Ideas to Boost Attendance/Participation

At last night's meetup we discussed (among other things) some of the steps we could take to get more people actively involved in our beloved group. I've been coming to our meetups for a little over a year now and at most we've had roughly twenty people (right after Drupalcon 2012), and as little as four (which is closer to the norm). While our member list currently shows 155 members (although I'm certain a good number are not active members), our attendance is usually pretty low. Here are some of the ideas that we talked about last night:

• Creating an IRC Channel: We could create an IRC channel where group members could hop on and have discussions, ask for help, etc
• Asking group members what they'd like to hear about at meetups: Instead of just showing up and hoping someone has something interesting to talk about, we could garner interest about various topics and then possibly schedule talks about those topics for different signups
• Having flexible dates: Some people can never make it on Thursdays. We could possibly put polls out for each month (well in advance) to get a sense of what day works best for most people
• Better group leadership/management: We currently have four listed organizers but I think that most are not active due to changing life cycles, time constraints, etc. I think we can all agree that our group might have higher attendance if there were one or more organizers who could take a more hands-on approach to group scheduling, awareness/promotion, etc.
• Social media presence: Group efforts, events, etc could be promoted on various social networks both officially from the group organizer(s) and from members
• Adapting what other successful groups do well: We could talk with other group organizers/members to see what they do to keep attendance high and have good participation

As I drove home, I was thinking about how we could possibly have different themes for each meetup (ie custom module development, contributing to Drupal, intro to Drupal, theming, etc). Perhaps we could also record screencasts/presentations, and publish online, that would not only provide information for others, but would also help to promote what we're doing.

I know that our group is made up of people from all walks of Drupal life so it'd be interesting to see what people want to hear about and how we can be more of a community of people who help each other, give back to Drupal, etc. The thing I love about our group is that by nature things aren't set in stone so we can show up and talk about whatever we like. However, I think that same lack of planning has also been a detriment to both attendance and group participation.

So what are your thoughts? I'm certainly no leader in this group (and honestly don't have time to be one right now) but I'd like to get the discussion started on how we can make this group better. We will not be meeting in December so I think this is a great time to get ideas together, regroup, make plans for next year, and come back in January 2013 better than ever. I think it's also important to note that we want to hear from everyone so if you're new or don't consider yourself an "experienced Drupal'er" please feel free to chime in. As I said before, I believe this is a group made up of a wide range of people who are in some way involved with Drupal so we need to hear from everyone.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. I hope everyone has a happy and save Thanksgiving and Christmas, and New Year!