[Local-chapters] Fwd: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Local Chapter Guidance

[Arnulf Christl]

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Phil,
please consider joining this list.


Michael,
thanks for this great summary.


Folks,
it would be great to condense Michael's thoughts on a Local Chapters
page on the OSGeo Wiki, for example here:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Local_Chapters/Starting

Cheers,
Arnulf

PS:
Sure, I'd like to do(-ocratic) this myself but will not be able to
commit until next week, so if someone has the time please go ahead...

- -------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Local Chapter Guidance
Date: 	Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:49:08 -0700
From: 	Michael Gerlek <mpg at flaxen.com>
To: 	Phil Nugent <philip.j.nugent at gmail.com>, <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>



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
<mailto:philip.j.nugent at gmail.com>>
Date: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 at 6:15 PM
To: <discuss at lists.osgeo.org <mailto: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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