I learned a lot at the Tuesday meeting. Thanks for starting this group.
After the meeting, it occurred to me that the group might benefit from a group development meeting sometime. Or perhaps, a forum exploring how can we helped each other more.
For example, the non-pros can probably help the pros by being part of their sales force. Many of my friends know that I know more about websites than they do. Sometimes they ask me for help setting up a site, and sometimes I am in a position to refer my friend/colleague to a pro-web developer. ...but which pros have which expertise? ...besides Ben, I know what he knows. The pros can help the non-pros with their expertise...but what would our group of non-pros find most helpful?
And of course it might be worthwhile to explore how the pros could help each other.
Anyway, that's my input.
Tanya Tussing
Comments
Sure...
I think if you organized it, people would show up. I probably would. I know a lot about Drupal but I learned some new stuff during the meeting. Sometimes just the right questions can cause us Pro guys to see huge blind spots in our knowledge and skill sets.
Someone mentioned doing a "create a website from scratch" meeting. That would be pretty cool. I know know how far we could get in a 2 hour meeting but it's worth a try. I think as long as we used an off-the-shelf theme and followed a guide for what we were trying to accomplish it could be done. Personally, I'd like to wait until 6 is launched so that I could learn and see the new stuff. But, that's up to the group. Anytime a new version comes out there is a considerable lag while the modules get updated so there are drawbacks but I digress.
I think it's a great idea and you should organize it. :-)
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Good idea!
I would be very pleased to see folks get more involved and contribute back to the community.
I try to do my part by helping put these meetups together. I don't focus on running them but rather in getting folks interested in hosting the meetings and sharing their knowledge with the group as well as trying to get folks interested in attending. I'm not a developer and I have a lot to learn, but I do know that I learn a little bit at every single Drupal meetup I attend. I sincerely appreciate those that have shared their knowledge with me.
Four Kitchens and SpryDev, and their respective resident experts, are excellent examples of what occurs when Drupal users step up to the plate and become dedicated contributors back to the community. I would like to see this continue where different folks and different businesses step up and provide resources in the form of facilities to meet in as well as the structure to teach a small group of eager Drupal users. As Ben mentioned, we all learn from good questions being asked and if you organize something (not just Tanya but anyone reading this), I'm sure some folks will show up. I want to emphasize that ANYONE with a decent amount of Drupal knowledge should feel comfortable in stepping up and helping lead the group. Even if your focus is only on a handful of modules that you particularly know well, I'm sure others will benefit.
As to how I can help the "pros," I know that I've recommended Four Kitchens to folks in the past. And now that I see Ben's deep knowledge of both SEO and Drupal, I can recommend him as well. So I'd like to continue being able to do my small part to recommend the pros because if everyone does that, it really adds up and everyone benefits. The pros share their knowledge with us and we, in turn, spread their company names here and there which hopefully results in increased sales. It's a win-win situation.
So to anyone reading this, please feel free to create your own events on the Austin group. Just do it and don't worry whether or not you think folks will show up. Some meetups are attended by lots of folks, some aren't. The thirst for knowledge continues, so if you think the group will benefit, go ahead and plan it.
Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
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Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing
Someone needs to step up and set up the next meetup
Hi folks!
According to the Austin group's subscriber count, we now have 100 subscribers.
In an effort to spread the load, could someone please step up and set up the next meetup? It's not that difficult and, after having personally coordinated a dozen (yes 12!) Drupal meetups, I really think other folks need to step up to the plate and give back to the community.
Our meetups are entirely volunteer driven, so please, go ahead and volunteer. :)
Thanks! Much appreciated.
Walt
Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
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Meetup topic proposal
Hey guys-
Drupal group member "studley", sometimes known as jonathon, has offered to led a meet up. Either he will lead it, or his partner is willing to lead it.
They have a lot of knowledge about:
*creating custom themes
*writing custom modules
*AND transitioning sites over to the next version of Drupal (Drupal 6).
If anyone is interested in going to a meet up discussing any of these topics, please let me know.
Thanks,
Tanya
Tanya
I'm in.
Thanks!
Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing
Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing
I'm in too.
Sounds great. (Dates I cannot do it: 13th, 14th, 20th). Nothing could be better for me now than learning more about customizing themes.
Look forward to it.
Sam
Austin Drupal Group Meetup - Nov. 28 7pm
Hi,
I'm a software consultant working in Austin and I've been doing a lot of Drupal work lately. I work with "studley" (aka Jonathon) and we've been talking about hosting a meetup for the Austin group for the last couple of weeks.
We've tentatively decided to hold the meetup at our office (the Optaros office, downtown at 8th and Congress, above the Chipotle) on November 28, at 7pm. Like Tanya said, Jonathon has done a lot of work with custom themes and modules, and I just finished a big project porting an existing Drupal site and several custom modules to the Drupal 6 beta. We were thinking that for this meetup we would focus on custom module and theme development for Drupal 5.3. For example, we could create a simple Drupal module following the Drupal development book, and then take a web template from oswd.org and turn it into a custom Drupal theme.
Let us know what you think about the topic. There's a lot of time between now and Nov. 28 and we're pretty flexible.
Thanks,
Sam
Date, Location, Topic works for me
Sounds good,
Ellen Sullivan
Sounds great!
Want to go ahead and create an "Event" here on this group so folks can "save the date"? You don't need to have all the details. Rather, creating an event at this point in time can simply be a way to let folks know about the basic topic, location, and date/time. You can then make updates as you get more details and feedback from Austin group members.
Simply click on "Create Event" and fill in the blanks. You can use my previous events as an example but feel free to roll your own.
Also, I would suggest sending out an email to everyone in the Austin group (do you have that permission?) perhaps two weeks prior to the actual event to give folks enough time to plan accordingly. By receiving an email, some folks will simply be receiving a reminder while others, who don't consistently read the online messages on the Austin group here at g.d.o, will be made aware of your event. If you don't yet have permission to send out an email to the Austin group, I believe you obtain the proper permission if you contact g.d.o.
Thanks!
Walt
Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing
I'd show up
My schedule is crazy but if it fell on a night I was available I would come.
Ben Finklea, CEO
SpryDev Search Engine Marketing home of the Drupal SEO Podcast
Try our Drupal SEO Checklist Module
We guarantee web prof
Ben Finklea
Chair, Drupal Branding and Marketing* Committee
*BAM!
Event has been posted
Check out the event at http://groups.drupal.org/node/7101