Next Meeting
Proposed: Wednesday, December 12th, 7pm. (2nd Wednesday) - AdamFeuer's house near CapitolHill. (Directions via email on the MailingList soon.)
Good:
SteveHowell - Wednesday works for me, thanks
Folks that were in for Tuesday, how about Wedesday?
JeffSandys - good (only Monday night or unpredictable Soccer Tourny are bad for me)
WilhelmFitzpatrick - ok (but in general the 2nd Wednesday wouldn't always work for me)
Next Meeting Topic
We mostly do freewheeling discussion, but it may help to have some topic prepared.
[2] No topic
MikeOrr -- Let's stagger topic and non-topic meetings, unless somebody who can't go to the topic meeting really wants to discuss something. There's no rule against discussing topic topics on non-topic data, or summarizing a presentation for those who missed it. If we have two topic days a month, we'll run out of topics. (1 vote)
AdamFeuer - I think we all have things we can talk about, let's see how it goes at the meeting.
[1] KarelTheRobot
I can give a quick demo and talk. -- SteveHowell
[1] FringeLanguages
I'd like to hear about fringe languages from a Python perspective. -- SteveHowell
Next Meeting Place
[1] Adam's house
SteveHowell - we can show off WikiOutliner there
[1] Some bar in Ballard
SteveHowell - Ballard could be fun
Ideas:
MikeOrr - My house, anywhere on the Ave, or anywhere on NE 45th St/N 45th St/NW Market St is fine. There are plenty of cafes and bars to choose from. Are there any under-21ers? (No vote yet; waiting to hear others' preferences.)
AdamFeuer - The Ave or Mike's place is fine with me, we could also do it at my place on Capitol Hill (20th & Union).
Favorite Meeting Days (in general)
Cast your vote by adding 1 each proposed meeting time you like, and -1 to each proposed time you don't like. If you don't see a time you like, add it, and vote for it.
[3] Monday night
SteveHowell can meet Mondays 10/29 and 11/5
StephenFiggins--I have another engagement Mondays.
MikeOrr -- M-Th preferred, F OK. (1 vote)
[3.5] Tuesday night
AdamFeuer -- I'm only available the first two Tuesdays of the month. The first Tuesday is better for me.
WilhelmFitzpatrick -- I'm only available the first two Tuesdays of the month
StephenFiggins -- Like Adam and Wilhelm, I'm only available the first two Tuesdays of the Month.
MikeOrr -- prefer M-Th, F OK. (1 vote)
[1.5] Wednesday night
WilhelmFitzpatrick -- Most of my Wednesday nights are spoken for
MikeOrr -- prefer M-Th, F OK. (1 vote)
[-1.5] Thursday night
SteveHowell -- Thursday nights are bad, because some of us go to PairProgrammingAtTullys
AdamFeuer -- ditto
WilhelmFitzpatrick - tritto
MikeOrr -- prefer M-Th, F OK. (1 vote)
[4] Friday night
AdamFeuer -- Friday night is ok.
SteveHowell - ditto
MikeOrr -- OK, but prefer M-Th. (.5 vote)
[-.5] Saturday
[-1.5] Sunday
SteveHowell -- any time after noon
AdamFeuer -- I often have things to do on Sundays.
WilhelmFitzpatrick -- I try to avoid weekend commitments
MikeOrr -- ditto about weekend commitments (-1 vote)
JeffSandys -- ditto weekends (-.5) any weeknight (+.5)
AsimJalis (+1 vote)
How many meetings per month?
[0] One
MikeOrr -- pro: burnout is less likely. (0 vote)
[2] Two, on different days
MikeOrr -- pro: people that can't do one can do the other. (0 vote)
SteveHowell -- see my comment below
[1] One, with an occasional "extra event" on a different day
MikeOrr -- pro: the best of both worlds. (1 vote)
JeffSandys -- extra event, take it to the people
Discussion:
I think people really strengthen their commitment to a group if they have face-to-face contact with people once a month. I'd like two meetings a month, so that we can get everyone coming to a meeting pretty regularly at least once a month. The more fanatical among us will happily come to both. If we do go with the two-days approach, though, we will need to address the burnout factor that Mike mentions. I think the best way to keep meetings worthwhile is to make them interactive, and make the meetings solve real problems for people. I'd prefer an ask-and-solve format to a show-and-tell format. -- SteveHowell
I second the above! We could have one "normal" meeting (whatever that turns out to be) plus one problem solving/project oriented one? --BrianDorsey
My idea is to have a topic presentation (15 minutes) every other meeting. The other meeting would be just an informal talk session. This can be problem solving or project, or simply talking about what each other is doing in Python, asking questions about unknown modules, catching people up on previous meetings or previous presentations or the Portland group (PorPiggies), etc. --MikeOrr