New monthly meeting format

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Allie Micka's picture

Hi everyone!

After 13 years (!) of monthly TC Drupal meetups, we are making a change in our times and formats to reflect our changing community. Starting in August, meetups will be in a daytime "lunch and learn" format and a rotating venue. The Happy Hour schedule is, of course, not affected.

In 2006, Drupal was a hobby or a side-project for many of us. It wasn't easy to justify taking time off work to understand how Drupal might be useful in our lives and jobs. In the time since, our careers and families have flourished, and now many of us are full-time Drupal pros! In turn, our employers benefit from our ongoing participation in this thriving community.

We've attracted new customers and new agencies, many of whom didn't come from a culture that prioritizes work-learning over work-life balance. Every time we can connect with a developer with a different background, our community improves from the benefit of their fresh perspective. When they take new skills and ideas back to the office, the entire Drupal ecosystem benefits from one more well-built project.

While you can't please everyone all the time, a rotating schedule will allow us to highlight the excellent work of different developers and agencies throughout the Twin Cities. A daytime format will encourage participation by a more varied audience of local developers.

I'm planning these meetings in advance and to them on the calendar. There's a spreadsheet for that!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1S03KPH-dVE8cxzypnWyQgV-pTa5nvM-R... .

If you want to learn a topic -- or can present a topic -- please add it to the topic ideas tab. Good ideas include introductory topics, technical topics (modules, migrations, and mashups), Professional/business topics, case studies, or comparisons with other solutions -- anything goes!

If you're ready to present a time and a topic, BE BOLD! The proposed schedule is (unsurprisingly) on the "Proposed schedule" tab, and as soon as details are finalized, I will post them here on GDO.

I'm excited by this new direction, especially because it gives me an opportunity to see more of you - new faces and old friends alike - as the year goes on.

Comments

I'll be interested in hearing

jrearick's picture

I'll be interested in hearing how this works out for you over time. The reasoning behind this resonates with what I've been seeing lately. It's nice that happy hour is still a thing, so there is a way for people whose work won't accommodate participation on their time.

Me too!

Allie Micka's picture

Thanks for commenting, John.

In my slightly-less-than-humble opinion, if your employer is benefiting from your Drupal skills or the connections you make in the community, that employer owes it to themselves to give you some on-the-clock time to increase those skills and connections. If your employer doesn't share that view, a long lunch break may help to split the difference.

I'm coming at this from a different perspective. This group has announced that its mission and values include diversity and inclusion, and women (slash disadvantaged groups or people with additional jobs/hobbies/commitments) are disproportionately limited in their ability to participate in evening meetings. In fact, women are also disproportionately affected when their spouses participate in evening meetings, even when those women have nothing to do with the community!

The goal here is to make different locations and evening/daytime times available, in hopes that increasing the diversity of meetings will also increase the diversity of attendees.

Excellent! It sounds like

jrearick's picture

Excellent! It sounds like weekday lunch is going to do a good job targeting that. Can't make everyone happy, but you've got to make decisions that make the largest impact. If you don't try you don't go anywhere. Evenings have been a problem for our group in Iowa, and this has really made me think if it might be worth moving to a noon time slot.

I am looking forward to see

wernerglinka's picture

I am looking forward to seeing what this new format brings. The meetings need a little refresh…:-)

Agreed!

Allie Micka's picture

And if you’re looking to weigh in on topics you want to learn more about (or present), take a look at that spreadsheet :)

Allie, are you in the Meetup.com group?

Les Lim's picture

I can grant event creation permissions in their user interface, but I didn't see a user account for you in there.

Thanks a lot, Les!

Allie Micka's picture

I just signed up to the meetup group :)

Excellent opportunity

RainbowArray's picture

This is such a great development, thank you so much for organizing this Allie. There was such a good discussion on this at the community summit at DrupalCon, and 100% on all the reasons for doing this. I haven’t been getting to community events due to family time in the evening. And I believe this is definitely something my work would support me taking time to go to once a month for something this worthwhile. I’m on a family trip for the August date, but after that I hope to make this a priority, and I hope this can help to bring in some new folks that might not otherwise attend. If I can help with that I would be glad to do so.

This is really great news. Not at camp because I am on another family trip, but this is nice news to read after a long day! Woo hoo!

Thank you!

Allie Micka's picture

Thank you very much for commenting, Mark. I've worked hard to over the years to ensure constancy for this group in whatever small way I can. It's been disappointing that I haven't been able to participate as much over the past 6 years because our family has had to make choices about childcare, participation, and the "energy scarcity" you feel when you have a young family.

I hoped/presumed that there are others in a similar position, but I was frankly terrified to post this. Your positive feedback is a huge relief!

Thank you!

P.S.

Allie Micka's picture

You're a great speaker, Mark, and I hope you'll get yourself onto that spreadsheet!

*Marc

Allie Micka's picture

(Sorry, I hate it when people mess my name up, and I hate doing it to others!

  • Ally

Hey --- I'm still here

Steve Hanson's picture

I know I've been pretty non-participating. I'm now officially retired though running my own website. Anyway - I just wanted to say that this is a really good idea. I hope it really works out. The shift to daytime hours for at least some of the Drupal community activities makes it a lot more likely this old codger might make it over on occassion, particularly if there is a topic that resonates. Anyway, I think it is a good move in the right direction as Drupal is definitely a "real job" now and I think more of the community's work should be during work hours.

Steve Hanson
Cruiskeen Consulting LLC - http://www.cruiskeenconsulting.com

I hope that works out!

Allie Micka's picture

Thanks for writing Steve,

It’s been forever, and I hope you CAN make it out to one of our meetings.

Also, happy retirement!

Great idea!

mtift's picture

This is a wonderful idea, Allie! I've been unable to make evening meetups in recent years do to ongoing commitments with family and volunteering. Having these meetups during the day dramatically increases the opportunities that I will have to attend or present. Thank you!

Thanks!

Allie Micka's picture

Thanks for commenting, Matthew. You’re another one of the old-timers I hope to cross paths with again.

Good idea.

stpaultim's picture

I very much appreciate the intent of this change and support the idea of providing both lunchtime and after work opportunities for the community to connect. We are a diverse and continually changing community and need to adapt to the changing needs and concerns of our members. However, I believe that lagging participation in the local Drupal User Group is for reasons that run deeper than the time of the day and/or location of the meetup. I would hope that as a community we might find a way to address some of these deeper concerns.

It’s not entirely clear to me from the post if this is a community based effort or a company sponsored event that you will be organizing and facilitating?

I believe that lunchtime programming for the local community will be beneficial, regardless of whether it is sponsored by a specific company or something organized and managed by the community. BUT, I think it would healthy for the community if we are transparent about how this is being organized and what level of community involvement is expected or encouraged. Personally, I believe that a lack of clarity in this regard has been a problem in the past and I'd like to avoid this in the future.

If the intention is that this is a community effort, I wonder if it would be possible to schedule a meeting sometime soon to provide an opportunity for input and discussion? This meeting could happen during the day, in the evening, be in person, or on a conference call. I understand the need to incorporate as many voices as possible.

Tim Erickson
Triplo

As far as group events go, anyone can post anything

Les Lim's picture

And I mean that literally - those are the permissions set in GDO. When someone has wanted to try a new event, it's generally just happened because someone made a Happy Hour event, or someone else made a Coder Jam event. I don't see why a Lunch & Learn is any different.

Thanks!

Allie Micka's picture

Meetings have been hosted/organized/sponsored by my company, Advantage Labs, every month since 2006. We've been paying for the space, the beer, and the pizza for over a decade, and we've made it a constant, despite personal or company ups and downs. But the great thing about this group is that nobody owns it or controls it. There's no boss or leadership committee.

The evening meetings have not been the only events in the community. After a few years, some people wanted the meetings to be more social, and the happy hour was born. Other Meetups and jams have been organized by different people at different times, though they've come and gone as organizers' focus changes. But the thing that has made this community great is that these things have happened because people have felt free to make them happen, not because a leadership committee decided they were allowed to happen. And every time someone has spent that energy, the community has gotten better for it.

I can't speak for systemic issues in the local Drupal community, but I can speak for the reasons that I have felt unable to participate and/or unwelcome at community events. Open source is about solving your own problems in a way that helps others, so that's why I decided to make this change. People have responded with positive feedback, which suggests that these changes will do more good than harm for others, too. If I'm wrong and this doesn't work then we can try something else.

I am currently a full-time student at the U, and I am considering getting out of tech entirely. My company still exists, and I still want to keep the parts of Drupal and the community that are still positive for me, but I think it's healthy to turn the focus to other companies, their ideas, and fresh venues. I will continue organizing the meetings because I recognize how important it is to maintain consistency.

Meetings are ephemeral and will inevitably leave someone out, which is why I chose to organize things as transparently as possible: a spreadsheet that can be accessed by anyone on the internet at any time of day. In addition to work, school, family, and these efforts, I do not have any energy left to defend myself or start a bikeshed.

I think this is a great idea!

maryannking's picture

I really enjoy the drupal community and have learned soooooo much from all of them (you the tc drupal user). I have seen a drop in the attendance at our evening meetings (including myself not showing up). As I have grown older I have more issues with night-time driving and energy. I belong to other networking groups, one specifically for marketing women (first fridays) in their own business (cannot work for a large company or corp) and we meet the first friday of the month -- 11:30 - 1, we strictly stick to our own agenda, we rotate leadership ever year and it's great.

I gave up my wednesday evening church activities because I felt this group was important and now I am glad it is going to be during the day. And one thing about being a freelancer or having your own business is you can do work anytime during the day or night!

additionally, during the winter it will be much better for driving my distance in the daylight.

thanks again!

Thanks a lot, Maryann!

Allie Micka's picture

Thank you for highlighting another reason that daytime meetings can be easier for some people - traveling at 10PM on a Wednesday night can be a challenge for anyone at any time of year, but it sure does get dark and sketchy for night-drivers in the wintertime!

Maybe when it’s the middle of winter and both morning and evening commutes happen in darkness, our meetings can create at least one monthly opportunity to see the sun.

Also, thanks for updating the spreadsheet with your meeting topic ideas. I really appreciate your positivity and your participation!

Thanks for taking the

eojthebrave's picture

Thanks for taking the initiative Allie. I agree with your reasoning. I think this is a good idea, and certainly worth trying.

It's likely a better fit for me personally due to family obligations which tend to be a bit less flexible than work ones.

I think this is a really good

socketwench's picture

I think this is a really good idea! Will there be a recording for those who miss it or a screen share to access remotely?

Great idea!

Allie Micka's picture

Thank you for commenting!

I am 100% in favor of meetings being recorded. However, I am not personally going to take responsibility for making that happen.

Success depends on consistency, and the introduction of rotating speakers/venues introduces inconsistency. A good next step will be to document a repeatable process and ensure that someone is volunteering to run with that process at each meeting.

Things to address:

  • Which technology/service will be used to record the meetings (and, if a paid service, under whose account?)
  • How the recordings will be downloaded/accessed?
  • Where the recordings will be uploaded/indexed (perhaps linked from the event nodes here? or consolidated on a tab/page here on GDO?
  • Who will put the bell on the cat? The person who will oversee the process of recording/posting the meeting recordings
  • (A) volunteer(s) for each meeting, assuming that the cat-beller can't make it to every single event

Getting these - and other questions - answered somewhere central will help make the recordings happen consistently. I'm in favor of it, and I think it wouldn't take much to come up with a process. Hopefully, someone will run with that!

Short Term and Long term plans

cosmicdreams's picture

Short term we could use something like Zoom's recording feature. Long term we might has well look into purchasing and setting up one of Kevin Thull's recording apparatus. I've been thinking about doing that regardless to see what other applications we can have with such a recording tool.

We could do some research into what tools provide us the functionality we need.

Software Engineer @ The Nerdery

I think this is a great development!

DaleTrexel's picture

Reading through the responses, I can see that I'm not alone in feeling that I've drifted away from the TC Drupal community in part because it has been harder for me to justify time off in the evenings to participate. Adding new opportunities at new times and locations will hopefully liven things up. I hope to make more meetings in the new format!

One of the things I remember most from DrupalCon Seattle was Dries talking about privilege in Open Source (also a blog post: https://dri.es/the-privilege-of-free-time-in-open-source), which touched on privilege in terms of free time, which is not how people usually think of it. The proposed meeting schedule change helps get at that challenge in our own community, and I hope it succeeds!

I'm going to strongly echo Tess' (@socketwench) call for recording the events, when possible. This would expand the impact of the community's knowledge beyond those with the privilege of being able to attend in person, making shared knowledge available as a resource for future reference. (Searchable transcripts would take this idea to the next stage of awesomeoness.)

In fact, I'd love to see more impromptu "pop-up" community events. If someone has the time and energy to organize a gathering (either physical or virtual), especially to share knowledge with the community, we should support that and not put it up to a vote by those who happen to be free at the time of the voting. Let people vote with their feet (again, physical or virtual). The proposed schedule for the official monthly meetings is already a couple months out: people who are excited about something they just discovered my have moved on or forgotten details by the time a slot is open. (This is coming from personal experience.) Less formal, ad-hoc sharing opportunities would let people strike the iron while their enthusiasm's hot, and perhaps build up content and confidence for a more formal presentation down the road.

Solutions are emerging for recording Meetups

cosmicdreams's picture

I learned this year that Zoom offers a record feature for online meetings. I'm also considering purchasing one of Kevin Thull's recording apparatus. In time we should have something that works.

Software Engineer @ The Nerdery

Searching for hosting locations

cosmicdreams's picture

I'm asking around for locations we could host this at.

Software Engineer @ The Nerdery

+1 Yes

dgorton's picture

Agree with all the good vibes above. This absolutely makes more sense for me as well.

Pantheon would be happy to be a venue for this and could probably even host the lunch. And I personally would be happy to present on things if others would find them useful. I dropped my "Drupalers Guide to Marketing" talk from DrupalCon into the spreadsheet.
https://events.drupal.org/seattle2019/drupalers-guide-marketing

See you tomorrow!

Allie Micka's picture

Hey everyone,

Tomorrow's the day! Please join us at the Walker Library in Uptown Minneapolis at Noon. Details are here: https://groups.drupal.org/node/535294

Thanks again for all of your positive feedback on this post, and thanks especially to TEN7 for kicking off our meeting series.

Hope I see you there!

See you tomorrow!

Allie Micka's picture

Hey everyone,

Tomorrow's the day! Please join us at the Walker Library in Uptown Minneapolis at Noon. Details are here: https://groups.drupal.org/node/535294

Thanks again for all of your positive feedback on this post, and thanks especially to TEN7 for kicking off our meeting series.

Hope I see you there!