The meetups as posted over on Meetup.com ( here http://www.meetup.com/Orlando-Drupal/ ) seem to have fizzled out. I admit that I've not been consistent in attending, but it seems a shame for it to die out.
If anyone is interested, I could work on arranging meeting space, probably at ScribbleSpace in West Orange: http://www.scribblespace.co/en . I have a membership there and work there 8 hours each week, and my membership includes meeting room space, which I'm happy to use for the group if anyone else is interested.
A wide range of folks have participated in recent meetups, and I'm thinking that part of the problem is that the interests are overly diverse. If there is interest in beginner or intermediate level topics, especially site building and theming, I would be happy to organize and facilitate the sessions to get us started again.
Of course, other ideas are always welcome. Most of all, it seems that we should be striving for a sustainable, engaging plan for the year.
Just my thoughts! Please share yours!
Anne
Comments
Interested
I am also interested in such a group. I am in Deland, but would be willing to drive to West Orange for a good, supportive and informative meeting. Will you be at Drupal Camp? Perhaps we could have a special interest group meeting there.
I'm concerned about location.
I'm concerned about location. I live west of downtown and ScribbleSpace is about 25 minutes west of me. So somebody who lives half an hour east of downtown (out by UCFish) is looking at an hour drive each way... not many people will be willing to commit to driving 2 hours after work, and even fewer will be willing to commit to a meetup on the weekends.
I still think downtown is the ideal location for a meetup, since it's so central, but it's also a pain to get to in the evenings due to rush hour traffic, and there are few, if any, good locations.
Location isn't everything though. The June meetup last year was crazy successful - we had something like 20-30 attendees. It was located near downtown, at Second Form. However, the August meetup (I was out of town for July) was me, the owner of Second Form, and one of the Second Form employees. I stayed for about 15 minutes.
I think the drop-off was caused by the lack of a schedule. We had a presentation lined up for June, but July and August had no plan other than "let's hang out and talk Drupal", which was the schedule for all of the previous meetups that I attended other than June. All of the previous meetups that I attended had 2-5 attendees, and we usually discussed how to increase attendance at meetups.
I think location could make or break it, but I think before we even start talking location, we need to line up 3-4 months of schedule. Speakers giving presentations, demos, something to put down saying "this is what we're doing".
Yes!
Completely agree
The FIRST priority is to schedule content at least 3 months out, if not 6.
Also, Monday nights are just not good for me. I don't even care so much for the 1 hour travel it would take me to get to West Orlando. But that's not going to happen on a week night from 5-7pm.
Perhaps, as suggested above, we should get together tomorrow in a BOF at Drupal Camp to discuss?
Dan Dease
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I'd be down for a BOF.
I'd be down for a BOF.
Different Options
Considering the responses that have come in from my original post, it might be worthwhile to look at multiple meetups with special purposes. Travel time in and around Orlando is such an issue, and I'm thinking that it might be a key contributor to the problems in keeping a group going.
My offer to help organize a "support" style group in West Orange for newbies or newbie-graduates who want to improve their site building skills still stands for anyone who is interested.
I won't be at DrupalCamp this week, but encourage anyone interested to get together and figure out a game plan.
Thanks,
Anne
meetup BOF at DrupalCamp
Let's post on the bulletin board about a local meetup in the Orlando area.
Dan and I spoke about this a
Dan and I spoke about this a bit yesterday at the camp - two possibilities we came up with for location are:
Winter Park Community Center: https://cityofwinterpark.org/departments/parks-recreation/recreation-spo...
They have quite a few rooms, the smallest of which is several times larger than we need. Unless they'd be willing to donate the space (unlikely) we'd need about $130/month for a 2 hour meetup. The prices are on this page: https://cityofwinterpark.org/departments/parks-recreation/recreation-spo...
The other option is perhaps FTC. They donate the space for FLDC, they might be willing to let us use a classroom once per month. They do have night classes, but it seems unlikely that every classroom would be in use every night.
What does everyone think of
What does everyone think of Thursday nights for our monthly meetup?
Anybody still interested?
Anybody still interested?