On events, do-acracy, and community - a RFC

There are 1643 of us and we got a lot going on. We have playdays, and happy hours, and camps, and DrupalCon planning meetings, beginners training sessions, a lecture series being planned, and I think some people are even doing just Drupal outings that have nothing to do with websites, just common interest. In short, we are awesome.

We are also huge and distributed. And it is tough to keep tabs on all you wonderful people.

Owner/Organizer. One person came up with an idea for the event. That person has a fairly clear vision of what event they want to hold. Roger wanted a Drupal Happy Hour. Robbie wants a lecture series. These are owners of events. I think we would do well to remember that just because it is a community event - DOES NOT give us ownership of an event.

When an event has a clear owner/organizer it's easy to stay focused. If people want to volunteer to help it is clear who to go to to ask what needs to be done. When an event is run by committee it becomes much less clear. Things tend to dissolve into a long series of votes on topics that really just need decisions. Multiple organizers feel a need for consensus when a singular owner/organizer can make decisions about their event, and defer to the group of volunteers when they need to solicit advice.

A real life example of this is Drupal Happy Hour. Roger owns Drupal Happy Hour. We have it at House of Brews, because Roger says so. We don't vote on this. We don't really question if another location would be better? Why? Because Roger 'owns' Happy Hour. Similarly, if anyone else in this community decides to do a Drupal happy Hour they can own that and choose the bar. There are 1643 of us - we could fill several bars, there is plenty to go around.

Do-acracy. I make a point of not trying to intrude my opinion on issues that I am not prepared to do the work for. I think it's a good idea. The people who are out there doing the work, presumably aren't ill intentioned, and aren't stupid. Sure, they probably won't print out the same signage for the event, and maybe I think white t-shirts are a horrible idea - but you know what? I'm not ordering the t-shirts or printing the signs so that decision isn't mine to make. This isn't to say that if you feel very strongly about something that you should say nothing. Just make sure that what you have a strong opinion about is A) relevant to the community itself, and B) really that important.

A real life example of this is the great t-shirt debate. We've had the discussion about 4 times when we think about getting t-shirts made about whether they should be American Apparel, or cheap available t-shirts. It's contentious, people have strong feelings about these issues. But here's the thing - it is a little irrelevant to the group. Those t-shirts are not code. Thus imo, this decision should be in the hands of the person ordering the t-shirts. That isn't because I don't care about sweatshop labor - that is because it isn't worth straining the good intentions of an organizer by intruding something that isn't relevant to the community.

KIS Keep it simple. Complex machinations to force events to 'work' pretty much just drive volunteers and organizers away.

A good real world example of this is When are the meetups? First Wednesday of the month. See how we don't have that conversation every. single. month. Could we accommodate more people and get more interaction at the meetups if we asked all 1643 members what time worked for them in 15 minute increments until we optimized the mathematically best time for everyone to meet? Sure. That isn't going to happen. First Wed. of every month is convenient, it's easy, it's SIMPLE. Mostly it's convenient for the 2 most important entities involved with that event. The organizer and the venue. Sorry if you can't make First Wed. You might consider starting yor own meetup on a day that is convenient to you - again there is 1643 of us - we won't all fit in a board room anyway.

Forget about the money Ok, don't forget it. Account for it very carefully, but understand that A) We've never had an event that couldn't get the funding it needed - either through sponsorships or direct ticket sales. and B) We're not a money making institution. We're a DUG. Get enough to cover what you stated in the beginning as incentive to sponsor or buy tickets and turn down the rest. Do NOT give a sponsor special privileges for additional cash. This can be hard when you start thinking at the last minute about how you could make the event better with stickers/t-shirts/gold plated Druplicons. Forget it. Make the event you set out to make, and forget about the money.

A good real world example of this is the conversation we have every single camp when a Sponsor asks for a bigger sign/table to interview folks/special announcement about their product. We always turn them down. This is really just an extension of KIS.

This whole post is meant to start a discussion. If we were to write the book of event organization in the NYCDUG - what would the chapters be. Please offer constructive feedback only, and real world POSITIVE examples.

Disclaimer I reserve the right to edit this post as good ideas pop up below. I will save revisions every time.