2009/10/19 Dave Page <dpage@pgadmin.org>:
> The conference was a lot of work, and did manage to reveal some
> additional users, most of whom are not active community members,
> though they may lurk (iirc, we had around 30 people register
> specifically as PostgreSQL attendees). The intention was to follow
> that event with one in London this year, but Simon and I both ran out
> of spare cycles to organise it.
Only 30 in the whole of the UK? That's quite depressing. Looks like
the advocacy work has been cut out for all of us.
>> Some user groups are a bit more formal - with actual bylaws, and rules
>> about membership and maybe even membership dues. The US user groups
>> are as a rule very informal - no special membership requirements, and
>> meetings open to all. I believe the UK group has a similar structure,
>> but again, I defer to Dave/Simon. :)
>
> If you can get to the pub, you're a welcome member!
Well unfortunately Oxford is a bit far from where I live in Sussex,
about 90 miles I think. Not outside the realms of possibility though.
After all, a guy from my local sign language class travelled from
Oxford every week.
>
> More seriously Thom, if you have the time and energy to try to
> organise something more formal, whether an online group, pub group, or
> another conference, please, feel free. I'm happy to help/advise in
> anyway I can, and I imagine Simon would like to be involved too if he
> has the time (if you go for the conference, please *do* contact me
> first).
>
> Selena; feel free to give Thom access to the UKPUG page. It'd be good
> to have someone with the time to make it useful :-)
>
Thanks for the encouragement Dave. I may end up doing just that,
although may be a bit out of my depth (even though I'm called the
"PostgreSQL guru" at work... very far from it though). I've never
partaken in any real-world user groups as there have never been any
for anything I've personally been interested in. We'll see how things
develop. :D And don't worry, I have no plans on taking on an entire
conference. That's a terrifying prospect, at least at the moment.
Thom Brown