Western Montana

If you're a beginning Montana Drupalista, this is the meetup you've been waiting for! On Thursday March 18 we're kicking off our monthly 'Getting Started Series' with an introductory presentation on Drupal core.

Starting from Drupal out-of-the-box – with no added modules – we'll methodically walk through Drupal's basic building blocks. You'll get a solid grounding in core Drupal concepts like nodes, users, permissions, taxonomy and learn the basic workflow of posting content in Drupal.

If you have any specific beginner questions you'd like to have addressed, please add them to the comments for this event and we'll try to work them in. And ss usual we'll have ample time after the presentation for informal Q&A, networking, etc.

If you think you'll be there, please use the 'sign up' button below to indicate your RSVP.

If you know anyone who'd like to get started with Drupal, please send them the link to this page!

Recommended reading

To best prepare for the Getting Started series, we recommend the book Using Drupal published by O'Reilly. If you are at all serious about learning Drupal, please just go ahead and purchase this excellent book. Monte, Art, and AJ are just three of our group members who are happy they did! Well-written and aimed at the Drupal beginner, it takes you though the sometimes-daunting Drupal jargon and concepts with ease, and gets you comfortable with managing content and building sites step-by-step. If you review the first two chapters before this meetup, you'll have a leg up on everyone else! (Although highly recommended, the reading is not required to attend the session – everyone is welcome!)

About the Getting Started Series

Each month an experienced Drupaler will present a lesson suitable for Drupal beginners. We'll structure the series so each month builds on the next – if you attend each monthly Getting Started series, your Drupal skills will grow naturally and within a few months you'll be competently managing your site and your content, and on your way to adding new site sections and features.

Meetup Details

Thursday, March 18th
4:00 to 6:30 pm
Ruby' Inn and Convention Center (Room 300)
4825 North Reserve
Missoula, MT 59808 map
Phone: (406) 721-0990

Hot on the heels of our awesome first meetup last Thursday, the next Montana Drupal meetup is Tuesday, March 2nd at 6:30 pm in the Small Meeting Room at the Missoula Public Library. The Small Meeting Room is on the lower level of the library, accessed via the parking lot.

We are doing these twice each month, and we're considering doing one week a month as a Drupal beginner presenation, and the other week intermediate/advanced presentations. We especially want to make sure the schedule works for most of the beginners in our group, so please give your feedback on that here.

Since some of our members indicated that weekdays worked best for them, we'll be trying out a monthly meetup on the third Thursday at 4:00pm.

We'll kick it off Thursday, February 18th starting at 4:00 pm in the Board Room at the Missoula Public Library. These meetups are a great chance to talk with other Drupal developers, learn more about the websites being built with Drupal, and get a better understanding of the open source framework and the community.

If you think you'll be there, please use the 'sign up' button below to indicate your RSVP.

We'll start with introductions, followed by a round of presentations from whoever shows up. This is a chance for anyone to take the floor and talk about something they're working on - a module, a website, or anything Drupal related. If you want to present, please speak up! Post about it in the comments and we'll add you to the meetup announcement, and of course come ready to talk.

Since this is one of our first 'official' meetings, I will be prepared to give a presentation on some of the new features in Drupal 7.

The Board Room at the library is equipped with an LCD projector, so if you want, bring (or commandeer) a laptop to show your site, code, or whatever you want. We are welcome to bring snacks and drinks as long as we leave the room clean when we leave.

Hope to see you there!

Meetup Details
4:00 to 6:00 pm
Missoula Public Library
301 East Main St.
Missoula MT 59802-4799
(406) 721-2665
map

Bus: Apparently the Library is served by buses 2, 5, and 8

Tomorrow local Drupalistas will get together in Missoula before the Montana Programmers meetup, in the same part of town.

This will be an informal get-together to get to know each other and discuss what kind of local Drupal group we'd like to build. Bring your knowledge, your questions, your friendliness, and some sites to show off if you want.

It's not clear whether we'll have a private space or access to wi-fi, so be flexible!