Richmond Java User's Group Steering Committee meeting 6/11/2008

Refresh Richmond

• Remi will be giving a short 10 minute presentation at the Refresh Richmond meeting on 6/17.
• Refresh Richmond is hosting a meeting to highlight the Richmond area technical user groups
• Remi requested input for ideas. Some discussed were:
1. The RJUG was founded in 1999
2. The names of the main sponsors
3. An example list of past topics and speakers
4. Our URL and how to join

Web Site

• Change the landing page to Announcements
• We lost past session presentation PDFs during the demise of the last site. Steering committee members should consult the web site and send copies of missing presentations if they have them.
• We would like to add sponsor logos on the Sponsors page, currently we can't figure out how to make them appear using Drupal.
• The calendar control doesn’t work the way we want it to. Jeff at Richweb may have some ideas on replacement controls and how to display images.
• Create a web form on the Steering Committee page to allow users to send an email to the group without displaying each member’s email address
• Decided against adding a discussion forum as there are plenty elsewhere with more reach and depth.
• All links for requests for rjug web site login accounts should be removed since we no longer have a wiki model.
• Create web forms for suggesting a topic, sponsoring a meeting, volunteering to speak etc. that email the steering committee

Meetings

• We should now have plenty of speakers and sponsors for the rest of the year
• Balaji will be giving part 2 of his Hibernate talk in November
• Other topics
1. Multi-Threading Java (Dirk Weibel)
2. Seam (Emmanuel Barnard)
3. Thinwire (Jimmy Ray)
4. SOLR (Erik Hatcher)
5. We usually have a No Fluff speaker in the fall right before the Reston No Fluff show
• Possible meeting dates
1. Sep. 17, 18, 24, 25
2. Oct 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30
3. Nov. 12, 13, 19, 20
4. Dec. 10, 11
• We discussed the possibility of having multiple speakers per meeting, starting in the afternoon, but consensus preferred having one speaker per meeting.

Sponsors

• Discussed making sponsor expectations clear up front.
• Some topics covered
1. Sponsors should not attend meetings they do not sponsor
2. Sponsors should encourage their own Java people to attend the meetings
• Decided to add language to the sponsor sign up form stating expectations

Miscellaneous/Other Business

• We were approached to host ads for Java programming jobs on our web site. Group consensus was to avoid this and decline offer.
• Steering Committee meeting minutes will be posted on the web site
• We would like to get more speakers from Sun such as:
1. NetBeans vs. Eclipse
2. Charles Nutter speaking on JRuby
3. New features in the latest JDKs our members may not be familiar with
• Food at meetings could be healthier - less sugary snacks and chips, more cheese and vegetables. Also discussed providing sponsors with sample menus. Pizza? Sandwiches?
• Need to encourage members continue to sign up for meetings via the 'Yahoo Upcoming' site designated, it is very helpful