Re: [UG-ADMINS] How do you generate enthusiasm?

Hi,

We've only just started a couple of months ago, but we do the same things Stefan said. O'Reilly and Engineyard are absolutely great when it comes to community support. Also, I think many leanpub authors are quite accessible for an ebooks to raffle off (we ask the winners to provide feedback in return).

As for engagement, I try to do a writeup of every meeting. I send those to all members (including those who didn't attend), plus the sponsors for that meetup. We have also just put up our own website, but as an open source project where anyone in the group(ish) can participate. A group project like this might bring some more engagement also...

On a personal level, I feel that RSVP'ing and not showing up is bad etiquette. So we actually mark no-shows on meetup.com (no idea if people even notice that).

-- 
Ramon de la Fuente
@sweetlakephp


On Oct 9, 2013, at 9:22 PM, Joel Clermont <[email protected]> wrote:

> We raffle off a PHPStorm license, but they ask us to only do it if we have at least 10 - 15 attendees. I think we did it last month, which was better turnout. I'll look into O'Reilly. I think we are part of the program, but I don't think we've given anything away from there in a while. 
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> I like the social idea too. Definitely worth a try. Thanks for the feedback.
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> Joel Clermont
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> On Oct 9, 2013, at 2:04 PM, Stefan Koopmanschap - PFZ.nl <[email protected]> wrote:
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>> Hi,
>> 
>> We usually try and write announcements, get interesting topics etc, but you seem to be doing that as well. We also try to have something to raffle every meetup. Sometimes it's a PHPStorm license (Jetbrains are cool!), sometimes it's a book (have you registered for the O'Reilly usergroup program yet?). That definitely helps.
>> 
>> We've also organized a lasergame-meetup once. No speaker at all, just some rounds of lasergaming and bowling. That helps getting people together and getting to know them.
>> 
>> We're only just starting with PHPAmersfoort but so far attendance has always been reasonably good.
>> 
>> Stefan
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>>> 	Joel Clermont	October 9, 2013 9:01 PM
>>> Last night, we had our monthly meeting for MKEPUG (Milwaukee, WI). We didn't have high expectations, since only 13 people RSVP'd, but we only had 5 show up.  The topic was new items in PHP 5.4 and 5.5, something several members had expressed interest in. To make it even more engaging, we formatted it as an interactive discussion, instead of a single speaker talking for 45 minutes.
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>>> Overall, we have a core group of regular people, but our attendance averages 15 for a group of over 300 members. We'll occasionally spike up to 25 or 30 if we have a visiting speaker, but that's rare.
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>>> I'm discussing the issue with my fellow organizers and my current plan is to send a heartfelt letter to the members asking them why more people don't come? Is it logistical (bad time/location/day)? Is it the topic? The format? Something else?
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>>> We even have free beer (and soda/water/juice) provided by our host! The location is comfortable with free wifi, plenty of seating, good A/V, free parking.
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>>> I'm getting frustrated because I want a more vibrant community. Any advice/suggestions/help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
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>>> Joel Clermont
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