Recruiting: San Francisco Flash Platform User Group
Disclaimer: If there is already a San Francisco Flash Platform user group in existence, please let me know and ignore this post.
From my observations, I’ve heard of many Flash user groups from all around the world. The first few that spring to mind are based in Boston, LA, London and Belgium. They all seem to attract a good following and these people seem to want to share what they know and love with other like minded individuals.
So, what’s the motivation behind this post. Well, for the past few years, I’ve been a bit of a Flash lone wolf, as I’ve always ended up working as the only ActionScripter in my workplaces. Even now at Sony, I’m working in an office full of C engineers and one IA person. I have no one to talk ActionScript with!
At lunch times, I’ll sometimes take the short walk down Townsend St to get a burger from the Holy Grill, passing the SF Adobe building on the way. And I feel that I can’t be alone in my ActionScript world with the Flash mother-ship right next to me. haha.
For these reasons, I feel compelled to start a San Francisco based Flash Platform user group (see Disclaimer). To start recruiting people, I’ve setup a group hosted on Facebook (yes, I know it’s not the best solution and it’s only temporary) so, if your based in the Bay Area, with a love for anything Flash / Flex / AIR / ActionScript / MXML related, I would encourage you to join in!
When and if the group gets a big enough following, I’ll make another posting, both on here and on Facebook, outlining plans for a first meet to discuss how the group shall be organized.
I feel that any kind of group should be as democratic as possible, so please, if you have any suggestions or feedback on what I can do to make this group a success, please don’t hesitate in leaving me a comment or email.
Let’s make it happen! 
Awesome! Another FPUG! I think Boston was the first.
I’m sure you can find plenty of people to take part. And as much as Democracy sounds good, I’ve found it not too workable for organizing a group. Everyone throws out suggestions and waits for someone else to actually do something, so at some point, someone has to just say, “OK, this is what we’re doing.” Generally, if you are not too far off, everyone’s pretty happy.
All you really need is a space to hold it in - you should be able to get someone to donate some space one night a month or whatever. If you can arrange some pizza, that’s great. Beer is even better. In Boston we usually go out to a local bar or pub after the meeting. London is more direct and has their meetings IN the bar! For some reason, I think they get more people.
HI,
I think this is a great idea. I have talked to many fellow SF flash designers/developers and many think the time has come for us SF resident flashers to build a community. It is a shame that we, who live and work in the town where the flash platform gets published , are not a united group.
You can count me in.
I think Adobe should be able to accommodate us in its offices for meetings. That used to be the case when SFMMUG used to meet a few years back. Ass for Beer and drinks, Mars Bar is a great place to hang out with Adobe staff and mingle about new features.
Cheers
Count me in as well. My coworkers are heavily schooled in AMX, Crestron, and C , but I’m all alone with my AS2. We actually hired another flash developer a few months ago (and I was really looking forward to doing projects with him), but he burned out and fled the state.
Since I’m in the process of migrating to AS3 I thought I would look into finding the local Flash Users Group, but was suprised to find that there is none! I’ll be at the RIA thing next week and will look for you there to talk about this.
-richard
Very much needed. Count me in!
(I was sold at “Holy Grill”…mmm garlic fries!)
I need Flash Developers and when I find them, I will direct them to you for support. If you are interested in some really innovative and fun work here in SF please contact me.
Patience
What ever happened to sfmmuf?
-Joel