Fwd: Rebooting Nashville PHP

Just thought I'd forward this to the list to let everyone know that I'm
now the organizer for the Nashville PHP user group. I'm "rebooting" the
user group. :-)

-Ben


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Rebooting Nashville PHP
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:51:45 -0500
From: Ben Ramsey <[email protected]>
Organization: Nashville PHP
To: Nashville PHP Meetup.com List <[email protected]>,
Nashville PHP User Group <[email protected]>

Greetings fellow PHP programmers!

Six years ago, I founded the Atlanta PHP user group (along with a few
others), and I've been organizing it since then. It's been a lot of hard
work to grow and develop the PHP community in the Atlanta area, but it's
also been rewarding to meet so many great people and to see them take
interest in and become invested in the continued success of their PHP
user group. I'm proud to have been a part of building that community to
the point where it can sustain itself without my involvement.

Now, I'm in Nashville. A few months ago, I moved here to pursue a job
with a local web start-up. I never had any intention of running the
local PHP user group, but Will Fitch, the former Nashville PHP
organizer, contacted me to see if I would be interested in taking over
the reins. He had moved out of the area and was no longer able to devote
the time necessary to keep the group growing. I humbly accepted the
torch, and that's why I'm now the Nashville PHP organizer.

There have been several incarnations of PHP user groups in the Nashville
area over the past ten years, all with varied success. It is my hope to
build on those successes and to grow a sustained community of members
who are personally invested in seeing a vibrant and active PHP community
in the Middle Tennessee area.

That's a lofty goal that will require a lot of hard work, so I'll need
your help. Nevertheless, I'm up for the challenge, and I hope you'll
join me in growing this community.

First of all, a few matters of business:

* Nashville PHP will hold regular monthly meetings on the second Tuesday
of every month at 7pm at the same location each month. I am currently
solidifying this location, and I'll let you know when details are finalized.

* June 8 at 7pm will be our first meeting. Location and topic TBA.

* Nashville PHP will continue to use Meetup.com as our central place for
membership and meeting announcements and RSVPs. You can RSVP for
meetings here: http://nashvillephp.org/

* I'm dropping the discussion forums on Meetup.com in favor of a Google
Group for discussions and job postings. Please join that group here:
http://groups.google.com/group/nashvillephp

* Follow @NashvillePHP on Twitter for community status updates. Also, if
you have a Twitter account and you want to be listed on the
nashvillephp-devs list, let me know. I'll add you.
http://twitter.com/NashvillePHP/nashvillephp-devs

* Join me on Freenode IRC in the #nashvillephp channel. Here's a basic
IRC tutorial to get you started:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IRC/Tutorial

* Employers and recruiters are welcome to post job opportunities to our
discussion list. Before posting, please read the rules here:
http://groups.google.com/group/nashvillephp/web/posting-job-opportunities

Welcome to the new Nashville PHP! I hope you'll join me in making this
community a success.

Best regards,
Ben