Support your Local User Group
This is a topic i’ve been thinking about for a while now. Nolan Erck just posted something to the South of Shasta blog that prompted me to flesh out my thoughts a bit.
What can user groups do to promote regular attendance?
My first user group was the Phoenix CFUG back in 2002 or thereabouts. It was (and presumably still is) an awesome group to be a part of. Decent attendance on a regular basis, and a real sense of “community”. After the meetings, most of the attendees would go out for a drink or three and talk about ColdFusion. What they were working on, or what obstacles/issues they were currently dealing with. It was a blast. I always enjoyed stepping out of “my” ColdFusion world and hearing about what others were doing.
I left Phoenix at the end of 2004, and have had the opportunity to be a part of a few other groups. One thing that i noticed is that after the meeting… people bolted. There was no discussion, no sense of camaraderie… just a few folks showing up, listening to the speaker, then heading home.
I’ve also noticed over the years that attendance seems to have gradually but steadily declined. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the meetings are generally broadcast over Connect. I think this is a good thing, as it allows the speakers to reach a larger audience, but it also makes it too convenient for members who are local to head home, kick off their shoes, and watch/listen from home.
Because most meetings are also recorded via connect, there’s no sense of urgency to even catch the live broadcast. It’ll be there whenever you feel like watching.
For me personally, I *like* being at the meetings. I enjoy the interaction and getting to talk to other developers. I’m one of the few that, given the option to telecommute, would rather be in the office. I do much better in that environment. That applies to user groups as well. I can easily watch the broadcast version, but that’s a bit… “dry” (no reflection on the presenters). I want to be able to turn to the person next to me and say, “Wow… that’s pretty cool”. I enjoy seeing the room react when a presenter “wow’s” them. I enjoy going out for a drink after the meeting and talking about what we just saw. Or about what somebody’s currently doing at work.
For those folks who don’t regularly attend… mind if i ask why not? Is it the convenience of the Connect broadcasts or the convenience of being able to catch the recorded preso later on? Is that what it’s come to? If so, that doesn’t bode well for the future of local user groups. Are purely online groups like The Online ColdFusion Meetup the way of the future?
I’m all for the Online Meetup group. Not everybody has a local user group that they can attend. It definitely serves a purpse, as does broadcasting local user groups over Connect. But in serving their purpose, are they contributing to the demise of face-to-face local user groups?
Is it a lost cause or can anything be done to improve the attendance at local meetings? I mean the regular attendance. Not the folks that show up once every six months for the software raffle (which is what prompted Nolan’s Post). I’m in the process of trying to get an East Bay CFUG off the ground, which isn’t an easy feat. I’m wondering if it’s worth the effort. Is the concept of a local user group antiquated?
If you have a user group local to your area, but don’t attend regularly… is there anything that the group could do differently that would make it more appealing for you to attend in person?
| 7 comments
Matt Quackenbush
For me, it’s a 6+ hour drive to the nearest CFUG (Dallas, TX), so needless to say, it’s not something I attend. That said, even if I had one here in my own town, given the opportunity to tune in via breeze, I’d probably opt for that more often than not. Not because I’m unsociable. Not because I don’t enjoy hanging out and having a few drinks. (If you’ve hung around me much, you know that.) But because when you have kids running in all sorts of different directions, and a wife running in twice as many different directions (trying to keep up with her schedule, my schedule, and kids’ schedules), I cherish the rare opportunity to sit down and do nothing. One more night a week/month of having yet another extra-curricular activity going on is not really something that I look forward to.
David
Charlie – I’d be interested in hearing what people to say about your post, as I manage the Connecticut CFUG (www.cfugitives.com).
We only give raffle tickets to those that attend, and you must be present to earn a prize. Thanks to Adobe, we usually have something to raffle off every month. We also accumulate tickets, the more you attend, the better your chances of winning. The reality is, if you miss the "round table" discussion at the end of a meeting, you’re probably missing out on the best part – at least, thats the feeling in our group.
I’m not sure about other groups, but our attendance has been increasing steadily. I personally think its just a greater exposure level to CF (blogs, etc) and help from the Adobe Community folks.
Cheers,
Davo
Luke Kilpatrick
The News of the Death of Usergroups Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
Last night we had our best attended meeting for Fire On The Bay, the fireworks group I run and you so kindly attend via connect or in person. I was not giving any software away this month, but I did last month so it is a nice comparison.
Last month we had almost 30 people show up to learn about Fireworks CS4 and to get the grand prize of CS3 Web Premium. Then to my surprise we had 40 people show up and 10 people show up online from as far away as Australia to watch the presentation.
So the only thing I can conclude is that our topic this month was very interesting. So that might be our issue at large, maybe we need to try and get really good topics that our membership wants to hear about. What do you think?
One thing I have found to increase attendance is to use meetup.com and to try and bring in a broad range of topics and users. From the response I am getting from my group real world users of the technology are more interesting that product managers and that a secret topic ever now and then might create some interest.
Rob Huddleston
I think that there’s an important thing that gets lost in a lot of discussions, particularly between user group managers, about counting heads. Of course, the goal of any user group manager is to make the group a "success", and we each have to define "success" in our own terms. For me, the numbers of bodies in attendance isn’t how I measure that. For a lot of different reasons, some groups get tons of folks to meetings and other get just a few. But in my eyes, what makes the meeting a success is whether or not the folks who do attend get something out of it. Whether the meeting is the presenter and one attendee (which has happened) or 100, if the presenter enjoys him or herself and the attendee(s) feel like it was worth their time, then all is good. Given that, I have no problem broadcasting my meetings on Connect (although it’s rare to get more than one or two people to sign on) and making them available later. (Although like Davo, I do require physical attendance to win, but that’s more out of the sheer practicality that it’s hard to deliver the prizes to people.)
I don’t mean this is a criticism, either. You started your post by defining for yourself what a successful group was – it wasn’t that your Texas group had a ton of people, but rather that they got to know each other and were sociable. So what it would seem like an important thing for your new group would be to have meetings in relative proximity to a place where folks can go hang out after (impossible for us given our current location, but a valid point to consider.)
Oh, and by the way, if by East Bay you mean the Oakland region, then be sure to keep me posted as you get started with your group since I’d love to attend when I’m in town.
Charlie Griefer
@luke – just curious… in what capacity to you use meetup.com in relation to the user group?
@rob – try as i might, i can’t find anything in your post that i would take as criticism. i think you make a valid point, and it’s from a POV that i didn’t really consider. true, if 2 people show up for a meeting, and they enjoy it (and the presenter enjoys it), then i can’t see why that wouldn’t be considered a success. i’d much rather have a small group where everybody involved enjoyed themselves than a large group of folks who don’t enjoy the meeting. i guess my frame of reference has always been the phoenix cfug which always got decent attendance and, as far as i could tell, everyone enjoyed it.
as far as "east bay" goes… i was thinking a bit further east than oakland
i may have access to a location in san ramon to get us started, but still keeping an eye out for a more permanent location. the one i’m considering for now would be "on loan" sort of as a favor, but would do for the time being. you’re more than welcome to join the google group to keep in the loop (http://groups.google.com/group/eastbaycfug) 
Luke Kilpatrick
I use meetup.com for promotion, email lists and user feed back. Meetup is great because it takes a lot of the management burden off as it emails out alerts and reminders for members. It also goes and bugs all the members for their feedback. Also it has pictures associated with most members so its easier to put names to faces. The only thing that I don’t like about meetup is that it costs a bit of money ( about 40 bucks a quarter) which I gladly pay and that it doesn’t require users to submit full names, which causes trouble with Adobe security.
Sean Corfield
It’s a tough issue. BACFUG (my group – that Charlie also attends sometimes) in San Francisco used to get 100 people every month and more when we had a star speaker. Attendance dwindled until we were getting 5-10. It’s improved this last year – we’re back up to around 20 each month – but it’s frustrating, knowing just how CFers there are in the Bay Area. Running a group is hard work and sometimes it feels like a thankless task – and it’s another night away from family and loved ones.
I’m pleased to see attendance climbing at BACFUG. I’d love to see an East Bay CFUG as well. I might even attend (it would probably be more convenient for me than BACFUG!) and I definitely see opportunities for synergy that would reduce the strain on both managers by being able to occasionally share speakers via Connect perhaps or being able to organize more events that were more convenience to both groups’ members.