Drupal Advent Calendar day 20 - Event Organizers Working Group (EOWG)

Once again, welcome back to the Drupal Advent Calendar. It’s day 20, and time to open our next door. Today Leslie Glynn (leslieg) joins us to talk about the Event Organizers Working Group (EOWG).

I bet a lot of you learned about Drupal and the awesome Drupal Community at a local Drupal event. I went to the Western Massachusetts Drupal Camp back in 2011 after I was assigned a Drupal website to support at work and had no idea what Drupal even was. I attended many great sessions, met a lot of folks in the local Drupal community and even purchased the “Definitive Guide to Drupal 7” (remember all the great authors and the almost 1200 pages of Drupal insights). I was hooked on Drupal that day and never looked back.

History

The number of Drupal events increased over the years and sprung up in Drupal communities around the globe as Drupal popularity expanded. The idea of an official event organizers group was discussed by a large group of event organizers at DrupalCon Seattle in 2019 through a roundtable organized by Rachel Lawson (rachel_norfolk ) of the Drupal Association. As discussions ensued there was an enthusiastic response to the idea of forming an official group to support current and future event organizers.

In 2019 a group of event organizers decided to make this official and worked with the Drupal Association to create a charter, propose it to Dries and once accepted, the official “Event Organizers Working Group” was formed.

The mission of the Event Organizers Working Group (EOWG) is to support community-led teams to grow Drupal through local events.

EOWG Board

Current EOWG board members include: 

• Avi Schwab, President (froboy) - MidCamp, Midwest Open Source Alliance - Chicago, IL, USA
• Leslie Glynn, Vice President (leslieg)  Design 4 Drupal Boston, NEDCamp - Boston, MA, USA
• Sean Walsh, Secretary (seantwalsh) - DrupalCamp NJ - Eatontown, NJ, USA
• Matthew Saunders (MatthewS) - Drupalcamp Colorado - Denver, CO, USA
• John Picozzi (johnpicozzi) - New England Drupal Camp (NEDCamp) - RI, USA
• Bert Boerland (bertboerland) - drupaljam.nl  and splashawards.nl  - Netherlands
• Suchi Garg (gargsuchi) - Drupal Melbourne meetup - Melbourne, Australia

Current Advisory group members:

• Nico Grienaur (Grienaur) - DrupalAT Board Member, DrupalCamp Vienna, DrupalCon Vienna 2017, Splash Awards AT, Drupal Developer Days 2023, Drupical - Vienna, Austria
• Kristen Pol (Kristen Pol) - Drupal Contribution - Santa Cruz, CA, USA
• Salim Lakhani (salimlakhani) - Drupalcamp Colorado, Florida Drupal Camp - Denver, CO, USA

We are currently seeking nominations for folks interested in joining the board or the advisory committee. Please consider nominating yourself or someone you feel would be interested by commenting on this issue.

Meetings

EOWG Board meetings are held on the first Tuesday each month via a zoom call. 

General Event Organizer meetings are currently held as an asynchronous meeting on the second Tuesday each month in the Event Organizers channel in Drupal slack. The chat threads open for 24 hours so that folks around the globe can contribute to the chat discussions at a time that works best for them. All are welcome to join the discussions or add new topics to be discussed.

Involvement in meetings and initiatives will be recognized with credits on the Event Organizers issue queue.

Current Initiatives:

• Event website platform - An easy way to spin up  a website for a new or existing event.
• Community Events page on Drupal.org. The global events page lists upcoming Drupal Camps, DrupalCons, Local Meetups, Upcoming Trainings, Contribution Events, Calls for Content and Proposed Events. Make sure to add your event information to this page so folks will be able to see all Drupal Events in this one place. You can include whether the event is in-person, virtual or both. Make sure to include a link to your event website.
• Contribution events - Contribution events include Global Contribution Days, Contribution days at Drupal Camps and other events and ways to contribute to the various initiatives. Contributing to Drupal helps make the Drupal experience better for everyone.
• Marketing of the EOWG and how event organizers can benefit from information shared by the EOWG

Let us know if you have an interest in working with Board member(s) on any of these initiatives.

To Dos

• Add your event to the Events/Community events page on Drupal.org.
• Sign up for the EOWG Newsletter to get up to date information on upcoming meetings, initiatives, and upcoming events around the globe. Subscribe on the Events - Community Events page on Drupal.org
• Join the Event Organizers channel on Drupal slack - #event-organizers at drupal.slack.com
• Consider nominating yourself for a EOWG Board seat 
• Reach out to any of the Board members with questions or ask in our Slack channel. 

We look forward to collaborating with current event organizers and those considering starting new events. All are welcome to join.

Resources

• Event Organizers’ Community page 
• DrupalCon Seattle 2019 Round Tables - Event Organizers
• Event Platform project page

Leslie Glynn  is the Manager of Customer Success at Redfin Solutions in Portland, Maine. She is currently an initiative lead for the Project Browser Strategic Initiative and is the Vice-President of the EOWG. She is a former At-large Director on the Drupal Association Board of Directors and was the 2019 recipient of the Aaron Winborn Award. Leslie champions Drupal whenever possible. She helps organize several Drupal events including Design 4 Drupal Boston and New England Drupal Camp (NEDCamp). When she’s not working, Leslie enjoys watching Boston area sports teams and spending time with her family and her granddaughter, Isla.