and family over the holidays. An extra, non-critical meeting is about the last thing on my mind.
Do you think that DCU isn't going to come together if we don't change / add a leadership structure right this moment? We'll continue discussing it through the first of the year.
For perspective, DCU talks are typically not nailed down until a few days before the meeting. Sure, it'd be nice to have them a couple months out, but that's not the current reality. Yes, we need more submitted sessions but, you know, week before Christmas....
Depends on the goal - part II
Hey aytee, I hope my enthusiasm isn't bugging you...
Over the last couple of years until moving here to Posh with Dallas, I was really involved with a Toastmasters club and didn't have time to commit here. Correction: I didn't make time to commit because the one time I showed up, it felt like a small club of buddies that were perfectly happy to stay a small club of buddies.
With Toastmasters, if we wanted to have successful events and achieve the goals of the club, we needed to plan way ahead. Leaders needed to communicate and be working on stuff every week. If we wanted to attract awesome speakers (like former Jazz player Mark Eaton or former Comedy Channel comedian Stacy Dymalski) and a big audience for special events, we had to start reaching out to them many months in advance, which let them know that it would be worth their time to visit us.
If we want Dries or szrama or merlinofchaos or tech and business leaders from from motherjones.com or whitehouse.gov or nbcsports.com to come present on why/how they use Drupal for their world class website, we need to be contacting them a year or more in advance. We need budget to pay them. And we need to start telling the Utah Business and developer community through Utah Business Magazine and the Chambers of Commerce and the local universities at least six months in advance.
What's in it for us?
Eye of the tiger! Let's make this into something really cool and alive instead of some piece of crap future OS Commerce or PHPBB that the average business person or web developer in Utah can't distinguish from Wordpress or Joomla. Our community should be what makes us different and that's why I'm going a little OCD with my enthusiasm for what we could do if a few of us are willing to think far ahead and share the work.
And I say these things in the name of...
:)
I can meet at SLPP tomorrow at 6:00. Does that work for you Jer?
Joe, this month is notorious
Joe, this month is
notoriousnodetorious for being difficult to schedule meetings. Most of us are crazy busy in December just as it was mentioned above. That said, I'm not available tomorrow evening.As much as I am interested in getting something more sustainable for the long term, I feel like right now the focus should be to get Drupal Camp running smoothly. But I agree with Aytee that the user group organizational stuff should be shelved until January, sometime after the holiday hangover has worn off.
Bueno
Sounds good. See you in January!
Just want to comment to say
Just want to comment to say that there's a lot of great energy in this thread, and I appreciate that. Late December is a terrible time to try and get anything done because most people are already overwhelmed by commitments and feeling guilty enough about lack of contact with friends and family. But January is a new year and I hope we can carry this energy forward into 2015!
My very quick thoughts on on structure, rules, positions, etc.
I believe the structure should reflect established goals, and should be the absolute minimum needed to meet those goals. As the saying goes, "It's not the work about the work. It's the work."
Anything good takes time. What we need are clear goals, a little structure, and lots of iteration.
Happy Holidays!
I've been silent so far
I've been silent so far because I don't think I've been around long enough to put my foot down on anything, but I do want to chime in and say that I and my company want to be more active in the community, and hosting the lunch draper meetings is just a start. I'd like to be used as a resource and potentially have some role in leadership too, but I also don't want to get too booked during December, so I'll pick up on the momentum starting in Jan. Good vibes all around though.
Perhaps a requirement?
Maybe we can insert a rule stating that anyone who wants to be in charge is prohibited from doing so...
I totally agree with helping to get the load off just Jeremy, Webchuck and one or two others; just wish I had more time available to help.
As usual, I am late to the
As usual, I am late to the party, but I'd just like to state my support of initiatives that involve more structured leadership paradigms. Every time I've heard of the term cat herder, it's usually in a negative context. Probably because of the definition (from wikipedia)
"An idiomatic saying that refers to an attempt to control or organize a class of entities which are uncontrollable or chaotic. Implies a task that is extremely difficult or impossible to do, primarily due to chaotic factors."
I feel that adding some structure and term limits is the best way to bring some order to the chaos and take the group to the next level. It will also help prevent burnout with our most talented leaders. We've come a long way with our current approach, and as a community we've become something really cool and exciting mainly due to the efforts of a very few dedicated and amazing people.
I'm fairly new to the group, but from my perspective we are at a bit of a crossroads as far as growth and we now have the opportunity and momentum to "shoot for the stars" so to speak. So let's dream big! It's not just about having 8-10 people show up. It's about fostering an environment where all meetings be they small monthly ones or big yearly ones provide all the benefits that others have already enumerated so clearly in this thread.
As far as having too many officers, I don't think that's as much as a problem as it might seem. If we spread the load out too much, the worst that can happen is that someone doesn't have enough to do. If we fail to distribute the load and clearly define responsibilities we risk putting too much responsibility on one person.
I feel like our biggest challenge is geographic isolation. You have these little hotspots with energy, talent and good leadership. Some are up north, some are down south and there is little coordination between them. We just need something to "stoke the fire" a bit and bring the coals together so we can get the fire burning a bit brighter. A clearly defined leadership structure where responsibility is spread out between the different geographic areas might be just the thing to bring us together. I also like Logan's idea of having a group representative that could work to tie the groups together.
Have a great Christmas season and let's get back together next year!
Two quick sidebars: 1) We've
Two quick sidebars:
1) We've got a bit of a mini-powerhouse down at Perfectly Posh, or so it would appear. I would love to stop by some time after work and bounce ideas around with you guys if you're really raring to go before our next official meeting. Maybe we could form an unofficial committee and bring some ideas back to the whole group in January.
2) Is there a good way that we could map out where our members are? If not, and if everyone was willing to pin their general location on a map, I'd be happy to set something up. That would really help us figure out where to meet. I think using a Google Hangout or something similar for meetings would get higher attendance from those who are farther away from our usual spots.
Hey Jordan, like you, I'm
Hey Jordan, like you, I'm excited to contribute and help the group progress. But I also agree with aytee's idea of the world being run by those who show up. As a newbie, I want to follow the lead of the existing regulars who have said they want to wait until January rather than getting traction on ideas without them being present.
I created a wiki page where group members can add their "Group Ideas" for making this a world-class Drupal community. https://groups.drupal.org/node/452488. What if we start by putting our ideas in writing there. Then we can refer to them before we meet in Jan.
It's true that we want to
It's true that we want to avoid the "do-ocracy" here as much as anywhere; I don't want to take over by any means. I just thought it might be nice to get together so we have some well-thought-out ideas before next meeting, which everyone else could then refine or throw out (especially those with more leadership or experience). A wiki page would work perfect for that. Thanks for setting it up! I went ahead and added some headings to try to give a space for some of the things we've discussed here. Hopefully that helps!
I just added a couple of
I just added a couple of ideas to the Group Ideas wiki and reformatted a little. Jordan, can you add some specifics? It looks like you listed general topics to think about and I'd like to see any specific ideas for accomplishing them so I can vote using the Poor Man's Like.
I love everything about this
I love everything about this thread. I unfortunately missed the last Draper meetup due to my Euro work schedule rendering me unconscious but them's the breaks. I would love to see a more organized and active user-group that brings in more people from around the Wasatch Front.
Brett and I had talked about organizing something like an all-day set of Drupal training sessions for people who either want to break into coding their own modules from a site-builder background, or for non-Drupal PHP devs who need to learn the ropes and get productive quickly. Maybe some sessions at DrupalCamp will cover topics along the same lines, but otherwise it is something we can talk about here and at the Camp as well.
Another thing I'd like to see is leveraging a group Drupal site to track developer locations -- who is employed where, who is freelancing and just around, and where the various Drupal (and non-Drupal!) agencies are along the Wasatch Front. That would be really useful information and help us spread knowledge and know the lay of the land better. (And, no offense to any employers reading this, it keeps the management honest if they know their developers are all talking to one another.)
I agree that the best use of our time for now and through January is going to be making sure that the Camp goes off well so I will see what I can do to help with that and the nascent wiki pages.
As far as questions of formalized group leadership I really don't care -- Drupal often bills itself as a do-ocracy and if people are stepping up to herd cats I think a title of "Semi-Official Cat Herder" or something is plenty. :)
Curriculum
Acquia has a pretty good outline of the test requirements. Do you know of something more detailed that could be a basis for curating/creating content about all of the subjects? Do Commerce Guys have an educational outline of Commerce that's not proprietary?
http://training.acquia.com/course/acquia-certified-developer-workshop