New South Bergen Meetup or New Location for Northern NJ Meetup?

I think you should just move the Northern NJ meetup down, rather then fracture and start a new group. I am going to be moving back to NYC and this group should continue and you guys are doing a good job of making the group work. I would love to see it continue after I move, and I think it really can there is a solid group of people in Northern NJ that the group can be productive.

I think 2 groups in NJ are enough, Northern / Central (and Southern).

Just my 2 cents.

Robbie

How can I help?

Lanny

I don't think that we want to fracture the group. For me Rutherford was a breeze to get to, I think it took about 20 or 25 minutes to get there. I was lucky and got a non metered spot right across the street from the library. I did notice though that some attendees where having to feed parking meters.

Perhaps a good way is to have roving locations for the meetups. That way the folks that have to travel a long way for one meetup would have a short trip for the next one and so on.

My 2 cents

Lanny

Greetings, phunster,
A new comment has been added by TomSherlock to this thread in group New York City: Open to a roving location, but....
I'm open to a roving location for the Northern NJ Drupal Meetup. However, for a regular monthly meeting, I won't travel farther then 30 minutes one way. Princeton is too far for a monthly meeting. I also think that the locations should be limited to 3 or 4 at first. We could open it up to more locations once we get into the habit of traveling to a roving location and if we determine that it is working.
M MONTHLY MEETINGS IS MY PREFERENCE TO.o

30 MINUTE DRIVE IS MY PREFERENCE AS WELL.

PRINCETON IS TOO FAR FOR ME Too.

I AGREE ON EVERYTHING ELSE.
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The downside of a roving location is that it becomes more difficult for new participants to join as the location of the next meeting may be unclear. Additionally it may be more difficult to establish ourselves in the chosen location as we are not there frequently enough. It may also become confusing for regular attendees. This could effectively turn the meeting into a quarterly meeting thus creating a disincentive to attend.

These are issues but think we could overcome them over time.
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The upside is that more people get a chance to host and have the meetup closer to home. The other upside is that it is more chaordic and decentralized. We could conceivably pick up additional participants that are willing to attend one or two of the regular locations.

In any case, i'm willing to give it a try.

Suggested Roving Location Schedule

So I would suggest that the meeting schedule be:

Ramsey for June

Rutherford for July (so far Ed and I agree on Rutherford)

Location convenient to Lanny for August

I'm flexible, my only desire is the success of the meetups. This is a great thing that you've started, I'm willing to do what it takes to keep it going.
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Some location agreed up by participants of the third meeting for September

Rutherford or Ramsey for October

I suggest Ramsey because that is the current location of Norther NJ Meetup. This may also be the last time we meet there.

I suggest Rutherford, because it seems to be more central to all participants of the NJ Themers PlayDay and convenient to several participants of the Northern NJ Meetup. Also it is convenient for me.

I suggest a location convenient to Lanny since he suggested the practice of a roving location.
Thank you.

Please note that for Rutherford, I have in mind the Panera on Route 17 S (in East Rutherford). It is in a mall with its own parking lot. Therefore parking will NOT be an issue and there are NO parking meters on the lot.

I suggest that each meetup location have convenient parking and a wifi.
Agreed.

Nature of the Meetings

The Themers PlayDay was not a regular meetup but more of an infrequent hack-a-thon. Meetups tend to be more structured and monthly. Therefore I would suggest that we also have a prepared agenda for each meeting. We could either start figuring out what that agenda will for the next meeting on line, or we could wait until the next meeting in June to work things out. We should have presentations on specific areas of Drupal that are given by a participant of the group who has done some research or by an expert invited to the group. I, for example, would like to give a presentation on a basic module that I wrote for registering volunteers for an event. That presentation would also include a code walk-through.

Also agreed
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Since the a Drupal meetup is typically two hours we could have the first hour structured and focused and the second hour unstructured and decentralized, in a birds-of-feather fashion or similar to our Themers PlayDay.

Great idea.
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I also suggest that we have a long-term agenda that spans 3 to 6 months. It doesn't have to be detailed and could be subject to change, nevertheless it could help us determine our direction and strengthen our skills and resolve in Drupal.

Process is king.

Lanny
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