Tampa Coldfusion User Groups: Coordination Fail
So I was contemplating my first time attendance of the Tampa Bay Coldfusion User Group and wondering how it can start to grow; it has been around for awhile (I never attended before because I suck) and its leadership is changing hands. This was a good inaugural meeting for me as Greg Wilson, our very friendly and competent Tampa-based Adobe evangelist presented on the forthcoming Adobe 9 (centaur) and Coldfusion Builder (bolt). The attendees were a good group of guys (not being sexist, there were just, unfortunately, no ladies present) and I think there is a renewed energy to grow our local user group into something useful and vibrant.
So, while taking inventory of my swag - there is at least one upside to low attendance, though it isn't sustainable - I thought to do a search for "tampa coldfusion developers" and was happy to see that first in the list was an active blog from a Tampa coldfusion developer - potential member, tremendous. So, imagine my surprise to find out that he started his own Central Florida Coldfusion User Group on June 5, 2009. WTF?
First, it is a really, really good thing. Not the least of which as there seems to be no cross pollination between the groups. And it looks like there is a local pool of Coldfusion developers and otherwise interested people. The challenge now is to get the two groups talking and potentially joining together. The existing Tampa group is already well acquainted with Adobe and has really great sponsorship by Kforce - at the very least, Kforce provides excellent meeting space. The new group seems to be acquiring members and be enthusiastic about Adobe and Coldfusion.
However, I'm scratching my head wondering how this happened. Did the Aaron Greenlee, creator of the Central Florida Group, not search to see if there was an existing group? Why didn't the TBFusion guys know about this new group? (I can't say that I would have in their place) Is there something else going on? Hopefully it just all ends well. I'll do what I can to meddle help.
The takeaway, if there is one, is to scout your local area to see who is already meeting. If you have a group, there may be a way to improve your membership in a wholesale way. If you want to start a group, you may be in for a pleasant surprise.
Last night was my first Coldfusion meeting, but my takeaway was that there is going to be a renewed effort to become a regularly meeting group and that Adobe, via Greg Wilson and his efforts, is there to help. Finding Aaron and the meetup group that he created is just bonus. I exchanged emails with him and am really hopeful that there is enough of a core of interested local developers to get some momentum going. As it is getting harder to get work justification to make it to conferences, it is all the more necessary to develop a local org that can attract speakers from all over, as well as highlight what we all are doing in the neighborhood.
And, to be clear, I won't be running TBCFUG, but will be helping out in whatever ways that I can. I'm feeling stupid now for not doing a better exchange of info last night, but I will try to get ahold of them and encourage them to, at least, update the web site. If I get any extra info, I'll post it here - particularly any meeting announcements to which I become privy.
I know how easy it can be to become overwhelmed with work and family. That is why I selected MeetUp.com to start the Central Florida Group. MeetUp makes it easy to administer events, welcome new users and foster communication.
For those able to make it, we will have our first kick-off meeting early next month. Details can be found here: http://www.meetup.com/Tampa-ColdFusion/
Respectfully,
Aaron Greenlee
Greg Wilson
Adobe Evangelist (lives in Tampa)
http://GregsRamblings.com
http://twitter.com/gregorywilson