How to start a Joomla! User's Group in a City Near You!

[AmyStephen]

What steps are required to start an official Joomla! User's Group?

What, if any, are the qualifications that must be met by group organizers?

What rules are group members expected to follow?

How will enforcement of such rules be made?

What type of status reporting should the group provide the Joomla! organization?

What privileges are provided to the group as a result?

Will groups be allowed to market Joomla! material containing the Joomla! logo for fundraising purposes?

I realize these, and more questions, will take time for everyone to consider. So, please offer your suggestions for the community to think about as we try to figure out ways to ENCOURAGE people to start Joomla! User's Groups and we also try to make it FUN and EASY to do so in order to SPREAD JOOMLA! AROUND THIS WORLD!

Thanks!
Amy


Edit horrible grammatical issues! Eeek! lol!

[brian]

You may find this a useful resource
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO.html

[AmyStephen]

I'm going to read your resource more closely, Brian. I did a brief read and I agree there is very good organizational structure we can lift out of this. I can see why you believe this to be a good help for us. Thanks for sharing and I hope you stay involved in this discussion - we need your leadership here. I am guessing you have given this some thought over the years, so, lead on!  (please!)

[brian]

Another useful read is http://www.microsoft.com/communities/gu ... roups.mspx

(much as I hate to say it Micro$oft can write something good - although it does get a bit extrem towards the end)

[alledia]

Hey Amy, Brian

This is an excellent idea.

I think moving towards the more formal establishment of local Joomla groups would help a lot. It would give each group publicity and attract more members.

I have a thread running trying to get a group going in Atlanta, but tucked away in a sub-forum, its not going anywhere fast.

[AmyStephen]

hehehe...well, they have contributed a great deal, too. It's just the "world dominance" thing I object to.

I'll read it, as well.

I am referring others who have expressed an interest in this JUG to this thread. I am also asking for a child thread.

If you know someone who has been key in the Berlin JUG, it would obviously be great to have their participation, as well.

Thanks Brian,
Amy

PS - I see Steve has joined us! 

[alledia]

PS - I see Steve has joined us!  Cool

Definitely - you can count on my support with this.

I think that along with the rules, at the same time it might be worth developing a comprhensive list of where groups would/could be established

[brian]

What I would suggest is that someone digests the two documents and tries to convert them into one integrated document that can serve as a guide to creating a JUG.

Sorry not got time to do it myself as I have an issue of Joomla Weekly News to prepare.

[ghosty]

Hi ...

also a good expample, at least in german but have a look at http://www.jug-berlin.de
German User Group ...

Cheers

Pete

[AmyStephen]

Brian -

I'll try to help with that first attempt at a consolidation. I need to get my M&M task done first  and I have a few other things going on.

For this first week, or so, if we can gather interested parties and give everyone a chance to read the resources you have provided - possibly providing their own for the group, as well - that would help as much as anything. The challenge will be engaging the broader community in discussion that helps establish and promote JUGs easily.

Hi Pete - thanks for the Berlin link - I hope you also join us in this discussion.

Thanks, Amy

[ghosty]

Hi Amy,

well if I can Help ... sure I will

what I can tell you about the JUG-Berlin is, and I'm not quit sure now if there are more within germany?, is that they meet themself once a month and preparing workshops and discussions, well maybe kaNiko picks up this thread and joins in helping you with her knowledge, If not I point here to this thread...

I'm sorry I cant tell more about because I'm a Swiss guy and Berlin is just to far away to join them on there monthly meetings ..

Cheers

Pete

[AmyStephen]

Good, Pete.

Please do invite kaNiko to join us. Her experience and knowledge with Berlin's group will be very helpful. I'd also love to attend the Berlin monthly meetings, as well, but it is MUCH further away from Nebraska (which is in the middle of the US) than even from Switzerland!

Who knows, perhaps you will help start a JUG nearby you? I am glad you will follow this dialog and join in, as well. That is much appreciated! Please invite others, too!

Amy

[alledia]

http://dev.joomla.org/component/option, ... ,33/p,262/

Anyone read through the comments here?

Seems like a lot of people are looking for something like this

[AmyStephen]

Yes, and Lawrence has already accomplished a great deal towards getting the Melbourne Joomla! Users Group started. Check out his fantastic website here http://www.joomlamug.org/. Plus there are others he is working with. I am hopeful that Melbourne will be the model for other JUGs as we get started.

Keep finding those connections!

[ghosty]

Good, Pete.

Who knows, perhaps you will help start a JUG nearby you? I am glad you will follow this dialog and join in, as well. That is much appreciated! Please invite others, too!

Amy

Hi Amy,

well looking at the Country size and Human population in Switzerland, then filltering the German Speaking part,the French, the Italien and Romantch (well most Romantch speak german to) so then I guess we would have a Population of a bit less then London... (might be wrong here but... )

thinking about your idea just brings me up we even more Ideas, anyway... 

The size of Switzerland then gets even smaller and to travel the most far german Speeking end of it from here with Public transport wouldnt take longer then about 4h. So It would then get to a JUG-German Switzerland / and I guess also -Itialien Switzerland and offcorse French.
Well I know that the most Joomla Users from the French part are Organised within the Joomla.fr Community and they currently planing a Joomla!Day this year.

So .. my mind starts getting confusing Idea's as long as I think about ...

I let you know what kind of thoughts I might come up with ...

Cheers

Pete

[AmyStephen]

Europe is so much richer and more complex than the US. You listed four major languages in one country. Wow! BTW - Isn't Beat from Community Builder also from Switzerland? I wonder if the two of you live close by?

Just thinking out loud, but, when I think of Users Groups that are active over many years, the people who attend the meetings tend to live or work within a couple of hours distance of the community where the meetings are held.

The User's Groups can be all different sizes. We don't all have to be as big as Berlin's JUG to be successful.

I live close to Omaha, Nebraska, and I can think of six of us within a two-hour drive (plus, both of my teenage kids are Joomla! users). And, I'm guessing when we started organizing our JUG and began asking around, we will find there are at least double or even triple the number of people who have already been using Joomla!. That small group can meet once a month and focus on how to share Joomla! within our community more broadly and find existing users.

Steve from Alledia started a thread on Atlanta, Georgia and got one response. Now, I am *quite* certain Atlanta, Georgia has many, many Joomla! developers and website administrators in that community. We just have to connect with them.

In fact, if you watched as Brad and Wizzie and Russ announced the Melbourne Joomla!Day, it started out pretty slow. It was funny, though, how activity picked up as the date neared. Even after the "deadline date" people were posting that they hoped they could still  attend. And, the turnout was fabulous!

It will be interesting to see how JUGs begin in Switzerland with all of the languages and regions and the distance. I think we should be encouraged to try a local JUG in our own cities even if we do not expect a huge turn-out. It will grow and it does not have to be huge to get started.

Yes, please keep thinking! Also, read through Brian's links. Thanks for joining in and please invite others, as well.
Amy

[absalom]

If we follow the LUG model (which is what I'm trying to do), in order to make the barriers to UG membership as low as possible (i.e no fees  whatsoever), other forms of business operation are needed.

LUGs do encourage merchandising for Linux and suggest it overtly as a means for financial liquidity of a UG. Further investigation regarding the MS document through Culminis has shown various UG's in Melbourne supporting MS stuff either have registration fees (of varying rates, from benign to obscene) or some form of overt commercial sponsorship.

Re: Melbourne..

Around 20 people already on the JMUG list. 5 confirmed reservations for the second JMUG event next week (this time, it's more social and collaborating with another tech/designer group. The local Drupal community have used the same place for meets previously as well)

[AmyStephen]

Re: Melbourne..

Around 20 people already on the JMUG list. 5 confirmed reservations for the second JMUG event next week (this time, it's more social and collaborating with another tech/designer group. The local Drupal community have used the same place for meets previously as well)

Sweet!

Folks - this is Lawrence of http://www.joomlamug.org/ fame. He's a bit further down the road with a Users Group in his area and is obviously off to a great start with 20 on the list, thus far, and a scheduled meeting! To my knowledge Melbourne will be our second User's Group so it's very exciting and important what they are doing.

Lawrence - the game plan, thus far, is to gather people to this thread, read the links supplied, then consolidate into one draft for further discussion. If you have resources you found as you have planned/are planning Melbourne, please share!

It would be neat to have you share how your first meeting turned out. I'm guessing someone will post an article and pictures post-event on your site. Frankly, one thing I would love to see is a centralized location for JUGs to post news. But, I am ahead of ourselves!

Thanks for working with us, Lawrence.

Amy

[alledia]

Frankly, one thing I would love to see is a centralized location for JUGs to post news.

Absolutely a good idea.

Something similar to: http://groups.drupal.org/

[AmyStephen]

Love it! Good job.

I just bought JoomlaUserGroup.org and JoomlaUsersGroup.org which I hereby donate to the cause. If we end up going with groups.joomla.org, we can just point these other domain names in that direction. Your note caused me to look to see if they were available - and they were! - so, now these names can be part of this effort.

In part of the reading, there is discussion of getting legal not for profit standing. That is going to be a big challenge for many - and overkill for small groups. Does it make sense to either have a "central" not for profit group and local accounts? And, should that be separate from or part of joomla.org? I am only asking for people to think on this as they read. This will be a big discussion point, so, start considering this yourself in preparation for discussion.

Thanks, Steve. That's a GREAT example!
Amy

[alledia]

One thing to consider for a site would be groupjive.org

Along with Community Builder, that could be used to manage the groups in the same way that MosTree is used to run the extensions page.

[montano]

I think this would be fantastic and I'm ready to head up Charlotte, NC.  I wonder if we could get the folks here to give us subdomains?  jug.joomla.org     HAHA Amy, I just checked for Joomlausersgroup.org too.  Smarty pants.  I'd go ahead and get the .com .net etc...

Looking forward to it.

[AmyStephen]

Great women think alike! lol! 

Thank you so much for joining us. I am very impressed with you and I know you will be a major contributor not only to heading up Charlotte, NC, but also helping us get organized for JUGs all across the planet. If you have time, please read through the links provided by Brian and get ready to discuss next week! (also add ideas as they occur to you!)

Welcome to the group! Thanks so much!
Amy

[alledia]

Hi All

As Amy and Montano are donating domains, we'd be happy to donate free hosting for the site, if it is needed.

[AmyStephen]

I love this community! 

Steve, I'll get the domain names forwarded to you. If we form a legal entity of some sort, I'll turn over the domain names to that group. Otherwise, we'll figure out a way to get these names into the Joomla! Communities hands.

Thanks to Alledia for stepping forward for the Joomla! community! That rocks! 

This is some of that Do-ocracy that Brian was talking about in Issue 5 of the Joomla! Weekly News! http://forge.joomla.org/sf/go/projects.joomlademocd/frs.joomla_weekly_news

Amy

[montano]

Hey, ya'll can call me Cindy.  Not really  my name but you can call me that.  I'm a dork...just kidding, it is my name.  Anywho, I just registered joomlausersgroup.com and I'll point it wherever you need it to go.    I just registered it for a year, so we can see where this goes. 

I'm going to start a marketing campaign similar to the National Dairy Association, but our slogan will be (wait for it, wait for it)

"Got JUGS?" 

Anyone have any ideas on the logo?  I can only imagine.   

[AmyStephen]

Excellent. We have found our marketing woman! 

Steve can PM you with his DNS stuff.

Thanks so much, Cindy...that is, if that's, indeed, who you REALLY are! 

Amy Stephen aka AmyStephen, no space.

[brian]

Can we take a step back please.

Lets try not to get too carried away and try to get some structure etc before we go spending money etc

In the spirit of DoOcracy

I will draft a "Guide to Creating and Operating a Joomla User Group" over the weekend

Can someone else look at the best way to offer webspace to promote individual groups. (perhaps groupjive)

[AmyStephen]

Brian -

I said I'd draft the guide - and I will!

As far as money goes, people can spend their own money as they see fit. It's not a big deal. I spent $40 for two domains for two years. I didn't want the names available outside of this group. If I "eat" them, I'll have LOTS of other domains to eat them with!  No worries.

Alledia recommended GroupJive as did someone else offline. I'll try to look at it, too.

We're good! We are all 'doOcracy-ing'.  Nothing has been done that is a commitment to anything.

Amy

[ibnhafsun]

Two drafts to work with would be better.