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

[Phil Nugent]

Hi Arnulf,

I agree...I found the summary very helpful and had planned on creating a
page from it.  I will put it up later today. Additional thoughts and
experiences on what made other use groups or chapters successful are
welcomed.

Thanks,
Phil
On Apr 23, 2014 5:19 AM, "Arnulf Christl" <arnulf.christl at metaspatial.net>
wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> 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
> _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/
>
> iEYEARECAAYFAlNXhbIACgkQXmFKW+BJ1b0mIwCfZG94SiDAydqel4PllKOGZjBt
> f2kAn19DOKg5xSoLIyNjzt+6FbbXBw9D
> =drz+
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/local-chapters/attachments/20140423/a0161967/attachment.html>