I love going to the Santa Monica meetups. Every time I come I learn something new. Like now I finally know what Drush does and know how to use it. Most of the topics, though, are geared toward you experts (and wonderful experts you are!).
I do have two suggestions though. There are many newbies in the audience and also many like me who are moving beyond the basics. First, perhaps set aside a 15-minute time period for one of you experts to explain something basic. You could ask the list ahead of time what feature the newbies and the intermediates might want to hear a talk about that month. An example might be something like the difference between taxonomy and CCK and when to use each. Or talk about how to use the core Profile module or a contrib like Content Profile and what are the advantages of each, and how to access a Profile field in Views. All basic basic, but important topics for Drupal learners.
A second suggestion is instead of asking for questions in the audience, ask for people to talk about a problem or unusual setup they worked on or tell the group what new things they learned in Drupal this past month. For instance I just learned how to use Fusion/Skinr in the reworked Acquia Marina theme -- I do not know enough to give a lightning talk, but I sure am excited enough about these new features that I would want to share what I learned. Having more people know what others are doing would greatly facilitate interaction and outside discussion, and maybe one of us will be an expert soon too.
Susan
Comments
These are great ideas. CCK
These are great ideas.
CCK vs. Taxonomy, Profile vs. Content Profile, etc. are excellent things to talk about. The ladrupal.org refresh will have a BarCamp-style presentation bulletin board where anyone can post ideas and make requests for what they want to see and others can run with one of those ideas and turn it into a presentation or lightning talk.
I'll post again here when the presentation board is available. Until then, what we've been doing is using the comments on the event announcements themselves to propose things we want to talk about. That hasn't been required at all, though, and I one of my sincere hopes is that everyone is comfortable making impromptu announcements or sharing something they've learned during the open Q&A.
Okay, let's change the name of the "open Q&A" to "open discussion".
Q&A should stay Q&A
I disagree with changing Q&A to open discussion. We already have open discussions. I like how we let people know we're answering their questions (directly) to help. If we turn people's scenarios/questions into discussions then we will inevitably loose time for networking and fun things like Lightning Talks. The idea of breakout groups prior to open networking may be a good/bad idea for this. I'm splitting hairs here on purpose, there's a positive psychological reason we do "Q&A".
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us
We're getting lost in the semantics
We're getting lost in the semantics. To me, open discussions and open Q&A have always been the same thing. I especially enjoy it when attendees get involved and answer questions from other attendees on their own.
not always expert
Thank you for your comments and suggestions. LA Drupal has always had a policy of asking people to submit their topic interests. So far, in 2010, there has been a higher frequency of intermediate-advanced level presentations than the two years before but this is really due to two things: (1) there are more people comfortable with Drupal than in 2008/2009, and (2) not enough recommendations of topics from members. We always need people volunteering a variety of talks to give too but there are a handful of regulars asking what people want to see. Also note there are topics we won't repeat since they've been covered before and/or are recorded (like Views, Panels, CCK). These topics plus others are available online for free at: www.archive.org or drupalcampla.com or drupalcon.org (even iTunes, Blip.tv, YouTube, and the like). We do make sure we cover new module versions when there are important releases.
When we ask the audience for their questions each person who asks their question is usually asking to solve a current task/problem. People have no issue letting the crowd know what their setup is for background info. Maybe something like breakout groups would be good to try?
I'd like to point out the topics you suggest are not basic but instead more intermediate (maybe even advanced for some). One view of Drupal basics is teaching people important things about Core, what modules are out there and how to use them. These are mostly out of the box talks while our Lightning Talks fall more into the realm of what you're asking for - how someone used a module or three to tackle a project task.
The strive for good content and skill balance is tough for any group of our size as we are over 600 members and see a 10% attendance average and most people are wallflowers until the networking session at the end. People want more of that too. We definitely want everyone (and us) to learn stuff; that's why we do this. :)
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us
Reaching out to Chris (Lynda.com)
Dear Chris, I am new to Drupal and excited about becoming involved with face to face group meetings. I'm working through the Drupal courses on Lynda.com and saving yours for last, not quite there yet but looking forward to it. I really enjoy Lynda.com. Even spoke to them briefly at beginning of year about employment. Maybe some day!
Don
CCK vs. Taxonomy
By the way, Acquia has a CCK vs. Taxonomy webinar that you might be interested in. The audio is pretty terrible but the presenter, Kenny Silanskas, is fantastic. His performances at the DrupalCon SF afterparties brought the house down.