What are your ideas on the current meetup structure?

I'm relocating to Sydney next week and am quite looking forward to seeing how other Drupal meetups work (I've been the main organiser for the Drupal WA meetups in Perth).

I've not run a Drupal Group - but I did run the linux user vic meetups for 2 years, and OSIA meetups for a year before that.

I always tried hard to have next month's talk lined up before the current month so it could be intro'd. Didn't always work, but it's definitely a good way to build the audience. Because regular attendees can help promote through word of mouth to people who may have an interest in that particular topic.

So ++ to planning and promoting topics and speakers in advance.

The other thing I've learned, is you need to bank on consistency. Same time, same venue. And start on time, and finish on time. Let your speakers know how much time they have, and give them time indicators while they're speaking.

And if you can spring for some eats and drinks (perhaps a sponsor?) that also helps.

Thanks for taking the time to comment Donna,

I whole-heartedly agree that planning is key, and I think that the planning would be made a lot easier when the responsibilities are spread over more people, and each person was clear as to what they are responsible for.

I felt the DrupalCon track chair arrangement worked really well - perhaps this could work at the meetup level. A person is responsible for a meetup, and they decide upon a theme and then reach out to get people presenting. Presenters could come from within the meetup, but also through contacts in other communities, to add perspective to what we are doing.

The idea of sponsors was floated before, and there was some resistance to the idea as it was presented (the idea was that the sponsor gets to give a presentation). I think if you removed that element, and the sponsor was acknowledged at the beginning of the event (and could display signage etc) then perhaps it could be back on the table.

Thanks for everyone's ideas and support - though many of them are already in place or have been in the works.

Firstly, as part of the wrap up to last year a survey was sent out for this kind of feedback. https://drupalsydney.webform.com/form/4180 The results of that survey were presented at the Jan meetup and we had a group discussion about what to do for this year (as we usually do at the first meetup of the year for the last couple years). I don't want to quell the discussion here, but it would be super helpful if everyone who is commenting here or even just lurking, could spend a few mins filling it out since the current number of results is a bit low. I'm happy to share the raw data with anyone who asks.

Important

unlike this forum, the feedback form can be anonymous and negative feedback is extremely more valuable than no feedback

Much of this was discussed at the last meeting, but to address the few points here already:

• Consistency - we've been at the same venue, on the same day, same time, every month, for 5+ years. Its one of the main things that I think has driven the local group growth. I'm open for feedback, but I can't think of a way to be more consistent. (Though, please note we are switching venues this month that, if successful, will be our new permanent venue)
• Format - We've experimented with several different things through out the years and continue to do so, though a mix of formal presentations and social seems be what keeps coming back as "the standard".
• Committee - I'm definitely in favor of more help but, as was emphasised repeatedly at the last meetup, what we need is speakers to step up more. Aside from possibly coordinating efforts a bit centrally (for example, Kim just posted about a sprint and I had already been discussing plans for this with Adam), I don't think we really need a committee.
• Sprints - I had planned on running one of these late last year with assistance from Justin to also help ramp up sprint experience in preparation for DCSyd, though with other DC Syd prep this fell to the side. We had started planning a sprint for the global Drupal Sprint Weekend or for one a few months after to ensure each event is able to gain some critical mass/traction.
• Mentoring - I have been developing a mentoring program for quite some time, as I've discussed with many of you. This year there seems to be enough interest/support in running it based on the survey feedback and the discussion at the last meetup, so I'll be finalising plans for that in the coming weeks.
• Speakers - There is a lot to say here since this is where most of my time with the meetups goes. At times I've had speakers lined up 12 months in advance, other times I have to scramble and cajole to get someone in the last few hours before the meetup. Each approach I've tried has pros and cons of course. It was actually frustrating that the DC track chairs couldn't be provided much input about speakers/presentations coming from the local area because they hadn't been presented previously. For example, I was quite disappointed to see 6 sessions from PreviousNext at DrupalCon which had never been seen by the local community first. Boris has spoken in years past, and was one of the few to offer to speak at the meetup this year. I'm constantly soliciting for speakers and reaching out to people both in the local community and in related communities to speak. Piers Warmers is a great example of someone I brought in to speak about Symfony, got positive feedback from, and then turned in a great session at DrupalCon (even got shoutout from the lullabot's podcast). I have other speakers I've already been talking to for this year, but ultimately I need more people to step up.

@Gollyg - You haven't been to the meetups in quite a long time though you were part of them in the early days and were even instrumental in getting our current venue, so I'm interested to hear more about your impressions from the outside. I would also hope that you encourage all those people talking to you to come chat to me about their ideas and impressions.

if anyone wants to talk to me directly rather than posting or filling in the survey, please just send a message through my contact form and I can give you a ring to discuss.

Glad you all got things moving guys. I'd also be happy to give any advice on promotion/outreach to the wider populace if you need any.

Sounds like there is a bit of a consensus here to change the format and organising structure and so I'd like to share some lessons from being on the AIMIA NSW committee for some period of time.

Is this a problem of consistency? No. DrupalCon Sydney proved that there are a lot of high quality organisers in the community who can step up to the plate. If we set a trial format here we can divvy out each month to a couple of "organisers" to source speakers and spearhead community activities for that month. I'm sure we all heard and had ideas about who we'd like to bring to speak and this is a great chance to get a true variety chocolate box.

What about the support jobs? It's all about ownership. Once these roles are decided people can put their hand up to take on a task for one or a series of months. Setting up mentorships or uploading sessions are time consuming and much easier to do if you know you have that role for a finite period of time. Limiting the time you are assigned to jobs increases the likelihood you'll do them and do them well!

What about "me"? Being an organiser for a month is an opportunity to develop some personal skills. Let's agree that having that opportunity to challenge yourself should be open to all.

God is in the details!: (said Jeff Koons in a particularly odd documentary as he polished a statue with his sleeve). There are some details that the Sydney community needs to work out. Access to social channels, financial resources, booking methods, contact lists etc. Let's make sure that we mitigate any risk of running out of steam and take stock of what resources are to hand.

Z

I don't attend the Sydney meetups as often as I'd like to for a couple of reasons:

• I live a couple of hours away, so I have to ask myself is it worth 4 hours of travel time to attend?
• I live a couple of hours away, so I really need to be on the 9pm train home at the latest if I'm to get my required beauty sleep. The meetings are rarely finished before 9.

So here's my little list of suggestions:

1) make the meetings shorter, start on time at 6.30 or 7, and retire to the pub at 8 - 8.30. I believe the venue change might help with the punctuality, which is good.

2) Allow remote attendance via google hangout. This might be worth a try.

3) Allow for remote presentations via google hangouts (or the broadcast version which is called google hangouts live or something I think). I've seen Dave Hall do some of these remote presentations to US meetups, and they seem to work pretty well. Side benefit is you can make the recording available on youtube. This would considerably widen the net when sourcing presenters.

4) More BoF/workshop/mentoring stuff - and make the topics focused enough to make it attractive to attend, or so we know enough to be able to decide in advance whether to make time for it.

Of course it's easy to make suggestions that require work without actually doing any of said work... so might I also say chapeau to Ryan for the work he's done on the meetups so far.

@tripper54, I like some of the suggestion around Google hangout. Also which US meetups are you referring to?

@tripper52 I agree about shortening the duration of the meetup.

If the meetups start at 7pm sharp and go for exactly 1 hour it gives people an opportunity to talk further at the pub without staying out past 10pm or get dinner at a reasonable time.

2x 20 minute presentations and 1x 20 minute mentoring/BoF/flipping-the-classroom/lightning-talks segment would be the kind of format I'd be interested in moving to.

@lady_laudanum I like the idea of a diverse organising group... meetups that are diverse, short and sweet sound like a win.

For those following this thread, it is probably best to meet and discuss possible changes.

I've set a meeting for Monday http://groups.drupal.org/node/284523 but a few mentioned they weren't sure about making that time, so please post your availability here http://doodle.com/kv87bux6zn9pz4uc to see if we need to reschedule it to accomodate more people.