Good points Josh. We'll keep working pulling together the northern folks and as things come together gauge the possibilities of joining up.

What might end up being best is a Northern and Southern Group that meets more frequently and then making one of the meetings a dual-annual meeting.

We'll see where this goes ;-)

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Joshua Nathan Gomez
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2014 9:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] 2nd meetup for code4lib LA - May 15th

I am certainly open to the idea of expanding to a wider region. But California is large, and encompassing the whole state would be difficult.  I got the ball rolling with the LA meetup because I wanted to meet my peers and create a way for us to keep in touch easily.  Arranging for 20-30 people to meetup once every 3-4 months is not difficult. We can just reserve a meeting room in a library and do our best to provide free or easy parking. If we include all of SoCal, that brings us up to something closer to 50-60 people.  That may still be possible, and I've already talked with San Diego folks to make our 3rd meeting a little longer (half day) to make it worth their time to come up north.

Including the whole state could put us into triple digits. This requires larger meeting spaces and at least a full day of programming to make it worth the travel.  I don't know how it is elsewhere, but at USC, getting those big spaces is difficult. They get reserved for other events at the very beginning of each semester. The campus has a conference center, but those rooms have a price tag. So now you're dealing with budgets and other logistical issues.  That kind of meeting is what the national conference is for.  I just wanted a simple local meetup that required very little planning and no money.

I think having a NorCal and SoCal regional group would be a good idea. I realize that may not be satisfactory for someone like you, who is right in the middle, but it also means you could probably get out to both if you wanted.

But despite everything I just said, we would certainly like to include as many people as possible and we will discuss ways of expanding the meetup while keeping it free at our next meeting.

Joshua Gomez
Library Systems Programmer
University of Southern California

________________________________________
From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Roy Tennant <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2014 9:17 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] 2nd meetup for code4lib LA - May 15th

I am definitely interested in a Northern California regional Code4Lib group, but my ability to jet down to LA for a two-hour meeting is regrettably limited. Likewise my ability to jet up to Seattle or Portland, unfortunately. Perhaps a better strategy might be to focus on a local? For example, we have CDL in Oakland, several nearby UCs, CSUs, large publics, and community colleges to draw from. We should be able to put together a decent showing on our own, I would imagine.
Roy


On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 9:00 AM, Collier, Aaron <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Josh - it was great to see you again this year!
>
> We've got a lot of interest throughout the CSU and northern CA to form 
> a regional group, Which  a few of us are starting to pull together.
>
> Is there interest in expanding the LA group throughout CA? I'm also 
> wondering if we should try to expand this beyond CA into a "Western 
> Regional", although there is already a PNW regional or keep it 
> somewhat smaller?
>
> Perhaps a discussion topic for the May meeting.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Joshua Nathan 
> Gomez
> Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 6:04 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
> Subject: 2nd meetup for code4lib LA - May 15th
>
> We had an excellent first meeting of the code4lib Los Angeles regional 
> "chapter" last month on the USC campus.  Two dozen people from 10 
> institutions across the county (and beyond) showed up to talk about 
> libraries and technology.  Our second meeting is now scheduled and we 
> hope you can join us.
>
> Date | Time:
> May 15th, 2014  |  11am to 1pm.
>
> Location:
> Santa Monica Public Library  (map: http://goo.gl/maps/8mPKC)
>
> Parking:
> An underground parking structure can be accessed from 7th Street 
> between Santa Monica Blvd. and Arizona Ave.  The first thirty minutes are free.
> Rates are $1 per hour for the first two hours and thirty minutes. 
> After that, the rate is $1 per thirty minutes. Weekdays the daily maximum is $10.
> The Library does not provide validation for parking.
>
> Agenda:
> The next meeting will again be mostly informal, but we will also have 
> a few short presentations.  By request, we will have a presentation on 
> continuous integration & deployment and another presentation on using 
> Python and the pymarc library to work with bibliographic records.
>
> If you have something you would like to present, please send me a note 
> and I will add it to the agenda.  We also have a shared document of 
> topics requested where you can add a topic or sign up to present on one:
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvhkP_NFwnOldEVqZHg3SmpvV
> UFtOEctUVRmZW8ya3c&usp=sharing
>
> See you there!
>
> Joshua Gomez
> Library Systems Programmer
> University of Southern California
>
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