Announcing the 2009 Legion of Tech Board

Published by Dawn on December 12, 2008 in board membership. 5 Comments

First of all, thank you to everyone who ran for the Legion of Tech board.

The new Legion of Tech board for 2009 is as follows (in alphabetical order):

  • Josh Bancroft
  • Adam DuVander
  • Amy Farrell
  • Craig Fisk
  • Dawn Foster
  • Todd Kenefsky
  • Chris O’Rourke
  • Chris Pitzer
  • Raven Zachary

For those who ran, but were not elected, thank you again for running. The competition was stiff, and all of the people running were strong candidates. We will move the names of those who were not elected to the board of advisors nomination list. We’ll be voting for advisors in the January board meeting.

Ignite Portland 4 is coming! Thursday, November 13 at the Bagdad

Published by Josh Bancroft on November 5, 2008 in events. 1 Comment

Hey everyone! Forgive us for not posting this here sooner, but you might have heard that another Ignite Portland is about to happen. If not, well, you’re lucky you read this post in time! :-)

Ignite Portland 4 will take place on Thursday, November 13, at the Bagdad Theater. You can find more details (like the talk lineup, etc.) over at www.igniteportland.com. Tickets went AMAZINGLY fast, but you can still come - we kept plenty of space for general admission.

This is the fourth Ignite Portland event, and every time we do one, we’re astounded at how great they continue to be. Each one outdoes the others in terms of fantastic talks, great volunteers, and an overall rockin’ good time. So don’t miss out! :-)

We’re already starting to talk about the next couple of Ignite Portland events, too, so if you can’t make IP4, for whatever reason, then stay tuned here and at igniteportland.com and come to the next one (or even better, submit a talk idea)!.

Legion of Tech Happy Hour Meetup with Waffles Oct. 23rd

Published by Dawn on October 15, 2008 in events. 2 Comments

Todd had the best description of this event on Twitter: “Sweet waffles, savory waffles, beer, wine, art & geeks all converging in a glorious orgy of awesome.”

Thursday October 23, 2008 from 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Jace Gace 2045 SE Belmont

Please RSVP for this event on Upcoming.

These are super informal meetups where we hang out, talk about geeky stuff (wikis, open source, new technologies, openid, …), and wind down with like-minded people over beverages.

Since this is the last meetup of the year (it doesn’t make sense to have a 4th Thursday meetup in Nov/Dev to conflict with the holidays), we wanted to do something a little different …

Thanks to a sponsor who wishes to remain anonymous we will be having the meetup at Jace Gace. Our sponsor will cover the fee to rent the space for the evening, but you will be on your own to pay for drinks / waffles. Have you ever been to Jace Gace? They have the most amazing waffles, art and they have beer / wine! Mmmm, waffles, art, geeky fun, and alcohol. Heaven.

Legion of Tech Board Elections in December

Published by Dawn on September 24, 2008 in board membership. 6 Comments

I wanted to let everyone know that the Legion of Tech board elections are coming up in December. Anyone who wants to run for a board seat is welcome to participate in the election process.

The Election Process

  • Nominations are due November 1.
  • Anyone not currently on the board who wishes to run for a board seat must be nominated by an existing director and seconded by another existing director.
  • Current board members may automatically run for re-election.
  • Elections will be held at the December board meeting with the current board voting on the new board.
  • The new board will begin serving their terms on January 1, 2009.

Board Member Roles and Responsibilities
Board members are elected to 2-year terms and are responsible for upholding the bylaws of the organization. They are also required to attend monthly board meetings.

The day to day responsibilities of the board may include any or all of the following:

  • Organize events like BarCampPortland, Ignite Portland, etc. by leading the team or participating as a volunteer.
  • Attend Legion of Tech events.
  • Attend board meetings the second Thursday of the month, in person or by phone.
  • Come up with ideas for new events or ways to improve existing events.
  • Collaborate with community members and make/maintain connections with other organizations.
  • Participate in organizational maintenance activities including maintaining the technology, revising the bylaws, finance, taxes, accounting, etc.
  • Chair or participate on committees like the Finance Committee and the Technology Committee.
  • Board members may also be elected to serve on the executive committee as Chair, Treasurer or Secretary.

Advisory Committee

If you want to get more involved, but do not want to serve on the board of directors, Legion of Tech will also be forming an advisory committee made up of 5-10 people from the community (non-board members).

Purpose of the committee:

  • Provide feedback on Legion of Tech activities
  • Act as a few more eyes and ears in the community
  • Get more people involved in Legion of Tech

How it works:

  • Nominations are due on December 1.
  • This would be an informal group (not specified in the bylaws) and with no voting rights.
  • A current board member must nominate a person for the committee.
  • Voting would occur at the January board meeting (new board votes on committee membership).
  • Informal committee meetings will be held approximately monthly.

What you need to do

If you are interested in running for the Legion of Tech board or the Advisory Committee, please contact your favorite member of the existing board to request a nomination. Keep in mind that the nominations are due on November 1 for the board of directors and on December 1 for the Advisory Committee.

WhereCamp PDX

Published by Audrey on September 13, 2008 in events. 0 Comments

This October 17th-19th local geo-geeks of all stripes will be gathering for the very first WhereCamp PDX. WhereCamp is an event that started in the Bay Area in 2007 to continue conversations from the Where 2.0 conference. Legion of Tech is organizing a Portland version to show off the amazing, fun geographic technology activity we have. This is not just an event for specialists: we would like anyone who is interested in the intersection of people, place, and technology to participate.

You can find out more on the WhereCamp PDX blog, and RSVP and find more event details on Upcoming. We are also looking for sponsors.

Take your Side Project to a Startup on September 12-13

Published by Selena on September 4, 2008 in events. 3 Comments

If you were at Barcamp Portland, you may have stopped by for the My Other Thing session. (if you weren’t there you can listen to this recording of a great, freewheeling discussion) The session led by Rick Turoczy and Banana Lee Fishbones. After the group separated, people talked about wanting more - more discussions, more connections… maybe even - a conference!  Inspired by that session, From Side Project to Startup was born.

From the From Side Project to Startup site:

From Side Project to Startup is a free conference focused on helping ideas and what-ifs emerge into the business world.

The conference is a meld of unconference and conference sessions, all starting with some good food on Friday at 5:30pm.

The conference will be at CubeSpace, 622 SE Grand Avenue. Take a minute to RSVP!  Also, this event is still looking for sponsors. Please help keep these great events in Portland free!

Upcoming Portland Tech Community Events

Published by Dawn on August 14, 2008 in events. 0 Comments

The Legion of Tech Happy Hour Meetup (used to be called the BarCamp Meetup) will be on the brand new patio (with wifi) at the Green Dragon on Aug 28th. We’d love to have someone sponsor (aka buy us beer), so contact me if you are interested in sponsoring the meetup.

Legion of Tech Happy Hour Meetup
Thursday, August 28
5:30pm - 7:30pm
Green Dragon Bistro & Brewpub (on the patio)
928 SE 9th Ave
RSVP on upcoming.

Other Events that you might want to attend during the next month:

Sarah Lacy Tweetup (not a Legion of Tech event):
Sarah Lacy (business week reporter, author, and more) is going to be in town, and we thought that it would be fun to have a little tweetup to show her how awesome Portland is!
Monday, August 25, 2008
6:00pm
Green Dragon Bistro & Brewpub (on the patio)
928 SE 9th Ave
RSVP on Upcoming.

From Side Project to Startup (CubeSpace event co-sponsored by Legion of Tech):
Combination conference / unconference to give ourselves that little kick in the pants to take our side project(s) and turn it into a startup.
Friday September 12, 2008 (5:30pm - 9:00pm)
Saturday September 13, 2008 (9:00am - 5:00pm)
CubeSpace
622 SE Grand Avenue
Details about the event.
RSVP on Upcoming.

Haunted Lunch 2.0 (not a Legion of Tech event)
Wednesday September 17
12:00pm - 2:00pm
SplashCast
226 NW Davis Portland
RSVP on Upcoming.

WordCamp (An awesome community event, but not a Legion of Tech event):
WordCamp Portland is a gathering of folks who are passionate about WordPress.
Saturday September 27
CubeSpace
622 SE Grand Ave

Summer Coders’ Social

Published by Audrey on July 21, 2008 in events. 0 Comments

Here’s another great event coming up: Portland’s multi-user group coders’ social is back for summer, with a picnic August 3rd at Laurelhurst Park. It’s happening 11am-5pm at picnic area E.

The winter event was a fun board and card game meetup at CubeSpace, and Sam Keen and the other organizers have planned a family-friendly barbecue to follow up. Mozilla is sponsoring burgers and hotdogs (plus a vegan version), and the rest is potluck. RSVP with your side dish of choice if you’ll be there.

OSCamp / FOSSCoach at OSCON

Published by Dawn on July 16, 2008 in events. 1 Comment

While this is not a Legion of Tech event, we thought that many of the local Portland technology crowd might be interested in attending some or all of this BarCamp style event being organized by our own Portlander Sam Keen, Open Source Community guru Zak Greant, and others.

The event is called FOSSCoach and it will focus on helping people learn, share and improve the essential skills required to participate in collaborative, free and open online projects like Firefox® and Wikipedia.

The event will do this through a mix of presentations and hands-on coaching from experts in the field.
Presentations are on interesting topics like how to make a living as a community manager and how to get started hacking on Firefox. Attending coaches include people like David Ascher, Mozilla Messaging CEO and Cat Allman from Google’s Open Source Programs Office.

You can get a good overview of the Portland event including information on who else is participating, what sessions are lined up and more at: http://fosscoach.wikia.com/wiki/FOSSCoach_at_OSCON_2008

Attendance is free, though you do need to register: http://fosscoach.wikia.com/wiki/OSCON08:How_To_Register

FOSSCoach will be held July 23rd (Wed) through July 25th (Friday).

Board Meeting Minutes for June 2008

Published by Audrey on July 8, 2008 in minutes. 0 Comments

Legion of Tech Board Meeting
Thursday, 06/12/2008
Meeting held at Jive Software 317 SW Alder St Ste 500, Portland, OR
Meeting began at 5:55pm, ended at 8:45pm

In Attendance:
Paul Biggs, Selena Deckelmann, Audrey Eschright, Todd Kenefesky, Dawn Foster, Justin Kistner (phone), Adam DuVander

Absent:
Raven Zachary, Josh Bancroft

Reviewed the proposed agenda, as follows:

Agenda:

* Votes:
o Legion of Talk decision
Board approved July Legion of Talk event with Gary Vaynerchuk only
o WordCamp Decision
Board rejected the proposal at this time.
o “CubeCamp” (spawn of My Other Thing) Decision (selena)
Board approved conditional to name change, no-cost event, and firming up the roles and responsibilities
o WhereCamp PDX
Board approved conditional to October date, sponsors outside our standard pool, and organizing committee made up of at least half of non-board members
o Technology and Infrastructure committee consisting of Audrey (leader), Selena, and Adam
Board approved

* Update Agenda:
o Paul
+ Progress on 501(c)3 application
Feedback on 501(c)3 class. Compared to other organizations, we are ahead of the game.
Paul needs financial forecast from Finance Committee. FC will discuss at next meeting.
+ Schedule happy hour working meetings
Paul will schedule meeting at beginning of week after Ignite (June 23 or 24)
+ Meet with TACS on June 26th at 9:30am
Selena and Paul will attend.
o Todd
+ Finance Committee Update
Finance committee meeting on Saturday.
+ Bank Balance
Finance: $4,500 in account. $2,000 net balance.
+ Legion of Talk update
We have a speaker (Gary Vaynerchuk), a venue, and a sponsor
Discussion of technical community and whether we are serving the harder technical community members. Board will vote on only the current Legion of Talk and discuss future Legion of Talk events in the future.
+ Revisit long term planning for LoT. Form committee?
Board wants to brainstorm where we are headed with the organization. Dawn will put together an initial group meeting.
+ Propose Ignite-like event (Ignite probably not in name), shorter, topics all tech-related done in conjunction with BarCamp.
Discussion of Lightning Talk / Brown bag lunch event, with many small, technical talks. Selena and Audrey will lead sometime in the fall. To be discussed at August board meeting.
o Selena
+ LoT Party
Canceled the LoT kick-off party. Will focus on LoT Happy Hour
+ Ignite 3 Sponsors $ update
Pledged: $4,300; Received: $2,800
+ CubeCamp
Extension of My Other Thing session at BarCamp
Discussed that name is associated with CubeSpace. Group decided we would have to rename.
Discussed that the cost is contrary to how other events are free
o Audrey
+ WhereCamp PDX
October event for location-based services and other mapping-related topics
Legion of Tech would do sponsor work
Audrey will lead, Selena will do sponsors, Justin will put together website
+ Starting a LoT technology committee
Sub-committee in charge of maintaining our websites, blog, wiki, software (ticketing, proposal), graphic assets (sponsor logos), passwords
Public issue tracker for others to add technical problems
Committee will consist of three technical board members. Currently: Audrey, Selena, Adam
+ Event planning process–How can we make things run more smoothly?
Discussed ways to be more visible to the community and not appear secretive
Audrey and Selena will send a proposal to the BOD mailing list
o Dawn
+ Legion of Tech Happy Hour (was BarCamp Meetups)
Discussed alternate locations and the downsides of aligning with any one company
Dawn will call Plan B about using patio
+ WordCamp
Tentative September 27
Board does not feel comfortable with only covering the money-accepting angle.
No board member is available to lead the event
o Adam
+ Involving more of our community
Involve volunteers more in the planning process and groom them for leading in the future
Board will discuss in the future how to handle individual contributions