LDS Tech Community Membership

[greenwoodkl]

This is a very rough idea, but here it goes...

After reading several blogs from those who were and were not able to attend the Tech Talks, and finding so many people involved on this site, would there be a way to semi-formalize the LDS Tech Community to help build comraderie outside of the web forum? I personally enjoyed socializing with friends at the Tech Talk and would welcome a more formal community outside of the web scene and enjoy finding a new group of LDS techies as I potentially move around the country during my career.

Certainly tech talks expanding elsewhere and hopefully on a semi-regular basis to keep momentum and interest growing will help build the association as members of the community see each other at several events. The potential formalization of the community could lead to assistance in hosting more events.

Could we come up with some sort of official community membership card with a cool logo and code of conduct with regional chapters or something? Maybe it would be too much overhead, but add some structure to this nebulous community where for example a DC Area chapter of the Tech Community would host a Tech Talk in their area, or as open-source developing for the Church becomes more utilized, committees over various general application types could organize and coordinate projects so Tom isn't overwhelmed with managing the burgeoning community all on his own.

Thoughts?

[WelchTC]

That is a great idea! We just need to be careful that if the Church is affiliated with it in any formal way that these talks stick to the charter that this web site has.

Tom

[greenwoodkl]

As I wrote that late last night my thoughts were kinda murky. Upon further contemplation, I'm thinking some sort of network similar to BYU Alumni chapters or BYU Management Society chapters where it is a combination of official affiliation with the parent organization but each local chapter has the ability to raise funds and sponsor activities on its own. This could become an amazing network where the tech community could assist each other in finding jobs, could help the units with tech needs and training for stake tech specialists, etc... They could also partner with BYU Alum chapters, the Church, or other local tech groups to sponsor meaningful events. This would follow some sort of voluntary basis I imagine for local chapter leadership. Also, the Church could then sponsor specific "committees" or organizational-wide groups to handle specific areas that could tap into members from anywhere - maybe along the lines of the topics we currently have in the forum. Then this website could become the central base for the entire organization and have some more content other than the active forums.