At the end of yesterday’s post, I mentioned that I was going to the Blogaronis last night with my friend Teresa. Well, I went, and today I’m reporting back to you. In case you don’t know, the Blogaronis are local blogging awards given by the Springfield Bloggers Association, a loosely-organized group of bloggers in the Springfield area. I wasn’t nominated for A Fool of Myself (perhaps because I haven’t done much local blog networking), so I went to meet some new people and put some names to faces.

I had no idea what to expect. Honestly, I was a bit concerned that this “association” was just a group of geeks getting together to drink. Thankfully, I was wrong. The SBA is totally legitimate; essentially they’re a varied group of uber-blogging nerds like me. I’ve finally found my element.

Ten or so bloggers were there; I’d say about half were veteran SBAers and the other half were newbies, which put me at ease. We introduced ourselves, and Larry Litle of Simple Thoughts of a Complex Mind handed out the 14 category awards. After a photo, we split into separate conversations. I asked lots of questions. Found out that Larry’s wife is having a baby in a few weeks and that he needed someone to pick up the ball and schedule the next few meetings. So I became a ball picker-upper and volunteered to organize the next meeting. I am crazy.

Seriously, crazy. You know me. I’m an administrative, organizing freak of nature who is constantly thinking of ways to improve the things around her. I am an unstoppable monster. And as to be expected, I came away from Patton Alley Pub with a million and one ideas running through my head of how SBA can improve. I mentioned a few of them to Teresa. I told Chris about them. I woke up before my alarm this morning because I was thinking about them.

So if anyone from SBA reads the rest of this post, please understand that I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes or ruin the status quo of the organization. I’m a newbie; I don’t know how things work. At the same time, I want to get involved, spread the blogging love, and help the organization grow. So here are the ideas I’ve been chewing on since last night:

Blog

I think it’s a little silly that a blogging association doesn’t have a blog, and if SBA had a blog, it would be easier for local bloggers to stay up to date with the organization. Currently, meeting news, the blogroll, and the blogaronis are scattered across several different blogs, which doesn’t make it easy to learn about the group. I would propose a WordPress blog with pages for essential information about SBA and posts with news and announcements and such.

WordPress has a powerful blogroll (Links) function that allows blog owners to categorize their links, and the site could also allow bloggers to submit their blogs for the blogroll. The blogroll could be organized according to location (i.e. Springfield, Nixa, Ozark, etc.), genre (i.e. sports, technology, news, etc.), or by any other specifications.

Meetings

I’m in charge of scheduling the next meeting, and I have no idea what that entails other than selecting a meeting place. I’m going to ask around, but I’d like to see some “programs” at those meetings. You know, 20 minute (or so) lessons on any number of blogging topics or words from some “celebrity” bloggers. Maybe they already do this. I really don’t know. While it is fun to get together and have a beer (or Diet Coke, in my case), I think some people might be more inclined to come to meetings if there is a clear purpose.

Community Service

Not sure how this would shape up, but bloggers have some power with their pens, er, keyboards, and I’d like to see them put those skills to good use. Off the top of my head, we could adopt a non-profit organization to plug on our blogs for a specific period of time, we could adopt some local businesses and get them on the blogging train, we could teach senior citizens how to set up their own blogs. The sky is the limit.

Flair

Lastly, SBA needs some flair. I’m talking SBA badges and Blogaroni “trophies” for our sidebars. We would need a designer, but I happen to live with one who might be up for the job.

And those are my ideas. I’m so glad to get them out of my head because they were driving me crazy! I think SBA has great potential to grow a blogging community in Springfield; I just want to see it succeed. I’m definitely going to exchange some emails with some of the veterans last night about how I should go about scheduling the next meeting. I’ll keep you posted on how all this pans out. Scary!

Author’s Note

It totally didn’t occur to me yesterday to share some link love with the people I met Monday night. If you’re in Springfield, definitely check out these blogs:

• Jason of Life of Jason
• Dr. Andrew Cline of Rhetorica and Carbon Trace
• Teresa of Daily Adventures and The Springfield Foodie
• Chris of The World According to Chris Brewer
• Steve of SpringfieldMO Soccer
• Angie of Sugar Britches
• Newsy and Donna of Show-Me Opinions
• Mike of Ozarks Photos
• Jack of Fat Jack’s Erratic Rants