Outcome from DrupalCon Barcelona Session (Dis)Organizing a Drupal Local User Group

Here are some notes from the (Dis)Organizing a Drupal Local User Group: lessons learned session in Barcelona with about 50 people.

These notes are created with help from Gregory Heller and Matthew Saunders.

For those who were unable to attend - please provide your own knowledge/experience on how to best run these meetings

Drupal User Groups: Lessons Learned from the last 2 years

• "Have you attended a local user group meeting?" vs. "Have you lead a local user group meeting" vs. "Are you trying to start a local user group meeting?" about a 3rd of people fit into each category
• For those that have held meetings, how many people attended in general:
  • San Paulo: 5
  • Den Haag: 10
  • Paris: one that was small
  • close to Madrid: 3
  • Seattle: 10 to 20
  • Denver/boulder: 10 to 20
  • Berkeley: 30 to 40+ (monthly)
  • Ann Arbor: 15monthly
  • Ames: 12monthly, DrupalCorn 2011: 65

Marketing and building a new group

• search the web for Drupal and your local community. find users in your local area and mail them directly.
• advertise
  • groups.drupal.org
  • meetup.com
  • craigslist.org
  • upcoming.org
  • local sites
  • universities
  • computer user email lists
• Advertising a specific agenda/presentation beforehand tends to draw bigger crowd (important)
• Work with an existing association that had a newsletter and a network

Goal of the Drupal user group

• provide people who are familiar with Drupal an opportunity to help each other
  • build the community
• evangelism: spread the word
• find work

Audience (percents are based on general experience)

• advanced users "it's their job" - 40% of attendees
• newbies - 40% of attendees
• hobbyists - 20% of attendees
• How do you satisfy the distinct needs of the three groups at one meeting?
  • Split the meetings into an early section that is more advanced that starts during the work day and make the evening part of the meeting more general
  • Have separate meetings - 2 meetings a month, one advanced, one regular
  • Let the meetings naturally split into BOFs of each group

Event Content

• informal get together
• formal content
  • bug fix party
  • introductions, lighting talks
  • tutorials
  • site reviews
  • High value to flashy sites and basic ones too
  • Question & Answer - tends to happen at every meeting
  • Localization Sprints
• CMS Comparisons - dual meeting with another CMS to show off features
• If possible, go around and have everyone introduce himself with:
  • Name, level of Experience, something they want to learn, something they recently learned

Drupal Camps

• usually more advanced or more in depth in content - often staged by a local user group

Time and Space

• Venue
  • Donated space
  • Community Centers - paid
• Time
  • work hours? (at Berkeley meetings during work hours were much more successful)
  • non work hours?
  • weekends / weekdays