I will always try and post the presentations from the meetings when they are available. They will always be posted under the RSVP for that meeting. This meeting’s you can find here.

The first meeting was basically just a meet and greet. We went over what my thoughts are for the format of the group and I got some input from the group as to what they’d like to see. Here is the brief overview:

- Meetings will be monthly
- Meetings will be later in the day - typically 6pm to whenever
- We will try and have some “fun” meetings where we have BBQs or other such events
- The basic format for the meetings will typically be lectures from people who know what they are talking about
- New technologies and intricacies of existing technologies are the main interests of the group
- The group is interested in an open source/for profit project

Thanks for those who showed up!

I’m happy to (finally) announce the first meeting of the Charleston, SC Java Users Group. It will be held April 2, 2008 at 5pm. We will probably actually start the meeting around 5:15 so please try to be at least close to on time. The meeting will be at the Benefitfocus building. The address is 100 Benefitfocus Way, Charleston SC 29492. However, Google maps doesn’t have us on it yet.

Here is a modified version of Google maps with directions to us. This link will allow you to enter the address you are coming from. Please note: If you head north on River Landing Drive and miss the turn for Fairchild Street you will find yourself on the interstate and will have to go all the way to the edge of Mt. Pleasant to turn around.

If you are planning on attending please RSVP by visiting our bulletin board and going into the RSVP forum. There will be a post for each meeting so that we can get a head count and list out any volunteers to bring refreshments. Also, Aaron Houston from Sun sent us a bunch of SWAG. I’ll be giving this all out at the first meeting and the first two people to volunteer to bring refreshments will get a book. First person to sign up gets their choice of book. I won’t reveal what the books are until people sign up though.

Should you have questions, comments, concerns feel free to call me at 843-849-7476. You will get the receptionist - just as for Jason McDonald.

I swear. I am just now getting caught back up from being sick and have communications out to various people to start getting things moving for our first meeting. I am waiting to hear back from our HR department on what I need to do to schedule the meeting after hours with non-employees - I have to follow the security procedures and all. Also, I am waiting to hear back from our media department on whether they would be interested in filming our meetings so that we can podcast them.

If you have experience/knowledge/equipment to podcast in decent quality let me know. I know our media department has a million things on their plate so they may not be able to accommodate this.

Finally, I am beginning to work on a basic presentation to walk through in our first meeting - this won’t be anything spectacular, just an overview of what the plans are for the group that will lead into a discussion about where we want to go with this and what we want to do.

As always, if you are interested in helping, contact me. We also need some traffic on the forums - this will likely pick up later but there are people watching it - just nobody posting. Post away!

So I struggled with a bout of pneumonia last week and am still trying to get caught back up on all my little projects. I am still planning the first meeting but wanted to drop a line out indicating that it is still in the works. I am thinking sometime within the next two to three weeks but am waiting to hear back about who I need to schedule building time through and all the red tape I have to work through to allow visitors in the building after hours.

If you have any interest in helping out, email me.

We are now listed in the JUG directory and on the map: View Map

We will be keeping links to our member’s sites in our blogroll in order to help share your ideas with the world. Want to be added to the blogroll? Send me an email (use the email link at the bottom of the page) with your site and show up to meetings. As long as you can do these two things your site will remain on here.

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!