Hartford.rb - no more formal monthly meetings?

[Dan Bernier]

2009 has been rough for us. We skipped the February meeting due to
weather. We lost our pizza sponsor and our meeting location. Since
skipping the meeting, we've had fewer than 6 people per meeting, no
speakers, and very little activity on the list.

On the plus side, Traveler's is a nice new location. Also, we've been
having a good time at the lunches, even though numbers are still low
there. It seems like we're more inclined as a group to hang out for
lunch, even if we have to pay for it.

It looks to me like the formal monthly meetings don't work for us
anymore, and the lunches work ok. Since it's a lot of work to organize
a formal meeting (location, speaker, pizza), I think we should stick
to lunches. Since they're easy to organize, we can meet as often as we
like. We can alternate more easily between Hartford and
Avon/Collinsville. If a topic comes up, and we want to have a formal
meeting for it, we can organize it at lunch, and choose a presenter.
It's just-in-time presenting.

What do you think? Regardless of what we say here, we'll still meet
6/1 for the "May" meeting, but I'd like to hear your thoughts about
this whole shebang going forward.

Thanks,
Dan

--
twitter @danbernier
http://invisibleblocks.wordpress.com
http://groups.google.com/group/hartford-ruby-brigade

[Mister Rohit]

I kindof liked the late Monday night meeting even without free pizza,
but thats just me.

I definitely like a skillshare type approach too.

[Dan Bernier]

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 3:12 PM, Mister Rohit <pig...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I kindof liked the late Monday night meeting even without free pizza,
> but thats just me.
>
> I definitely like a skillshare type approach too.

I like these too...it's one of the things I like best about
Hartford.rb. I think the best skill-sharing happened when we were in
pairs and triples though, working on ruby quiz problems. I know we've
talked about hack-nights, where some of us meet someplace w/ wifi, and
hack on a project. I'd love to try a hack-night where we either work
on either projects or ruby quizzes, or maybe different pairs work on
different things.

[Mark Nielsen]

Whatever you guys decide to do, please keep this list going for some of the more casual members interested in Ruby in the Hartford area. Keeping the user group together is more important than the meetings themselves. I wish I had more to contribute to the meetings or even to the group but I just don't have the depth in Ruby as some of you. But I do love the fact that we have this group in Hartford.

--Mark

[Aaron Junod]

I think Dan hit the nail on the head. Maybe we can address regular meetings again in the future, but his plan makes sense now considering the current constraints.

No worries though, this list is not going anywhere. In fact I'd love to see the list itself get more steam going, the more active the list gets the more apt the group is to stay together and meet. 

I don't think this weeks lunch got many attendees. What does the group think about a lunch either next week or the week after? Typcially we have been lunching in Avon, which is admittedly far off the highway.. Would more people attend if we were closer to a highway, like maybe in West Hartford? I know Avon is VERY easy for our office, Sports Technologies and Coolspotters, but how many more would we get moving it?

Thanks everyone so far for the group. It's unfortunate that our scheduled meetings have fallen by the wayside, but the getting to meet or talk to the people in the group is far more interesting anyway.

Thanks

Aaron

[Dan Bernier]

Mark > Whatever you guys decide to do, please keep this list going for some of the more casual members interested in Ruby in the Hartford area.

Absolutely -- I'm not suggesting the group disband or anything, just that we change the way we organize.

Mark > I wish I had more to contribute to the meetings or even to the group but I just don't have the depth in Ruby as some of you.

I wonder all the time how many of us feel this way.  It makes me wonder whether being ruby-specific is too narrow, whether a broader "hacking" group would be a better focus.  I know all of us has something interesting to contribute, whether it's ruby-related or not, and I want to bring that out somehow.

Aaron > No worries though, this list is not going anywhere. In fact I'd love to see the list itself get more steam going, the more active the list gets the more apt the group is to stay together and meet.

Exactly my thoughts.

Aaron > I don't think this weeks lunch got many attendees.

3 of us.

Aaron > Typcially we have been lunching in Avon, which is admittedly far off the highway.. Would more people attend if we were closer to a highway, like maybe in West Hartford?

I was thinking about this too.  It'd be nice for our next lunch to be around Hartford, to get to see the rest of the gang.

[cspeter8]

On May 20, 2:01 pm, Dan Bernier <danbern...@gmail.com> wrote:
...

> What do you think?  Regardless of what we say here, we'll still meet

> 6/1 for the "May" meeting, but ...

I'll get the meeting room reservation in on Tuesday for the Travelers,
and we'll see what the turnout will look like Monday.

Steve