We are proud to announce the (re) inauguration of the Charleston SC Java Users Group (JUG)! Evidently there was a registered JUG a while back but the person heading it up moved (to Charleston MD?). So after a bit of searching around and not finding any activity I decided to re-launch the Charleston chapter.
There are a number of things that you should note:
1. We are just getting organized and our site is still drying
I have never lead a user group before so there are bound to be some things that don’t quite mesh with veteran expectations. When this happens, speak up! This is a community owned group and should be run as such. I am open to all ideas about how things should be run - in fact we will be discussing this at our first meeting.
2. All announcements will be through this site
Yes, I grasp the irony of publishing a PHP based site for a Java users group. I chose to go with this format because both WordPress and phpBB are tried and true and are quite simple to set up (it only took me about 2 hours to get everything up and configured). That said, there are bound to be some issues out there still. If you see any problems with the site please let me know - no issue is too menial.
3. Everything is free
All meetings and involvement will be free, at least for the time being. Once the group outgrows its current servers/locations we may have some overhead costs but we will cross that bridge when we get there. I will be asking for donations to help cover the cost of launching the site - it ended up being around $150, which I paid out of my own pocket. If you want to contribute to help take some of this cost off of my wallet email me or just talk to me at the first meeting.
4. The first meeting
The first meeting is currently being planned. We will figure out some sort of RSVP system so that we can get a head count for attendance. Most likely this will be a survey/poll through the bulletin board. Stay tuned for more details.
5. Projects
I have an idea for an open source project that we, as a group, can work on if there is enough interest. I am not tied to this idea solely so if you have ideas of your own present them at the first meeting.
6. The (lack of a) newsletter
Since this entire site is going to be blog based you can simply subscribe to the RSS feed with your favorite news/blog reader. We may change this if it proves unpopular.
7. The location
Benefitfocus has been gracious enough to allow us to use their facility for meetings. Most of our meetings will be held at their facility on Daniel Island. Note that you should always check the location for each meeting though as we are not guaranteed space on any given day.
Please give me feedback as to the best times to hold meetings.
Any and all feedback is welcomed!
I haven’t been involved in the leadership of a JUG myself either, but I’ve seen one take form. If you haven’t already, I think it’s typical to get the JUG listed at http://community.java.net/jugs/. An example is our local JUG: https://greenjug.dev.java.net/.
Not sure if that was helpful or not, but thought I’d share.
Thanks for the reply Matt. I have already registered us with java.net in order to get us on the lists/maps. I have also been in contact with the JUG leaders to find out what needs to be done to get up and running.
They are supposed to send us a box of stuff to hand out at meetings and have given me a bunch of great tips as to what needs to be done to get things rolling smoothly.
Jason
A project idea would be to create an online tool that assists ABA therapists with scheduling, monitoring, etc.
r/
David
Thanks for the comment David. For those not familiar with ABA it stands for Applied Behavior Analysis and is one of many techniques used to help people with autism. ABA can be used for a number of things but is generally associated with its use with autistic persons.
I will add this to the list of possibilities. Thanks!