🧰 Starter Kit

Start a BeerJS in your city

Anyone can do it - why not you? Please open an issue on the meta repo and clearly state:

  • The GitHub usernames of everyone who should be an admin on the repo. Having at least 2 is best, but if it’s just you, that’s fine.
  • The name of the repo. This becomes the URL slug, e.g., beers/foo. If your city has a short name, like an airport code, that’s fine. Whatever you like, that’s still recognizable as your city. Bonus: gifs or emoji are always welcome.

We will try to get you set up within a couple of days. Sometimes, it may take a little longer as this is us giving time to the JS community. Please have a little patience if things happen slower than you want.

It’s totally ok to ask for an update in the comments or contact Jordan or Darko on Slack 😄

Once a repo is created, encourage people in your branch to “watch” the repo and subscribe to notifications for issues on GitHub. Filling out a README, description, and optional URL to your repo will help people know what’s happening and want to attend your cool event. Feel free to borrow text and formatting from other Beer.js repos.

Why organize on GitHub (or not)?

In short, convenience. Issues are a great way to propose, plan, and remind people of upcoming events. More info here and here. That said, if you’d rather use another tool or platform, that’s fine, too. Every BeerJS branch does its own thing, so do what works for you.

Follow the Code of Conduct

All events, activities, and internet spaces that bear the beer.js name are subject to the Citizen Code of Conduct. Simply put, harassment of any form will not be tolerated and should be reported to your local organizer or to Jordan or Darko. Please drink responsibly and act in a way that honors the community values of respect and mutual enrichment that we share.

A note about beer

BeerJS is about creating social spaces to strengthen software communities. There is no requirement to drink to participate.

Tools to help you run your BeerJS

Utilities

Website themes

If you’d like to have a website for your BeerJS, you can use one of these themes:

Assets

Stickers

Honestly, who doesn’t love a good sticker? Do you run your local BeerJS events? Sticker Mule would like to support your efforts and help our community grow. You can request sponsorship here.

Rules on donations and sponsorships

BeerJS is not an organization that generates any income. It’s not a nonprofit, either. This makes funding events trickier. In no way does having a chapter mean that you need to fund everything out of your pocket. Finding partners to work with you in growing our community is encouraged. Partners can be locations for your events, beer vendors, Sticker Mule, local companies, etc.

Do this

The Tahoe branch met at a coworking location for free, and a local microbrewery would donate beer every month to support our efforts. None of those groups ever asked for something in return. They were supporters of building the community.

Not this (totally made this up)

A company has agreed to provide beer if it has access to the email addresses of the members of your community. A recruiter has offered to buy pizza if you let them use a meetup as a recruitment platform.

Take away

  • Recruiters are part of our community. Buying pizza or something to support the community is ok because people are looking for jobs. They can mingle and network just like the rest of us.
  • Companies that want to give you a place to meet are wonderful because we need places to meet.
  • Groups that print stickers pro-bono are awesome because we all love stickers.
  • ANYONE who offers something in exchange for something has ulterior motives and needs to be avoided. Do not owe anyone anything.

Sounds fun? Find a Beer.JS nearby!

It's beer and JavaScript, what's not to like?

Find a meetup