Hello fellow WP fans,

Please forgive the long email with multiple topics.  With more events and more members joining the Meetup, we are trying our best to minimize needless emails and trying to combine information into one or two important updates per month.  We want the Meetup to be a great resource for the members and not a source of email spam.  :-)

 

June Meetup Follow-up
June was officially our largest meetup so far with 59 people in attendance.  Wow, congratulations everyone for continuing to make this a fantastic, dynamic and growig group.  I want to thank our presenters from the Meetup last week (Steven Sheeler and Seth Carstens).  Steven had some very interesting information regarding local search optimization and Seth gave some tremendous information about a new White Label Framework available through the new WordPress App Store. Thank you both for the information you shared.  You can find the information on our WordPress Meetup Site by going to  http://www.meetup.com... then click pages at the top and then click June 14, 2012 meetup notes.  Thanks to Lori Pasulka for taking these notes and uploading them.
 

Live Streaming
I want to apologize to those who tried to get the live stream but were unable to hear the audio.  I think those at the meetup will testify to the fact that I tried my hardest to get the sound working for the live stream.  I am so sorry that it didn't work out.  However, I am very happy to report that we are going to try a new method of streaming for the July meeting using a professional service, Adobe Connect.  We are hopeful that this will have fewer technical issues.  Please look for specific information right before the July Meetup.
 

New Meetup Format with Sessions for Developers
One of the biggest challenges of this meetup group is to meet the needs of both the new WordPress users as well as the seasoned users and developers.  We have talked about breaking the group into 2 sections for quite some time, but this is finally a reality.  Beginning in July, we will have the developers and advanced users break into their own session at each meet-up.  The topic and agenda for these sessions will be based on the needs/requests of the developers in attendance.  The new format will have the developers and the new user splitting up for the "Show and Tell" at 6:30 and the 1st Topic Presentation at 7:00.  The two groups will combine around 7:45 for the "Idea Swap" and will be together for the second topic presentation.
 

Additional Information for New WP Users
We have added some additional information for new WP users on the meetup page called "Resources for Newbies".  You can find this page at http://www.meetup.com... There are some common and very important questions that most people have when they are new to the world of WordPress.  If you are new to WordPress and plan on coming to one of the meetups, we ask that you review the information at the very top of this page, prior to your first meeting.  This will help clarify many of these common questions so that you will be much more informed at your very first meeting.
 

North Meetup Location
Seth Carstens is still looking to create a North Valley WordPress meetup site.  Putting together a meetup requires time and effort and Seth would greatly appreciate any volunteers to help in this effort.  If you are interested in a North Valley meetup, contact Seth@Sethmatics.com.
 

Next Month Topic
Our next meetup will be July 12th at 6:30 at Gangplank in Chandler.  Cory Crowley will lead a presentation on the creation, customization and use of online forms using Gravity Forms Plugin for WordPress.  As mentioned above, the developers will break out for the first part of the Meetup and then will join towards the end as Cory presents information on Gravity Forms that is designed for the more advanced user.  I look forward to see you at the next Meetup.
 

Thanks again to the fellow organizers and speakers who continually make this meetup possible.

Wow!! I had no idea when I signed up that I was joining such a well-organized and informative group!
I can see there is much information to look into well ahead of the upcoming meetup date.

Thank You!!!

:-D Thanks so much! So glad to have you as a part of our group! Look forward to meeting you soon.

Carol