Next DUG Location
I thought it would be nice to meet somewhere new (somewhere with food and drink). I'm thinking about Cafe Vita on Capitol Hill:
http://www.caffevita.com/index.php?page=capitol_hill
What do you think? Basically I'm looking for some major naysayers; otherwise let's give it a go.
Groups:
Login to post comments
Ical feed
w00t!
+1 for meeting on the hill.
I will point out though that the new Vita location is a bit tighter than the old digs, but if attendance is typical it should not be a problem (no free pizza). If you want I can scope it out and reserve the room.
-jared
Jared please go ahead and
Jared please go ahead and reserve the room. We can cancel the reservation if people respond strongly against meeting there. Also, I met upstairs with the Linuxchix and that seemed roomy...in case we need more space. I think we could do coworking here as well.
Robin
oop
I though we were talking about Vivace. Vita is good too, but does not have a meeting room to reserve like Vivace does.
-jared
Not a problem. I thought
Not a problem. I thought you knew something I didn't (I kept thinking..."what meeting room?"). :)
Robin
Stay in Downtown, for bus access, please
You cannot get direct bus service to Capitol Hill from anywhere except the U-District and maybe the south end (bus 48 I think goes there).
So can we keep the meetings downtown so that those of us who choose to commute to meetings by bus can continue to do so? You can get to downtown Seattle from anywhere in the metro area by bus...
Location and buses...
http://tripplanner.kingcounty.gov/ suggests route 49 for downtown to Capitol Hill.
I know, but...
Yes, you can ride a bus from downtown to Capitol Hill. There are several. The issue is that if you first have to get to downtown from your location by bus, then transfer to another bus, that increases the time to get to the meeting. It's much worse on the way back, since the meeting gets out at 8 PM, when buses are running less frequently, and having to wait for two different infrequent buses could double your trip time.
Vivace is quite a distance from the central downtown area too. For me personally, it's not too horrible (my bus runs down 99), but for people coming from the West Seattle, or Snohomish County by bus (to name two places I know people sometimes come to our meetings from by bus), it's not all that convenient.
My opinion: Methodologie or StartPad, if they are so generous as to continue hosting the meetings, are in the right location, and it's pretty easy to stop just outside and get some food/drink before coming upstairs for the meeting.
Thanks uwguy. Some folks
Thanks uwguy. Some folks aren't located in Seattle (like Jennifer). Sorry Jennifer, I forgot about the buses. Will try again. Maybe Vivace by the REI would be a good place to revisit...only if we can get the room. Personally I would prefer a place that offers more than sweets (like salads and sandwiches). Jared, can you check Vivace and see if the room is available on April 16th?
I'll look around some more. Some new places have opened near there which might work for us as well.
Robin
I'll be driving Across the
I'll be driving Across the I-90 Bridge so I could pick someone up. Carpooling works!
The problem with
The problem with Methodologie and Startpad is that they are offices, and we've been losing attendance because of it. It's worth investigating a more open environment that doesn't have locked doors, includes food, and has a different atmosphere from "work".
I'll keep looking, and I'm not saying we can't have meetings at StartPad or Methodologie. This is more along the lines of "variety is the spice of life".
Robin
I support scouting out a new
I support scouting out a new location as well. It doesn't really matter to me in what part of town we meet, but I like the idea of a setting that might seem more accessible to newcomers/drop-ins. Also, food and drink on hand is a huge plus.
I thought I saw a post
I thought I saw a post earlier for a meeting time of 3-6... I would definitely be in favor of a co-work during the afternoon!
What about Elliott Bay Book Co Cafe?
We co-worked in March at the Elliott Bay Book Co - they do have a meeting room (they use it for author events); not sure if we could reserve it.
http://www.elliottbaybook.com/about/cafe/index.jsp
One drawback: they close at 8 PM (the bookstore closes at 9 pm).
Attendance drop-off
One more thing: you say that attendance has dropped off because we are meeting in an office rather than a cafe. Are you sure that is why? There could be a lot of reasons:
See also http://groups.drupal.org/node/10436
I can only speak for myself, but when considering whether to go to a work-related meeting (Drupal or otherwise), I look at the balance between the costs and benefits. The costs I personally consider:
The benefits for me:
Others would have different lists. So if the goal is to increase attendance, I think we might want to find out what would make potential attendees come (without driving away any of our current attendees). For instance, would the availability of food outweigh the extra noise and meeting in a space that is probably less conducive to presentations (screens, projectors, etc.) if we switched to a cafe? Has anyone talked to people who don't regularly attend, to find out what would make them want to come to meetings? Should we do a poll?