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Quarterly Speaking Schedule

ramsey — 2006-06-11T18:58:48-00:00

I'm proposing a quarterly speaking schedule here to help us organize our meeting topics and speakers. This schedule will be taken over by the "Director of Education" role described here.

Proposed schedule:

1st Month: Invited guest speaker (from outside Atlanta)
2nd Month: Local business speaker
3rd Month: Local developer speaker
4th Month: Open forum?

This would rotate each quarter.

I'm not particuarly sure about the open forum, but I could see this as an opportunity for the new "Director of Education" to shine.

Re: Quarterly Speaking Schedule

cspruck — 2006-06-11T19:49:23-00:00

ramsey wrote on Sun, 11 June 2006 14:58

I'm not particuarly sure about the open forum, but I could see this as an opportunity for the new "Director of Education" to shine.

I think the ideas you outlined look great, but seeing as how quarters only have three months, perhaps we could have a short "open forum" period at each meeting. What else do you think an "open forum" should include? General Q&A, tips and tricks, announcements from members and so on? This might end up just being a catch-all kind of thing as needed, since the DoE might not have something new (or only need a minute or two) to report at every meeting.

Chris

Re: Quarterly Speaking Schedule

ramsey — 2006-06-11T20:12:07-00:00

cspruck wrote on Sun, 11 June 2006 15:49

seeing as how quarters only have three months

Oops. I can't count. Problem solved, then.

Yeah, a general discussion time at each meeting sounds good.

Re: Quarterly Speaking Schedule

necrotic — 2006-06-11T21:54:55-00:00

Sounds like a good plan to me. Having some outside speakers would be a nice change.

Re: Quarterly Speaking Schedule

EricStewart — 2006-06-16T06:23:55-00:00

On the third month of the quarter (local developer speech). It may be a good idea to alternate a beginning/intermediate topic with an advanced/expert topic. This may help to increase membership by catering to a both sides of the developer coin.

I do not know the skill level of the majority of developers who attend. Maybe this is a topic to bring up at the next meeting. If the majority feel they are advanced/experts then by all means we stick with those style topics. But if there are those who are new and struggling with some of the more fundamental topics (which are very important if you want to move ahead quick), then we might do well to cover those as well.

Just a thought.

- Eric

Re: Quarterly Speaking Schedule

ramsey — 2006-06-16T12:24:31-00:00

I don't even think we need to poll our group. I received a call the other day from someone who is a beginner, and they were wondering if they would be able to learn PHP by coming to our meeting. At present, they would probably be very lost, so we do need something that caters to beginners and intermediate-level programmers. I think that advanced topics are not very important for us right now.

Re: Quarterly Speaking Schedule

cspruck — 2006-06-16T18:09:58-00:00

I agree with Ben's comments above. Just based on my trying to get to know everyone a little or at least introduce myself to new meeting attendees, I can say that most of the people I've spoken with seem to be at the beginner/hobbyist level.

I've hoped that "tips and tricks" would have gotten more traction and interest, but maybe people don't feel confident enough to contribute anything. Even something as minor as "I just learned what function xyz is for and I used it like..." would be worthwhile - everyone might have a different insight on something, even if it's relatively common. I'll try to be more consistent with having something at every meeting, but I don't always want to be the only one doing it either, kind of like how Ben always gives the main program topic, hehe.

Also, please see the thread I just started on "What do you want to get out of being a member of AtlantaPHP?".

Any further thoughts or ideas?

Chris

Re: Quarterly Speaking Schedule

EricStewart — 2006-06-16T20:43:23-00:00

I'm certainly willing to do tips and tricks each month. I'm even willing to do full lessons.

I just don't know what people are interested in learning. I would hate to prepare things and then bore people to death because they are either above the topic or not interested in it.

If we get a list of topics that people really want to learn about, I'd be more than happy to help out. I just don't want to waste what little free time I have teaching stuff people aren't interested in.

So consider me an asset if you need me, I just need to know what people want to learn about.

- Eric

Re: Quarterly Speaking Schedule

kenneth — 2006-07-08T03:39:22-00:00

I agree with Eric that knowing what people are interested in learning at the monthly meetings would be a benefit. A possibility that might work would be to hand out an short request form at the beginning of a meeting which attendees could use to jot down whatever they would like to see or have explained or clarified. A quick review of the forms at the meeting might open the meeting for some quick responses that very night or a possible topic for the next or some future meeting. Or another option would be an online request form for people who would be attending the next meeting. Either way, the tricks, lessons and tips could be focused on actual requests.

As a side note, I think that some people may not feel confident enough to publicly request this information, especially if they think it is too "simple" or "dumb" a question.

Ken