Re: Mouseketeer Roll Call

On 9/10/08 11:50 AM, Tim Stiles wrote:
> I'm interested in learning a little more about the various groups that
> are represented on this list, so if you'd like, please elaborate a
> little about your orgs!

Thanks, Tim!


Atlanta PHP - Atlanta, GA US

My name is Ben Ramsey, Co-Organizer of Atlanta PHP with Chris Spruck and Kevin 
Roberts.

Atlanta PHP has been meeting on a monthly basis consistently since March 2005, 
though we launched the group a year before in March 2004. Historically, there 
was a PHP Atlanta user group dating back to 1997, but we have no affiliation 
with that early incarnation. (See mention of Atlanta here: 
http://chiphpug.php.net/mpug.htm)

We have one official presentation each month (the first Thursday of the month), 
and we've tried a few other things like a 15-minute mini-presentation on a 
recurring topic (a different IDE each month, etc.). We also tried doing a 
separate meet-up just for coffee each month, but that fizzled out.

We have no dues or meeting fees. We also do not provide any refreshment at our 
meetings, though we do go out for dinner/drinks after each meeting. Kevin 
Roberts (co-organizer mentioned above) works for the Consulate General of Canada 
in Atlanta, and they graciously allow us to use their space to hold our 
meetings. We are not a certified non-profit, though we have considered 
incorporating in the past and may do so in the future, but only if we ever have 
the need to collect donations from sponsors, etc.

In addition to our official website at AtlantaPHP.org, we also use Meetup.com, 
Facebook, Twitter, and IRC:

http://php.meetup.com/336/
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4207251077
http://twitter.com/atlantaphp
irc://irc.freenode.com/atlphp

We had originally used Meetup, and when they started charging for use, we 
dropped it, but a year later we found that many, many people were looking for a 
PHP user group in Atlanta through Meetup, and some were even starting their own 
Meetups in the area, so we decided to pay for the service and set up a presence 
there to make it easier for people to find us.

Normal attendance is around 20, jumping up to nearly 40 on good topics. Our main 
announcement list reaches 168, but this number is skewed since we have various 
communication streams (too many) with little cross-over between them: Mailman 
list, FUDForum, Meetup.com, Facebook, Twitter, and website. So, we probably 
reach a little more; I would estimate at about 300.

We don't have a general focus, but most of our recent topics have been on 
Enterprise and advanced development, and we've received some requests to see 
more topics on more of the beginner-to-intermediate level.

Community support: we have a job board that we limit to postings for jobs only 
in the Southeast US. We would like to do much more with local employers, etc., 
but finding those who want to be involved has been difficult.

Goals: I would like to see us put on PHP workshops at least twice a year. Like 
Tim mentioned, some kind of mentoring program would be nice. I also want to get 
local companies more involved and host some kind of PHP (or general open source) 
job expo (possibly coordinated with the other local open source user groups). I 
have lots of other ideas, but I'll cut this short for now.

-- 
Ben Ramsey
http://benramsey.com/