[OSGeo-Discuss] Local Chapter Guidance

[Phil Nugent]

Thanks for sharing your perspective and experience Michael.  I've been
thinking along the same lines for getting started by having an informal,
"after hours" meeting with a talk and general discussion....and food and
beer never hurts. ;)  I'm encouraged that I'm thinking along the same lines
as someone who's been through it.


On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 9:49 PM, Michael Gerlek <mpg at flaxen.com> wrote:

> Phil:
>
> Don’t worry about the formalities: just find a few people who will
> regularly attend and talk about cool stuff, and then let things organically
> grow form there. It may take time, but be patient. Remember, a cool group
> of five people sitting around chatting for an hour is perfectly fine: you
> don’t need to have a fancy venue, dozens of people, or Big Name speakers.
>
> CUGOS (www.cugos.org) has been around for 7(!) years now, with monthly
> attendance averaging 20-30 people (we hit a record 53 last week). Just off
> the top of my head, some of the things we’ve learned over the years:
>
> * Try to find a place you can meet regularly, rather than switching venues
> all the time – initially, just a conference room at a local library or
> university is fine. Or perhaps one of your core attendees has a company
> meeting room available after hours.
>
> * Try to connect with your local college or university. Seniors and grad
> students can present projects they’re working on. Students looking to
> graduate soon need to network, find skills they’re missing, etc.
>
> * Don’t overly restrict yourself to "Open Source GIS". If you get a chance
> to host a good talk on some new GIS app or technology outside the open
> source realm, or a cool new open source thing outside of GIS, go for it. If
> a local GIS company wants to pitch their services, why not?
>
> * Get a mailing list going – you’re likely to reach 10x the number of
> people on a list over in-person meetings. In fact, consider just starting
> with a mailing list, letting it grow for a while, and then hold your first
> face-to-face meeting once you’ve got some traction.
>
> * Food always helps. Pass around a hat for donations and you’ll almost
> certainly wind up with a bit of profit from the evening you can use to seed
> the next meeting.
>
> * Going out for beers afterwards also helps. We get probably get 1/4 or
> 1/3 of our attendees socializing at a local bar for an hour or two after
> our the actual meeting itself. (We’ve reached the point where we need to
> give the bar a heads-up call in advance so they’re prepared for 10-20
> people to walk in all at once and ask for a table.)
>
> * When you get a critical mass, hold outreach events: it’s a public
> service first, and as a side-benefit it will promote your group to others
> who may be interested. Every year CUGOS holds an all-day event on the
> campus of UW that attracts a lot of attention. Some of our members also
> volunteer their services for various events like career fairs, mapping
> parties, GIS Day at local schools, training, informal workshops and
> sprints, etc.
>
> Good luck!
>
> -mpg
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Phil Nugent <philip.j.nugent at gmail.com>
> Date: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 at 6:15 PM
> To: <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
> Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Local Chapter Guidance
>
> Hey all,
>
> I’m wondering about general guidance or anecdotal experiences of creating
> a local chapter or informal users groups.  I’m wondering whether it helps
> to have a fleshed out mission and objectives with some sort of general
> roadmap or whether critical mass of interest is gained organically over
> time and to not worry about the details and just create a wiki page to
> guage interest.  I am thinking of organizing a small seminar series at work
> for people interested in FOSS4G, but beyond that, do you all have any
> guidance for reaching out to potential cohorts in a fledgling chapter’s
> region?  I have thoughts on the mission of the chapter aside from goals
> aligned with the greater community, but wonder if it’s better if that
> arises naturally as, and if, more people become involved.  Any guidance is
> appreciated.
>
> - Phil
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