Re: Tampa/Central Florida User Group Interest? TUG?

Hi Lewis,

On Jan 30, 2008 11:36 AM, Lewis Cunningham <lewisc(at)rocketmail(dot)com> wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> I am wondering if there are any people/businesses in the
> Tampa/Orlando/St Pete/Bradenton (i.e. western central florida) using
> Postgres and interested in a user group?
>
> I am using Postgres and EnterpriseDB on a daily basis now and thought
> it might be a good idea to get a group going. I live in the Tampa
> area but I realize to get enough people, it might need to be more of
> a regional meeting. I would think between the above listed cities (I
> think that's over 1 million people), we would have enough users for a
> group.
>
> If you're interested, let me know. If you have any tips for getting
> this going, let me know that also. ;-)

We now have you as a contact in the Florida area! :)

I can set up a website/blog and request a mailing list for you. I
think the most effective way to get folks together is to start a
mailing list/blog, and then advertise it on a series of relevant
mailing lists. After you get a few people subscribed to the list, pick
a location and just get started with meetings! Having a meeting in
February to coincide with the release of 8.3 would be a great way to
kick things off.

Have you gone to any user group meetings in your area in the past? Do
you have anyone you can contact in that area to help you advertise?

Do you have a location in mind for meetings? I tend to prefer an
office or classroom setting for the meeting itself (easy access to
projectors, screens and reasonably quiet for discussions), and
tfollowed by a social hour at a restaurant or bar.

Below is a dump of resources I found:

The Florida Linux Show is happening on February 11th --
http://www.floridalinuxshow.com
I'm not sure what the attendance will be like, but I've put in a call,
and we can get a flier put into the goodie bag for just over $100
(plus printing costs...)

http://www.swflug.org/ - flalug-listserve(at)nks(dot)net
admin(at)flalug(dot)org

And here's a meetup:
http://linux.meetup.com/58/

There are a few Tampa Bay user groups -- contacting the leaders of
each group would be good:
http://asteriskpbx.meetup.com/1/calendar/6780566/

Sun Coast LUG -- These guys seem pretty organized on the web too:
http://www.suncoastlug.org/calendar.php

There's a Java group but it seems dormant:
http://www.tampajug.org/archives/2006_06_01_tampajug_archive.html

LEAP seems active as well, there's an announce list you could use:
http://www.leap-cf.org/mailinglist.php3

Here's a dump from the USENIX site:
Florida

Jacksonville:
Jacksonville Storage Networking User Group (SNUG)
Dedicated to discussing the effective application of data storage
and storage networking technologies in an open, education-focused
environment. If you are interested in becoming involved, please feel
free to contact Brian McCarthy at brian(at)sencilo(dot)com(dot)

Orlando:
Central Florida UNIX Users Group
Bob Boardman
Meets the 3rd Thursday of each month.

Orlando Storage Networking User Group (SNUG)
Dedicated to discussing the effective application of data storage
and storage networking technologies in an open, education-focused
environment. If you are interested in becoming involved, please feel
free to contact Gary Harris.

Southeast Florida
FLUX (Florida Linux Users Exchange)
Arieh Markel
Meets monthly. See Website for directions and information.

Tampa Bay Area
Tampa Bay Storage Networking User Group (SNUG)
Dedicated to discussing the effective application of data storage
and storage networking technologies in an open, education-focused
environment. If you are interested in becoming involved, please feel
free to contact Brian McCarthy.

Western:
Florida West Coast UNIX Users Group
Mike Delucia
(813) 882-0770
Meets 1st Thursday of each month.

Let me know if you're up for the blitz of emails.. and we'll get the
mailing list and blog up and running!

-selena

--
Selena Deckelmann
User Group Liason, PostgreSQL
PDXPUG - Portland PostgreSQL Users Group
http://pugs.postgresql.org/pdx
http://www.chesnok.com/daily