Chris Bryant's Blog

First UCLA JUG Meeting

I've been reading the JUG Leaders mailing list with great interest since signing up, anticipating the application of lessons learned in other JUGs to our first UCLA JUG meeting. Perhaps in my mind I had a broader vision before the meeting, but once we all sat down and started really discussing what was important to everyone, I realized we were going to start small, but clearly directed.

The great thing about our group (and I'm sure this is NOT just the members that were able to attend!) is everyone has a specific area of expertise. Outside experts aside, we decided that each meeting henceforth would have one member present their area of knowledge in a general and/or tutorial fashion. With so many great minds and topics that span from SOA and the UCLA Grid to Spring and Glassfish, our next 30 meetings will be interactive and informative. External speakers will be icing on the cake.

I think this is the right way to go. We have a split membership between the Enterprise (Medical Center Computing Services) and campus (students, professors and IT). All do things differently and would like either to see alignment of practices, or transfer of knowledge to enhance their own projects. This is the first step to a successful UG, let alone a JUG: Show the members the benefit of the organization and actually start work right away.

I know I'm sold. Now, on to finish those meeting notes...

Comments

• Hi Chris...Yes, the JUG Leaders mailing list on java.net is a great resource for NEW Java User Groups like the one at UCLA....Looking forward to continuing our support of your JUG.

  Aaron Houston
  Program Coordinator
  Java User Groups
  http://community.java.net/jugs/
  Java Champions
  https://java-champions.dev.java.net/
  Technology Outreach
  http://developers.sun.com/events/techdays/speakers/index.html
  Sun Microsystems, Inc
  Menlo Park, Ca

  Posted by: sunahouston on August 21, 2008 at 09:14 AM

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