From jeffh at dundeemt.com Thu Jun 7 00:17:52 2007 From: jeffh at dundeemt.com (Jeff Hinrichs - DM&T) Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 17:17:52 -0500 Subject: [group-organizers] Hello from Omaha Message-ID: <5aaed53f0706061517p690f6a70r75c62366a64a7f02@mail.gmail.com> I am with the Omaha Python Users Group http://www.OmahaPython.org . Jeff Rush: I heard your working on a user group document. Let me know if I could lend a hand. -- Jeff Hinrichs www.OmahaPython.org From Chad_Cooper at SWN.COM Thu Jun 7 15:53:54 2007 From: Chad_Cooper at SWN.COM (Chad Cooper) Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 08:53:54 -0500 Subject: [group-organizers] Advice on starting a python UG Message-ID: Hello all.... I am located in northwest Arkansas, USA and am interested in starting a PUG (as far as I know, there isnt one at all in Arkansas). I'm sure you get this question alot, but what suggestions can any of you provide to help me get started and to get the word out seeking others? I primarily use Python for data harvesting and GIS, and I know there are others in this state doing the same. My first inclination is to send the proverbial message to the state GIS users group listserve. Any other ideas, links, etc? Thanks. chad ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------- Chad Cooper GIS Analyst Arkoma Conventional Group Southwestern Energy Company Fayetteville, Arkansas 479.582.8549(o) 479.530.8416(c) Notice: This e-mail may contain privileged and/or confidential information and is intended only for the addressee. If you are not the addressee or the person responsible for delivering it to the addressee, you may not copy or distribute this communication to anyone else. If you received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by telephone or return e-mail and promptly delete the original message from your system. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.python.org/mailman/private/group-organizers/attachments/20070607/f51dadd2/attachment.html From chris.arndt at web.de Thu Jun 7 19:25:10 2007 From: chris.arndt at web.de (Christopher Arndt) Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:25:10 +0200 Subject: [group-organizers] Advice on starting a python UG In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <46683F76.20507@web.de> Chad Cooper schrieb: > I am located in northwest Arkansas, USA and am interested in starting a > PUG (as far as I know, there isnt one at all in Arkansas). I'm sure you > get this question alot, but what suggestions can any of you provide to > help me get started and to get the word out seeking others? I primarily > use Python for data harvesting and GIS, and I know there are others in > this state doing the same. My first inclination is to send the > proverbial message to the state GIS users group listserve. Any other > ideas, links, etc? Thanks. Good starting points include: - Local Linux User Groups (LUGs), they all have a mailing lists too - Local web developer groups or meetings - Research Institutes (maybe there are mailing list spanning regional or national research networks) - Web forums I wouldn't bother to plan too much in advance. If you have 3-4 people willing to meet, agree on a date and place and off you go. The rest will develop if the "vibes" are good. Chris From cbc at unc.edu Fri Jun 8 03:24:39 2007 From: cbc at unc.edu (Chris Calloway) Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2007 21:24:39 -0400 Subject: [group-organizers] Advice on starting a python UG In-Reply-To: <46683F76.20507@web.de> References: <46683F76.20507@web.de> Message-ID: <4668AFD7.7090201@unc.edu> Christopher Arndt wrote: > I wouldn't bother to plan too much in advance. If you have 3-4 people > willing to meet, agree on a date and place and off you go. The rest will > develop if the "vibes" are good. Excellent advice. Thanks, Jeff Hinrichs, for making the first post to this list. And thanks for revitalizing Omaha Python. I've been talking a lot to people wanting to form Python user groups in the last year. My first advice is the "Shotgun Rules for BAD Meetings" where BAD means "Bay Area Debian:" http://www.svbug.com/shotgun_rules.txt It's the wisdom of these rules, and not the dogma. My group, TriZPUG, adheres to them in spirit but not wholly in letter. For instance, we do something not in the rules which I think is very important: fixed meeting place and time. Also, we don't meet in restaurants or bars. We meet in places where we can have presentations, and then go out to restaurants and bars afterwards. We have meeting *facilitators* whose job, and these are the *only* jobs we have as a user group, is to secure the meeting room (with accessible wireless and a laptop projector) and post meeting announcements to our mailing list and website (and sometimes other places if they feel like it) when it is their turn to host. Now, this is specifically to say, it is *not* the job of a meeting facilitator to give, or even find someone to give, a program. By the shotgun rules, if someone wants to give a program, well, there's a meeting every month. All they have to do is speak up on your mailing list and say "I *am going to* give a program on subject X during next month or month Y" and they are automatically "it." Asking permission is not part of Python culture. Also, just because one person is giving a program doesn't mean that's the only person who can be giving a program at any given meeting. Two programs, three programs, should be no problem. Don't worry about having too many programs. That's a good problem to have. In fact, the best meetings are when everybody who shows up stands up and gives a five minute lightning talk about something cool they learned in the last month. I mean, if you are using Python, then I know you've learned something in the last month. Spend five minutes and tell us about it. No matter how trivial it may seem to you, somebody else doesn't know about it. User group meetings are show and tell at their heart. Now, a lot of user groups or meeting facilitators I've seen for other groups might come up the day before the meeting and say, well, no one has volunteered to give a program yet, therefore I'm calling off the meeting. This is the absolute worst thing you can do. Don't be a gatekeeper. The best meetings TriZPUG have ever had have been meetings with no planned program. If you get even just three Python programmers with a pulse in the same room with a laptop, they will find something interesting to do. Never meet somewhere which isn't public. Don't meet at private companies or businesses. Especially don't meet in places where the door is locked and you have to be buzzed in, or which require ahead of time a list of people coming for security to badge and check in. You keep the best people away when this is your culture. If at all possible, find a meeting facilitator, someone interested in Python, who is staff or faculty (don't depend on students and I won't explain why if you don't already know) at a public university and who can provide a open meeting place in a university classroom or conference room. At most public universities, any faculty or staff have plenty of ability to schedule a meeting room with whomever they want for no other purpose than they just want to. And wherever you meet, it should be free from any fees for meeting there. As soon as the meeting is "over," head to the nearest tavern with everybody who doesn't want to go straight home. Because the absolute best part of the meeting is the *after-meeting*. That's where the real possibilities occur. Because of ideas and activity which started at after-meetings, TriZPUG has hosted four (soon to be seven by the end of this summer) week-long training camps and one eight-day international conference in the last two and a half years. Finally, and this is very important, resist all temptation to formalize some kind of group structure and resist all persons with this tendency. The point is to share information about Python. Everything else is a useless diversion. A Python user group should not be modeled on a junior high school student council, a Jaycees club, or a Moose Lodge. User groups who take the structure approach spend most of their time and energy arguing and debating over what to do, who *else* is going to do it, and who didn't do what somebody else thought they were supposed to. You need to protect yourself from this kind of tendency. Anything you need structure for, the PSF already provides for user groups who actually need it. If the PSF doesn't offer it, you probably don't need it and are veering off into gatekeeper mode. Remember this model: Mutual support network of autonomous individuals. Following that model will lift the most boats with the least amount of hassle. How do you get people to come? I think Christopher Arndt already made good points which are essentially, identify local subcultures of interest and respectfully leverage their communications channels. Your intuition to email GIS user groups is very good. This group at University of Arkansas - Fayetteville (that's northwest Arkansas, no?) does modeling software with Python and I bet they know other local people using Python: http://mixedsignal.eleg.uark.edu/paragon.html There's quite a bit of contact information for people in that behavioral modeling group on the site. I wouldn't hesitate to contact individuals. They could help with meeting places on campus, I bet. Before you use community communications channels, start an email list and a website. It would be good to use a content management system or blog for you website which allows people to join the site as a member and contribute content (like meeting postings and presentations). When you contact people, you will need ongoing communications channels. Be a facilitator. Also, get that meeting time and place nailed down as early as possible when contacting people, so you will have some plan of action you'd like to invite the people whom you are contacting to do (come to a user group meeting). Don't just meander with "Hey, would you like to start a user group?," or "Who would like to start a user group?" Pick up that shotgun and fire away. "Hey, there's a Python user group meeting in Room 222 of Monty Hall on the campus of UArk at 7pm on Tuesday June 24. There's parking behind the building after 5pm. I'm giving a talk on ctypes. You should give a talk, too. We'll go out for beer and pizza afterwards within walking distance. Join our mailing list at lists.nwarkpug.org for further updates and to tell us what you'll be talking about at the meeting. Invite your friends, too." Have a sprint as soon as possible. It doesn't even have to have a topic. It can just be a code jam for a few hours on a Saturday to work together on whatever anybody is stuck on. Awesome things come of that. One last parting shot: what about Meetup.com? Essentially, Meetup.com creates gatekeepers and many other evilnesses too numerous to describe. But Meetup.com has set up a shell Python meetup group for every crossroads in the U.S. and many abroad. It would be foolish to ignore Meetup.com as a resource, since they have these local Python meeting honeypots already set up and they are usually the first thing anybody googling finds when looking for a local Python user group. Just don't use them for an email list or website for your user group. Use them as a pointer to more egalitarian and less encumbered communications channels. Good luck! -- Sincerely, Chris Calloway http://www.seacoos.org office: 332 Chapman Hall phone: (919) 962-4323 mail: Campus Box #3300, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 From jeffh at dundeemt.com Fri Jun 8 05:10:54 2007 From: jeffh at dundeemt.com (Jeff Hinrichs - DM&T) Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 22:10:54 -0500 Subject: [group-organizers] Advice on starting a python UG In-Reply-To: <4668AFD7.7090201@unc.edu> References: <46683F76.20507@web.de> <4668AFD7.7090201@unc.edu> Message-ID: <5aaed53f0706072010nc1e2e22mf36fef37875f5a61@mail.gmail.com> On 6/7/07, Chris Calloway wrote: > Christopher Arndt wrote: > > I wouldn't bother to plan too much in advance. If you have 3-4 people > > willing to meet, agree on a date and place and off you go. The rest will > > develop if the "vibes" are good. > > Excellent advice. > > Thanks, Jeff Hinrichs, for making the first post to this list. And > thanks for revitalizing Omaha Python. > Good to hear from you again Chris. Hope all is well with you. > I've been talking a lot to people wanting to form Python user groups in > the last year. My first advice is the "Shotgun Rules for BAD Meetings" > where BAD means "Bay Area Debian:" > > http://www.svbug.com/shotgun_rules.txt Now that is some wisdom. > It's the wisdom of these rules, and not the dogma. My group, TriZPUG, > adheres to them in spirit but not wholly in letter. For instance, we do > something not in the rules which I think is very important: fixed > meeting place and time. Also, we don't meet in restaurants or bars. We > meet in places where we can have presentations, and then go out to > restaurants and bars afterwards. > ...snip... > In fact, the best meetings are when everybody who shows up stands up and > gives a five minute lightning talk about something cool they learned in > the last month. I mean, if you are using Python, then I know you've > learned something in the last month. Spend five minutes and tell us > about it. No matter how trivial it may seem to you, somebody else > doesn't know about it. User group meetings are show and tell at their heart. > > Now, a lot of user groups or meeting facilitators I've seen for other > groups might come up the day before the meeting and say, well, no one > has volunteered to give a program yet, therefore I'm calling off the > meeting. This is the absolute worst thing you can do. Don't be a > gatekeeper. The best meetings TriZPUG have ever had have been meetings > with no planned program. If you get even just three Python programmers > with a pulse in the same room with a laptop, they will find something > interesting to do. > I'll second and third those statements. Since the Omaha group is still in it's infancy and small, I always make sure that I have two topics ready to present. But even though turn out for the meetings has been small -- I've not made a formal presentation yet. Chris is spot-on about getting 2 or 3 python programmers in a room. Stuff just happens and you end up learning some cool new things. Don't be disappointed with a small turn out. Consistency is key, imho, to getting the group going. I was luck enough to be around for the formation of the local linux ug years ago -- so small turn outs early don't make me squirm. Patience is key. You can't be afraid to show up to a meeting with a new group and be the only one there. I know it's something I think about on the way to the meeting each month. ...snip.... - Show quoted text - > > Finally, and this is very important, resist all temptation to formalize > some kind of group structure and resist all persons with this tendency. > The point is to share information about Python. Everything else is a > useless diversion. A Python user group should not be modeled on a junior > high school student council, a Jaycees club, or a Moose Lodge. User > groups who take the structure approach spend most of their time and > energy arguing and debating over what to do, who *else* is going to do > it, and who didn't do what somebody else thought they were supposed to. > You need to protect yourself from this kind of tendency. Anything you > need structure for, the PSF already provides for user groups who > actually need it. If the PSF doesn't offer it, you probably don't need > it and are veering off into gatekeeper mode. > > Remember this model: > > Mutual support network of autonomous individuals. > > Following that model will lift the most boats with the least amount of > hassle. > > How do you get people to come? I think Christopher Arndt already made > good points which are essentially, identify local subcultures of > interest and respectfully leverage their communications channels. Your > intuition to email GIS user groups is very good. This group at > University of Arkansas - Fayetteville (that's northwest Arkansas, no?) > does modeling software with Python and I bet they know other local > people using Python: > > http://mixedsignal.eleg.uark.edu/paragon.html > > There's quite a bit of contact information for people in that behavioral > modeling group on the site. I wouldn't hesitate to contact individuals. > They could help with meeting places on campus, I bet. > > Before you use community communications channels, start an email list > and a website. It would be good to use a content management system or > blog for you website which allows people to join the site as a member > and contribute content (like meeting postings and presentations). When > you contact people, you will need ongoing communications channels. Be a > facilitator. You can do all of this through python.org. They will set up a list for you, and you can make a wiki page to keep group specific stuff like meeting notes, etc. One of my hosting accounts allows me to point www.OmahaPython.org to the omahapython wiki page on wiki.python.org -- didn't cost me an extra dime. > Also, get that meeting time and place nailed down as early as possible > when contacting people, so you will have some plan of action you'd like > to invite the people whom you are contacting to do (come to a user group > meeting). Don't just meander with "Hey, would you like to start a user > group?," or "Who would like to start a user group?" Pick up that shotgun > and fire away. "Hey, there's a Python user group meeting in Room 222 of > Monty Hall on the campus of UArk at 7pm on Tuesday June 24. There's > parking behind the building after 5pm. I'm giving a talk on ctypes. You > should give a talk, too. We'll go out for beer and pizza afterwards > within walking distance. Join our mailing list at lists.nwarkpug.org for > further updates and to tell us what you'll be talking about at the > meeting. Invite your friends, too." more excellent advice and exactly how I restarted the Omaha Python group. > Have a sprint as soon as possible. It doesn't even have to have a topic. > It can just be a code jam for a few hours on a Saturday to work together > on whatever anybody is stuck on. Awesome things come of that. > > One last parting shot: what about Meetup.com? Essentially, Meetup.com > creates gatekeepers and many other evilnesses too numerous to describe. > But Meetup.com has set up a shell Python meetup group for every > crossroads in the U.S. and many abroad. It would be foolish to ignore > Meetup.com as a resource, since they have these local Python meeting > honeypots already set up and they are usually the first thing anybody > googling finds when looking for a local Python user group. Just don't > use them for an email list or website for your user group. Use them as a > pointer to more egalitarian and less encumbered communications channels. The Omaha group hasn't done this -- partly because I loathe paying meetup.com out of pocket and partly because of the way meetup.com tries to intertwine itself in your user group. So I modified my profile to display the www.omahapython.org address in hopes of others seeing it and being curious. Good luck with the group and let me know if I could help out in any way. -Jeff Hinrichs www.OmahaPython.org p.s. One other draw in addition to food is giving away stuff. O'Reilly is second to none in supporting user groups in this manner. This month we've got a copy of Python in a Nutshell for a door prize. It is not a silver bullet, but I am trying to attain a critical mass of members in the first year. From cbc at unc.edu Fri Jun 8 20:16:17 2007 From: cbc at unc.edu (Chris Calloway) Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:16:17 -0400 Subject: [group-organizers] Advice on starting a python UG In-Reply-To: <5aaed53f0706072010nc1e2e22mf36fef37875f5a61@mail.gmail.com> References: <46683F76.20507@web.de> <4668AFD7.7090201@unc.edu> <5aaed53f0706072010nc1e2e22mf36fef37875f5a61@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <46699CF1.7060806@unc.edu> Jeff Hinrichs - DM&T wrote: > You can do all of this through python.org. They will set up a list > for you, and you can make a wiki page to keep group specific stuff > like meeting notes, etc. One of my hosting accounts allows me to > point www.OmahaPython.org to the omahapython wiki page on > wiki.python.org -- didn't cost me an extra dime. Jeff, who do you talk to to get an email list set up on python.org? > The Omaha group hasn't done this -- partly because I loathe paying > meetup.com out of pocket and partly because of the way meetup.com > tries to intertwine itself in your user group. So I modified my > profile to display the www.omahapython.org address in hopes of others > seeing it and being curious. Exactly. I don't advocate paying the meetup.com fee, either. Just put a note in your profile and update it often to keep it near the top of the list like this: http://python.meetup.com/cities/us/nc/carrboro/ > p.s. One other draw in addition to food is giving away stuff. > O'Reilly is second to none in supporting user groups in this manner. > This month we've got a copy of Python in a Nutshell for a door prize. > It is not a silver bullet, but I am trying to attain a critical mass > of members in the first year. Also, going to PyCon was a bonanza for collecting door prizes for PUGs. I came back with 52 Pythonic free t-shirts of varying sizes and managed to give them all away by the end of Camp 5. (Thanks, Google!!!) O'Reilly has been very good to TriZPUG. We've given away four books in the last year since we became an O'Reilly user group. We also joined the Apress user group program and got thirty percent off the textbooks for Camp 5. That amounted to several hundred dollars in savings. -- Sincerely, Chris Calloway http://www.seacoos.org office: 332 Chapman Hall phone: (919) 962-4323 mail: Campus Box #3300, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 From cbc at unc.edu Fri Jun 8 22:48:53 2007 From: cbc at unc.edu (Chris Calloway) Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:48:53 -0400 Subject: [group-organizers] PUG blog Message-ID: <4669C0B5.30303@unc.edu> Some kind soul (Jeff Rush? A.M. Kuchling?) set up this blog for PUGs: http://python-groups.blogspot.com/ The two Jeffs have already gotten it rolling with posts about their latest meetings. You need to create a blogger account to post to it. Maybe somebody who knows blogger better than I can comment. I can't figure out if I have to create a personal blog before it will let me join as a poster to python-groups, or if I have to be added by somebody. -- Sincerely, Chris Calloway http://www.seacoos.org office: 332 Chapman Hall phone: (919) 962-4323 mail: Campus Box #3300, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 From jeffh at dundeemt.com Fri Jun 8 23:51:18 2007 From: jeffh at dundeemt.com (Jeff Hinrichs - DM&T) Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 16:51:18 -0500 Subject: [group-organizers] Advice on starting a python UG In-Reply-To: <46699CF1.7060806@unc.edu> References: <46683F76.20507@web.de> <4668AFD7.7090201@unc.edu> <5aaed53f0706072010nc1e2e22mf36fef37875f5a61@mail.gmail.com> <46699CF1.7060806@unc.edu> Message-ID: <5aaed53f0706081451i6c693f18t37fbd1a69d130547@mail.gmail.com> On 6/8/07, Chris Calloway wrote: > Jeff Hinrichs - DM&T wrote: > > You can do all of this through python.org. They will set up a list > > for you, and you can make a wiki page to keep group specific stuff > > like meeting notes, etc. One of my hosting accounts allows me to > > point www.OmahaPython.org to the omahapython wiki page on > > wiki.python.org -- didn't cost me an extra dime. > > Jeff, who do you talk to to get an email list set up on python.org? Requests should go to postmaster at python.org. Brad Knowles, who answered it, was very helpful. (Thanks Brad) > > > The Omaha group hasn't done this -- partly because I loathe paying > > meetup.com out of pocket and partly because of the way meetup.com > > tries to intertwine itself in your user group. So I modified my > > profile to display the www.omahapython.org address in hopes of others > > seeing it and being curious. > > Exactly. I don't advocate paying the meetup.com fee, either. Just put a > note in your profile and update it often to keep it near the top of the > list like this: > > http://python.meetup.com/cities/us/nc/carrboro/ > > > p.s. One other draw in addition to food is giving away stuff. > > O'Reilly is second to none in supporting user groups in this manner. > > This month we've got a copy of Python in a Nutshell for a door prize. > > It is not a silver bullet, but I am trying to attain a critical mass > > of members in the first year. > > Also, going to PyCon was a bonanza for collecting door prizes for PUGs. > I came back with 52 Pythonic free t-shirts of varying sizes and managed > to give them all away by the end of Camp 5. (Thanks, Google!!!) > > O'Reilly has been very good to TriZPUG. We've given away four books in > the last year since we became an O'Reilly user group. We also joined the > Apress user group program and got thirty percent off the textbooks for > Camp 5. That amounted to several hundred dollars in savings. > > -- > Sincerely, > > Chris Calloway > http://www.seacoos.org > office: 332 Chapman Hall phone: (919) 962-4323 > mail: Campus Box #3300, UNC-CH, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 > > _______________________________________________ > Group-Organizers mailing list > Group-Organizers at python.org > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/group-organizers > -- Jeff Hinrichs www.OmahaPython.org From jeff at taupro.com Sat Jun 9 05:46:07 2007 From: jeff at taupro.com (Jeff Rush) Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 22:46:07 -0500 Subject: [group-organizers] PUG blog In-Reply-To: <4669C0B5.30303@unc.edu> References: <4669C0B5.30303@unc.edu> Message-ID: <466A227F.30505@taupro.com> Chris Calloway wrote: > Some kind soul (Jeff Rush? A.M. Kuchling?) set up this blog for PUGs: > > http://python-groups.blogspot.com/ > > The two Jeffs have already gotten it rolling with posts about their > latest meetings. > > You need to create a blogger account to post to it. Maybe somebody who > knows blogger better than I can comment. I can't figure out if I have to > create a personal blog before it will let me join as a poster to > python-groups, or if I have to be added by somebody. > You have to be added -- I'll do that for you tonight, as well as all the other emails I've received recently. -Jeff From jeff at taupro.com Sat Jun 9 10:06:43 2007 From: jeff at taupro.com (Jeff Rush) Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2007 03:06:43 -0500 Subject: [group-organizers] Advice on starting a python UG In-Reply-To: <4668AFD7.7090201@unc.edu> References: <46683F76.20507@web.de> <4668AFD7.7090201@unc.edu> Message-ID: <466A5F93.7000109@taupro.com> Chris Calloway wrote: > > For instance, we do > something not in the rules which I think is very important: fixed > meeting place and time. Also, we don't meet in restaurants or bars. We > meet in places where we can have presentations, and then go out to > restaurants and bars afterwards. Yes, presentations make a difference, if you can find a suitable meeting place. Meetings in restaurants and bars turn into purely social settings and, in my experience, eventually taper off. > Also, just because one person is giving a program doesn't mean that's > the only person who can be giving a program at any given meeting. Two > programs, three programs, should be no problem. Don't worry about having > too many programs. That's a good problem to have. Many programs also help with keeping everyone engaged - if you only have one big talk, say on the Zope framework, the non-web developers won't attend that time. But if they know that a diverse set of talks will be covered, they're more likely to always show up, to find out. > Now, a lot of user groups or meeting facilitators I've seen for other > groups might come up the day before the meeting and say, well, no one > has volunteered to give a program yet, therefore I'm calling off the > meeting. This is the absolute worst thing you can do. Agreed. Be patient in the beginning and expect sometimes to sit and wait for others to show up. I've certainly sat for an hour waiting, had a dinner by myself, and then gone home once or twice, but the consistency of being there is important. You also get people who couldn't be there at the start, but if they know you're still there, they'll drop by late. As the group grows, this won't stay a problem. > Never meet somewhere which isn't public. Don't meet at private companies > or businesses. Especially don't meet in places where the door is locked > and you have to be buzzed in, or which require ahead of time a list of > people coming for security to badge and check in. You keep the best > people away when this is your culture. Another item to consider - meet where there are other groups already meeting. Like at a student center or in our case a bookstore. We get people wandering in who came for another meeting but got in the wrong room (;-) or got bored and decided to check out our group. You can also share resources like a spare power cord or fan, with the other groups. We meet next to the Dallas .NET Group, and they're unaware of IronPython - we're working on them. One thing I need to work on myself is a big sign to hang on the door during meetings, with a big "everyone welcome" note. > As soon as the meeting is "over," head to the nearest tavern with > everybody who doesn't want to go straight home. Because the absolute > best part of the meeting is the *after-meeting*. That's where the real > possibilities occur. Be *sure* to make it clear to attendees that the after-meeting gathering is open to all. Be careful that it doesn't appear to be a select gathering of friends, and not open to new people, if indeed it is. Newcomers aren't always comfortable asking, "hey, mind if I tag along?". -Jeff From tk at dydimustk.com Sun Jun 10 21:13:22 2007 From: tk at dydimustk.com (thomas knoll) Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 14:13:22 -0500 Subject: [group-organizers] TCPUG Message-ID: <59a26bd90706101213p7659fdxc8a49c232adcf766@mail.gmail.com> Howdy, I am interested in revamping the TwinCities (MN) PUG. I have contacted the last known 'leader' of the group, and they gave the thumbs up and a high five (and other positive hand related encouraging gestures). I need a place for people to land before spreading the word. I am fully capable of setting up my own server and fun little tools to go with it, but if there are preferred locations that would be more central, I would rather stick with the momentum and build into those. Pointers? or tell me if I should set off on my own. gratia vobis et pax, TK + .:dydimustk.com:. | Freelance Apostle ________________________________________ Thomas Knoll 651.210.2321 tk at dydimustk.com skype:dydimustk From jeff at taupro.com Tue Jun 12 07:45:32 2007 From: jeff at taupro.com (Jeff Rush) Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:45:32 -0500 Subject: [group-organizers] TCPUG In-Reply-To: <59a26bd90706101213p7659fdxc8a49c232adcf766@mail.gmail.com> References: <59a26bd90706101213p7659fdxc8a49c232adcf766@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <466E32FC.1060406@taupro.com> thomas knoll wrote: > Howdy, > > I am interested in revamping the TwinCities (MN) PUG. I have contacted > the last known 'leader' of the group, and they gave the thumbs up and > a high five (and other positive hand related encouraging gestures). I > need a place for people to land before spreading the word. I am fully > capable of setting up my own server and fun little tools to go with > it, but if there are preferred locations that would be more central, I > would rather stick with the momentum and build into those. > > Pointers? > or tell me if I should set off on my own. Thomas, I see that the TwinCities group has a link off the roster of Python usergroups, from years ago: http://wiki.python.org/moin/LocalUserGroups http://www.zope.org/Members/tczpug/ that points to zope.org. If you can gain access to that, you can refresh it and build on that. Or if you prefer, many groups are creating simple wiki pages on wiki.python.org. Those are the low-overhead options. We don't yet have a centralized usergroup server, so there isn't a central place to host your site. So if you wish to set up your own server and use the tools you are most familiar with, go ahead. The main issue is to make sure we know where you are, so update the roster of usergroups and drop me an email so I can add you to the shared usergroup blog at: http://python-groups.blogspot.com/ and add to the sidebar a link to your site. We do encourage members to use the mailing list facilities of www.python.org, as it makes it easier to track. You can have a list created by emailing postmaster at python.org, and then as list admin you can tweak the settings, set the list title and so forth. I would then post a call for interested local parties to join you on that list for discussion on where and when to meet. You can post that call to the python-announce list, the python-users list, and the advocacy and group-organizers list, to find like-minded organizers. After your first meeting, I suggest you post a meeting summary to the shared usergroup blog, so people know it happened and how successful it was. Be persistent in running even small meetings, make lots of noise and report on activities and your group will blossom. Besides online announcements, try to find places to post flyers or other local usergroups of related topics, like linux groups, on which to make announcements. Good luck and keep us informed on how it goes, so we can help where possible. -Jeff From theology at gmail.com Sat Jun 16 01:54:29 2007 From: theology at gmail.com (Zeth Green) Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:54:29 +0100 Subject: [group-organizers] Hello from the heart of England Message-ID: Hello everyone, I just discovered this list so I had better join in. I might as well also introduce myself and my group if that is okay? My name is Zeth and I started a user group called 'Python West Midlands' before Easter and we have had several meetings and events since then. The West Midlands is the dead centre of Britain, and includes Britain's second largest city Birmingham (known as the 'heart of England' as it is the centre of the road, train and canal networks), as well as many other loosely connected cities such as Coventry, Wolverhampton and Walsall among others. It is the home of William Shakespeare, the steam engine and J.R.R. Tolkien. So far we have about 40 people on our mailing list and our best meeting had about 15 or so people (and our worst five), averaging about 10 normally. We meet twice a month: we have an informal meeting in a delightful pub (built in 1729) which provides us with reserved space and wifi access; and we have a more technical meeting in the premises of a local firm (The Linux Emporium). This 'technical meet' is always on a Saturday and has talks or tutorials in the morning and a practical group programming activity in the afternoon; the latter often takes the form of two competing teams. We are the first formalised Python user group in Great Britain, although there is also a London Python Meetup which is well established. We will host the first ever dedicated Python conference in Britain this September, and we will try to match people up geographically so hopefully there may be more British Python User Groups in the future. That's basically it, I have a question but I will save that for another email since this is quite long already, more information about us can be found at http://pywm.eu/ Thanks for reading and thanks for having us, hopefully we can all share tips to make our Python user groups useful and welcoming for our members. Best Wishes, Zeth From jeff at taupro.com Wed Jun 27 11:55:20 2007 From: jeff at taupro.com (Jeff Rush) Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 04:55:20 -0500 Subject: [group-organizers] Hello from the heart of England In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <46823408.5060705@taupro.com> Zeth Green wrote: > > I just discovered this list so I had better join in. I might as well > also introduce myself and my group if that is okay? My name is Zeth > and I started a user group called 'Python West Midlands' before Easter > and we have had several meetings and events since then. Welcome Zeth. Thanks for your introduction. > So far we have about 40 people on our mailing list and our best > meeting had about 15 or so people (and our worst five), averaging > about 10 normally. We meet twice a month: we have an informal meeting > in a delightful pub (built in 1729) which provides us with reserved > space and wifi access; and we have a more technical meeting in the > premises of a local firm (The Linux Emporium). This 'technical meet' > is always on a Saturday and has talks or tutorials in the morning and > a practical group programming activity in the afternoon; the latter > often takes the form of two competing teams. A very respectable group size in a short time. Sounds like good meeting facilities were a big help. I'd like to know more about the afternoon team competition activity, how it works. Perhaps you could tell us about it, or write a small article for _The Python Papers_ about your group. > We are the first formalised Python user group in Great Britain, > although there is also a London Python Meetup which is well > established. We will host the first ever dedicated Python conference > in Britain this September, and we will try to match people up > geographically so hopefully there may be more British Python User > Groups in the future. That's a good plan - hold a regional conference, sort and group attendees by address and encourage spinoff usergroups. > That's basically it, I have a question but I will save that for > another email since this is quite long already, more information about > us can be found at http://pywm.eu/ We're ready for your question ;-) Thanks for the link - I fixed the incorrect one on http://wiki.python.org/moin/LocalUserGroups (had a trailing '/pug/' giving a 404). > Thanks for reading and thanks for having us, hopefully we can all > share tips to make our Python user groups useful and welcoming for our > members. When you get time, I'd like to hear about the start of your group -- how you first got the word out and found facilities, and also something about the focus -- heavy on web developers or scientific computing perhaps? Mostly newbies or experienced Python programmers? Any local businesses represented in the membership or mostly hobbyists and those doing it outside of work? For reasons not clear, we hear very little about Python happenings outside the U.S. I can't tell if there are many regional/national language equivalents to www.python.org dispersing the conversation or if the various subcommunities just aren't talking much. We'd very much like to hear of special issues related to regional differences and how we (and the PSF) can have a more global, less U.S.-centric voice. This goes for any organizers here. -Jeff