UNH.rb may soon become NewHaven.rb

ruby-talk
1

As far as I know, the University of New Haven ruby group (UNH.rb) is
the only Ruby Group in the Greater New Haven (connecticut) area. We
are a new group (established in mid september) but we would like to
expand our horizons by opening up our meetings to the greater New Haven
area, appealing to those at Yale, Quinnipiac, Southern, and the other
area Universities as well as people in the area industries along with
any hobbyists.

UNH.rb was newb centric, whereas NewHaven.rb will be newb friendly but
not centered around ruby fundamentals as much.

We're thinking of doing monthly meetings with about 60% planned talks /
presentations and 40% discussion and tom-foolery and then weekly hack
sessions that'll be totally informal and optional.

I'd like to know a couple things.

0) Are we trampling anyones territory? If there is already an
established Ruby group in the area, we'd rather work with joining up
with you than compete. We're already collaborating with NYC.rb and
I've attempted to contact Boston.rb about attending some of their
meetings and getting some ideas, but if there is a more local group,
we'd like to know about you too. If you've only got a few members and
are open to expansion, maybe we could combine efforts.

1) Anyone out there interested? Meetings will most likely be in
offices in New Haven and in the universities of the Greater New Haven
area. The 'official' meetings will most likely be once a month and the
hack sessions will be informal and probably weekly when time permits
and schedules do not conflict.

2) Any suggestions from established users groups about how to go about
setting up an appealing group, recruiting members, etc? We're already
trying to steal as much ideas from NYC.rb as possible, as myself and
another UNH Rubyist attended their meeting last night and were wholly
impressed, but the more sound advice, the better off we'll be.

3) Anyone want to help organize the group? Right now I am the only
member with more than one year of Ruby experience (~1.25), so I can
definitely use help in this area.

well... hopefully this will raise a few eyebrows. My group is
currently going through the decision making process about whether or
not they would be happy to restructure (though this is more of a
formality than anything), but you can see the discussion as it develops
here:
http://stonecode.org/organizations/unh.rb/board/viewtopic.php?t=33

If all goes well, we'll do a quick vote and announce NewHaven.rb on
Sunday.

2

I'm not sure if there are any Ruby groups in the New Haven, CT area or
not, but I was thinking of organizing one. Of course, I'm not sure
that I personally have the time, expertise or resources to be able to
do that...

I'm a member of the Southern CT Open Source User Group (SCOSUG.org),
and we recently had a meeting centered around Ruby. Professor Blake
from Quinnipiac University gave an introductory talk on Ruby that was
really well received. At our installfest last weekend, we even talked
a little about Ruby amongst ourselves and with some new-to-Linux folk.
So, there seems to be Ruby interest in the area.

Feel free to contact me off-list to discuss more. Depending on the
size of the group, I may be able to offer a meeting location, or work
with others in New Haven to provide one.

ยทยทยท

On 10/27/05, Gregory Brown <gregory.t.brown@gmail.com> wrote:

As far as I know, the University of New Haven ruby group (UNH.rb) is
the only Ruby Group in the Greater New Haven (connecticut) area. We
are a new group (established in mid september) but we would like to
expand our horizons by opening up our meetings to the greater New Haven
area, appealing to those at Yale, Quinnipiac, Southern, and the other
area Universities as well as people in the area industries along with
any hobbyists.

UNH.rb was newb centric, whereas NewHaven.rb will be newb friendly but
not centered around ruby fundamentals as much.

We're thinking of doing monthly meetings with about 60% planned talks /
presentations and 40% discussion and tom-foolery and then weekly hack
sessions that'll be totally informal and optional.

I'd like to know a couple things.

0) Are we trampling anyones territory? If there is already an
established Ruby group in the area, we'd rather work with joining up
with you than compete. We're already collaborating with NYC.rb and
I've attempted to contact Boston.rb about attending some of their
meetings and getting some ideas, but if there is a more local group,
we'd like to know about you too. If you've only got a few members and
are open to expansion, maybe we could combine efforts.

1) Anyone out there interested? Meetings will most likely be in
offices in New Haven and in the universities of the Greater New Haven
area. The 'official' meetings will most likely be once a month and the
hack sessions will be informal and probably weekly when time permits
and schedules do not conflict.

2) Any suggestions from established users groups about how to go about
setting up an appealing group, recruiting members, etc? We're already
trying to steal as much ideas from NYC.rb as possible, as myself and
another UNH Rubyist attended their meeting last night and were wholly
impressed, but the more sound advice, the better off we'll be.

3) Anyone want to help organize the group? Right now I am the only
member with more than one year of Ruby experience (~1.25), so I can
definitely use help in this area.

well... hopefully this will raise a few eyebrows. My group is
currently going through the decision making process about whether or
not they would be happy to restructure (though this is more of a
formality than anything), but you can see the discussion as it develops
here:
http://stonecode.org/organizations/unh.rb/board/viewtopic.php?t=33

If all goes well, we'll do a quick vote and announce NewHaven.rb on
Sunday.

3

Gregory Brown wrote:

As far as I know, the University of New Haven ruby group (UNH.rb) is
the only Ruby Group in the Greater New Haven (connecticut) area. We
are a new group (established in mid september) but we would like to
expand our horizons by opening up our meetings to the greater New Haven
area, appealing to those at Yale, Quinnipiac, Southern, and the other
area Universities as well as people in the area industries along with
any hobbyists.
...
We're thinking of doing monthly meetings with about 60% planned talks /
presentations and 40% discussion and tom-foolery and then weekly hack
sessions that'll be totally informal and optional.
...
If all goes well, we'll do a quick vote and announce NewHaven.rb on
Sunday.

The vote definitely looks like it is going to pass, I know of enough
people who already told me they plan to vote yes, so we may announce
NewHaven.rb later today.

Local User Groups, speak now or forever hold your peace :slight_smile:

We're going through a set of possible topics and discussing the group
format on our forum, which will be replaced with a google group if the
vote on the transition passes. (For those that hate forums)

Transition Discussion:
http://stonecode.org/organizations/unh.rb/board/viewtopic.php?t=33

Topics Discussion:
http://stonecode.org/organizations/unh.rb/board/viewtopic.php?t=34