Getting bmorejs rolling again

[jasonrhodes]

During our first nodeschool event, several people mentioned how they'd like to see a Baltimore JS group get started that was more than just a few nodeschool events per year. I'd be happy to help and attend, but I can't organize by myself. I'm pretty sure that @vinylfox and @jjulian are pretty busy right now, and while they did an amazing job of running the BmoreJS group for a number of years, but it'd be nice to have a few others step up to help.

Also: it'd be nice to have more than just white men involved in the organization of the new event, if possible…

Thoughts?

[VinylFox]

Thanks for kicking off this discussion. I do have more time now since I quit my job, so I can help get things rolling again, but I need a couple people to step up and help out.

[shawngrimes]

@jasonrhodes , our space is yours to use if it suits the groups' needs.

[jasonrhodes]

@shawngrimes you're awesome, thanks. If the AOL space is still available we could rotate, or just pick one or the other.

I know that Bob Evans (@bizob2828) at Message Systems said that a few of them there have talks prepared that they'd love to give, so if they jump on this thread, you all can connect with them about that.

[mkcp]

Never organized meetup groups before but I'm happy to where I can.

Are we mostly looking to fill nights up with talks and such content? What else needs doing?

[VinylFox]

We usually go for two 25min talks. Keeps peoples attention and easier for presenters to prepare for.

Other than wrangling presenters each month, organizing food, location and an event day coordinator is needed.

[karlgroves]

Super excited to pitch in as much as I can. As for venues, Groove Commerce is an amazing location as well. I spoke at a Refresh Baltimore event there.

Regardless of location, I'm all about helping.

[jasonrhodes]

@karlgroves where is Groove again, and who would the contact be there? I know Paris is a contact at AOL, and I'm sure @VinylFox knows who to talk to about that venue. Just so we have all of the options easily at hand for whoever starts putting details together. Thanks.

[bizob2828]

@jasonrhodes thanks for trying to revive this. I will talk to the message systems troops and see what we can come up with regarding talks. We've talked casually about it for a while and have a lot of good info to share regarding node.js/angular. I will loop in @richleland, @awinder to start.

[jjulian]

Shea and Paris at AOL made the food and location very easy. The hard part (for me at least) was convincing people to talk about something. It's easy! You don't even need to be an expert, just share your experience. Describe something you've recently learned while it's fresh in your mind. Teardown a recent project you built. Summarize a book you've read.

The organizers just need to collect talk title/description/bio from the speaker, fill out the meetup.com page, promote the event on Twitter, etc.

If we can get two solid talks, I'd be willing to help set up and promote the first meeting. We previously met on the last Wednesday of the month at AOL. But that can change.

It would be best if someone would step up to be assistant organizer along with Shea and I. We can help you get the first few meetings off the ground. @jasonrhodes want to be the third organizer?

[Ryan-J-Smith]

I'm happy to lend a hand with organizing events. My knowledge of possible speakers is limited at the moment. I'm attempting to teach myself the basics of D3 at the moment and I would be up for doing an instructional workshop or two on D3 applications. @jasonrhodes I believe Groove is on Central Ave in/near Harbor East.

[Ryan-J-Smith]

I'd have to look into it further, but I imagine I could secure potential meeting locations at the JHU Homewood campus.

[karlgroves]

@jasonrhodes Groove is on central ave down near the corner of eastern. They. Have. A. Freakin. Bar. And. Stage.

@jjulian I'm happy to be an organizer

[javierios]

I am willing to help out where I can, always happy to promote and get the word out. Would love to see this come back!

One thought I had couple weeks ago was getting all the meet-ups to work together. Have like a Baltimore Web Design Group, where we put on events each week. One on JS, CSS/HTML, PHP, Ruby, UX. Get all the organizers to work together and help each other run the meet-ups. Also to help cross promote each other. Each event could still be individually sponsored as they are now. I know some events are run by other shops.

This also helps keep meet-ups going vs dying out as one or two people run them, If they get busy other event organizers can step in when needed. I think putting a community effort in keeping Baltimore meet-ups alive is important.

[jasonrhodes]

I'm also happy to be a co-organizer if you need more help. Maybe I can work with a few others to take on the "rounding up speakers" responsibility if others can take care of all of the other logistics.

[bizob2828]

Yea I can chip in as well. I also spoke spoke with message systems people and we have probably like 5 talk ideas, we would need to formalize them but definitely could commit to one, depending on the date of the next meetup

[ianpatrickhines]

@javierios, I think that’s a great idea. It’d be better to have a regular, inter-disciplinary series that meets regularly than a bunch of highly-focused groups that meet infrequently. And we could all stand to learn from one another, anyway.

[javierios]

I agree @ianpatrickhines, I am already moving in this direction by combining Bmore Sass and Bmore UX. If other meetups want to join I am open, would love to see this come to fruition with everyone. Currently it is UX, Design, HTML and CSS (Sass).

It would be nice to have one big-ass Happy Hour with all the groups. I am tired of meet-up burnout; let's make it easy for everyone to follow and learn. Let's set an example that there is not one individual department, we all work together to make the web work.

[karlgroves]

Just playing devil's advocate here, if the direction we're going is to have a meetup that includes JS, HTML, CSS/ SASS, UX, and Design: Why not put our collective weight toward Refresh Baltimore?

Believe me, I get what @javierios is saying about meet-up burnout, but it also seems like having two groups in the area focused on the same thing won't accomplish much other than causing both groups to suffer.

[AimeeKnight]

I should be in the area by July 13th, and I would love to help in any way I can.

[karlgroves]

Hey guys, any update on where this is going?

[johnbintz]

I'd be willing to give a talk or three. I have a few ideas. Can't commit to much more given my schedule lately, sadly.

[bizob2828]

I'm not trying to hijack this thread but one of my colleagues decided to start a meetup for the folks between DC and Baltimore, first session is more of an intro/show n tell: http://www.meetup.com/Maryland-Javascript-Meetup/events/187914562/.

[jasonrhodes]

Thanks, @bizob2828 -- I saw that while I was away earlier this week. This is as good a place as any to talk about the relationship of that group and whatever we've been talking about here. The PHP community has been struggling with this "Columbia vs. Baltimore" situation for a few years now.

I think there is way more than enough community interest in both places to support having both groups, it's more about speaker availability and organizer time/energy/etc. For the Baltimore group it sounds like we have a lot of people who want to help (me included) but are having a bit of trouble finding one person to go all out and get it started.

The PHP group has started to alternate Baltimore and Columbia month by month to be accessible to both communities but share organizer/speaker resources. That's another option we could consider.

[jasonrhodes]

cc @cmstone can probably talk more about the PHP group's decisions, how it's been working to alternate, etc.

[karlgroves]

"want to help (me included) but are having a bit of trouble finding one person to go all out and get it started."

Its funny you say that. I woke up this morning and said "Fuck it, I'm going to organize one of these things".

Can I count on all of youz (in proper Baltimorese) to help get word out if I lead the way?

[VinylFox]

So let's try this out...

I have scheduled a meetup for the 23rd of July @ 7pm

http://www.meetup.com/baltimore-dc-javascript-users/events/188674662/

What we need:

• Location (@karlgroves asking Groove Commerce)
• Food (+beer preferred, @aol sponsoring food)
• Speaker

I'm picturing more of a social event with just a single presentation of 20min or so.

[karlgroves]

@VinylFox I'll reach out to Groove commerce right now.

[cmstone]

Re: Baltimore PHP. Alternating between Columbia and Baltimore has been working pretty well. We manage to keep our core members and I've met a ton of new people that have come out to the meetups. It's helped make the group more accessible. So far, I've been happy with the results and don't plan on stopping it anytime soon. Organizing can take a ton of time. It's usually feast or famine with speakers. Locations are pretty easy to lock down in the area and there are plenty of companies willing to sponsor food for a short plug.

I'm pretty sure JS can still be hosted at AOL.

[VinylFox]

I started BMoreJS that way, but got sick of going to Columbia. I'm fine if someone else wants to organize a back and forth thing, but I wont be driving to Columbia.

AOL is still an option, but I want to move it around the city a bit, try new venues.

[jjulian]

@karlgroves Fantastic! You and @VinylFox and I should get together – we want the rebooted BmoreJS to even better than the first one.

[jjulian]

IMO, the city is the hub for tech and meetups and such. There are just too many of us not willing (or able) to drive out to Columbia/etc.

[karlgroves]

@VinylFox @jjulian Happy to get together.

Also, FYI: I sent an email to Tom at Groove and will update this thread with the response.

[jasonrhodes]

Let me know when you all get together, if I can make it I'd love to hear what you're planning/thinking and see how I can best help.

On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 11:11 AM, Karl Groves notifications@github.com wrote:

@VinylFox https://github.com/VinylFox @jjulian https://github.com/jjulian Happy to get together.

Also, FYI: I sent an email to Tom at Groove and will update this thread with the response.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/baltimorenodeschool/baltimorenodeschool.github.io/issues/4#issuecomment-45904283 .

[VinylFox]

How about we get together tomorrow at 11am at Starbucks on Charles @ Preston?

Who is in?

[karlgroves]

I'll be in Wilmington DE first half of the day. Maybe later in the day, around 2-3?

On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Shea Frederick notifications@github.com wrote:

How about we get together tomorrow at 11am at Starbucks on Charles @ Preston?

Who is in?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/baltimorenodeschool/baltimorenodeschool.github.io/issues/4#issuecomment-45908705 .

Karl Groves www.karlgroves.com @karlgroves http://www.linkedin.com/in/karlgroves Phone: +1 410.541.6829

www.tenon.io

What is this thing and what does it do? http://vimeo.com/84970341

http://lanyrd.com/profile/karlgroves/

[VinylFox]

That works for me.

Who else is in for 3pm?

[johnbintz]

I'm in meetings until after 3, but I could come over if folks are still there around 4. Maybe.

[karlgroves]

Response from Groove is positive. Tom's remarks:

Hey Karl,

Hope all is well! Definitely remember your talk at Refresh Baltimore.

Can you get me a few more details, namely: How many people do you expect will attend? Would the event run from 7pm - ?
Who all would be speaking? (i.e. we typically do not like to have competitor agencies in here like a Planit or an R2i) Are you looking for us to simply host our space or also sponsor food and/or beverages? If you can get me those details, I'll check that date with leadership to see if we have any conflicts.

I responded (TL;DR format here):

• I dunno, max about 80 (based on 10% of meetup members)
• 7-8
• Speaker TBA, will pass on the feedback re: competitors
• Up to you, would be great, but we can also knock on other doors for sponsors.

Will update w/ response.

[jjulian]

@karlgroves we can discuss more in person, but for an event host we will need ongoing event space (once a month), probably 2 hours to include social time, and the speakers could be anybody. That's a no-go restriction to me. But we can definitely limit the number of attendees, we've done that in the past.

[karlgroves]

@jjulian thanks for the feedback. I agree 100% on all counts.

As for attendees, I think he was just asking in terms of food, etc. The physical space looks like it can handle 100+.

When he responds, I'll refine my answers.

[VinylFox]

AOL is looking into sponsoring food for ~50 people, ill let you know if that is going to happen.

Also I notice that I happened to pick the same night as MD JS, so maybe we should move it? Don't want to be a dick and pull people away from their event.

[jasonrhodes]

Yeah, might not be a ton of audience overlap but to get things off on the right foot, I'd say move it if possible.

On Thu, Jun 12, 2014 at 1:51 PM, Shea Frederick notifications@github.com wrote:

AOL is looking into sponsoring food for ~50 people, ill let you know if that is going to happen.

Also I notice that I happened to pick the same night as MD JS, so maybe we should move it? Don't want to be a dick and pull people away from their event.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/baltimorenodeschool/baltimorenodeschool.github.io/issues/4#issuecomment-45925087 .

[bizob2828]

re: sharing baltimore/columbia, not sure this is a good idea. I mean I work in Columbia and I will probably attend all of those and a majority in Baltimore. Depending on people's work/living situation they may do the same but def agree with @jjulian about keeping on in Baltimore. Message Systems could probably sponsor some stuff, I can meet up with you guys tomorrow as I'm on paternity leave at the moment.

[VinylFox]

Moved it to the 15th

[cmstone]

@bizob2828 I agree with Jonathan as well. You're still in the minority that is willing to travel for a majority of events in to the city. Not many people will do that if it's out of their way.

From what I've witnessed, people are FAR less likely to travel from the city to somewhere outside of the city and to travel from outside of the city in to the city. Those that are willing to come outside of the city into the will pay attention to where in the city the event is.

[karlgroves]

@VinylFox "Moved it to the 15th"

Meetup site still says July 23rd.

Also, is this July 15th or Aug 15th

[bizob2828]

@cmstone I think we are all saying the same thing, because I agree with you. Anyways, good to see a date picked

[awinder]

Hey all, good to see that you're going to revive the Baltimore group! There's a lot of people who commute into DC from the Silver Spring / Bethesda area, plus a bunch of employers in the area, so Columbia seemed like a good middleground for the split Maryland crowd (plus I live and work in Columbia, so it was perfect for me). Definitely up for doing some cross-events and would love to attend the Baltimore meetup, as well as trying not to quash eachothers events. We've got some dedicated space & sponsorship at Message Systems, so we'll likely hold all our events here. Let me know if you see opportunities for coordination or if you want to try to share some topic themes from time to time!

[VinylFox]

I will be at the Starbucks on Charles @ Preston at 4pm today.

Show up if your interested in BMoreJS.

[karlgroves]

Hey guys, got held up in all the crazy rain on my way back from Wilmington and unable to make it. LMK whatever I need to do to help.