From: Francis Hwang Date: 2004-10-13T13:05:58+09:00 Subject: Re: Ruby User Groups (Was Re: Meeting flyer) My experience, both with Ruby-NYC and a previous group, is that it's good not to push it. I was in a previous group that met once a week, which means that it required a big commitment, and if you could only come once a month you sort of felt out of the loop of the discussion. Also, that group worked on a project together, whereas Ruby-NYC is just a bunch of folks getting together and talking. Over the last year, Ruby-NYC has grown steadily, but it's never huge -- the last meeting was 7 people, which is our high so far. What we do is: + Always assign somebody to give a casual, over-the-shoulder presentation of some sort. This is usually somebody talking about a library they wrote, but in theory could also be, for example, a survey ("I needed to pick a Ruby web framework so I looked at all of them, and here's what I found"). When you have a specific topic for a specific meeting, sometimes you get people who wouldn't come for a general Ruby group. Last time, Rob talked about topic maps, so we got a few folks showing up more to hear about topic maps. ( I've joked that at this rate, I'll have to rename it the Ruby-Ontology-NYC group. ) + I've been to these sorts of things both in offices and in semi-public spaces like internet cafes. There are lots of pluses and minuses to each approach, but wherever you are I think it's important that you have quick access to lots of different sorts of snacks & drinks. It should feel like you're relaxing after work, not working late. + Also, I suspect that group coding sessions are for a certain hardcore faction of programmer, so we don't do a lot of that. We do a lot of talking and a teensy bit of coding. I'm thinking of mixing that up occasionally in the future, though. + I always send an after-the-fact email to the list where I give a brief synopsis of what we talked about and how many people came. It seems to work well to nag lurkers into finally showing up. F. On Oct 12, 2004, at 11:31 PM, Jamis Buck wrote: > Bill Atkins wrote: >> Jamis, >> I'm intrigued about this RUG. How many members do you have? How did >> you get it started? I'd love to get involved with something like that >> in my area. > > We've got about 6 (give or take) active members, with three more that > have moved and keep in touch via email (Carl Youngblood among them). > There are a handful more on our mailing list that haven't been to a > meeting in a while. You have to understand--we're at a university with > a student body of 30,000+ students. So a friend of mine and I were > talking one day and thought, "you know, with so many students (and a > sizeable CS department, to boot), there ought to be at least a few > people interested in Ruby." > > Thus, we founded the BYU Ruby Users Group. It started mostly with > people in my office, but has gradually grown to include a few other > members, mostly by word of mouth. I post those flyers about a week > before each meeting, but I don't know that anyone has actually > attended a meeting because of one. :) > > I'm curious: has anyone found a successful strategy for adding members > to their RUG? > > - Jamis > >> Bill >> On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 11:25:23 +0900, Jamis Buck >> wrote: >>> >>> Jamis Buck wrote: >>> >>>> Okay--just a quick request. Could a few of you glance at the flyer >>>> and >>>> let me know if it looks okay? Any typos I'm not seeing? Etc. FWIW: I >>>> left the meeting time at 7, since that seemed to work for people at >>>> the >>>> last meeting. So...one last time...Tuesday, October 19th, at 7 pm, >>>> in >>>> room 120 of the TMCB. Sound good? >>>> >>>> http://www.jamisbuck.org/rug_flyer.pdf >>>> >>>> Thanks! If no one has any objections, I'll print the flyers out >>>> tomorrow >>>> and take them to the secretaries in the CS department tomorrow >>>> afternoon. >>>> >>>> Hans or Jacob -- I can't remember who said they could post an >>>> announcement to the UUG. :) Whoever it was, you could post the >>>> announcement anytime after the flyer is validated. >>>> >>> >>> Arg. I'm stupid. I meant to send this to my local RUG. *blush* >>> >>> It's too late. I'm not thinking straight. *sigh* >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Jamis Buck >>> jgb3@email.byu.edu >>> http://www.jamisbuck.org/jamis >>> >>> >> . > > > -- > Jamis Buck > jgb3@email.byu.edu > http://www.jamisbuck.org/jamis >