RE: [ALACPP] poll

["Arlo Belshee" <arlo@xxxxxxxxx>]

> I would love to go but lunch it tough- I work in Hollywood. Evenings for one
> of the meetings a month would be great to be evenings, say 7pm. I do realize
> I might be the only one who would like that soooo.... I am also content to
> just monitor the replys in email

I, of course, will not be attending any meetings (I live in Portland).
However, if what you're frustrated with is the meeting attendance, then the
ones you need to hear from are those who aren't attending.

This is not the first time that we've heard a request for an evening meeting.
I think that it is a signal highlighting a more pervasive issue.

I think you may want to form a group / SIG organization: have one monthly
meeting of the full group, and weekly meetings for special interests. It would
appear that you've got a bunch of people interested in C++ in general, and a
subset interested in the template metaprogramming-fu that is the current
meeting topic.

I'd recommend something like:

1) one monthly evening meeting. It is focused on C++ in general. There is a
pre-planned speaker, with an interesting topic. The topic varies fairly
widely. Follow with beer and conversation, which may even include talking
about the talk.

2) Form as many special interest groups as there are interests. It looks like
there is one already. Expect them to be small(er): the interest is narrower.

3) SIGs meet weekly (or so), and are less organized. They do something like
what is currently being done: read a book as a group, and have discussions
that range vaguely around that week's readings.

4) Designate people in charge of things. Yup. Organize. I'd see the following:
  a) You need one person to coordinate the monthly speaker. Don't make them do
anything else. 10 hr / month.
  b) For each SIG, a facilitator. Show up at nearly every meeting, and help
the group choose what it is going to do / read. Facilitate discussions at
the meetings, and keep them exactly as on-topic as you want to. 2 hr / week,
half at the meeting.

If you want to get people to attend, you have to have organization,
convenience and interest. Right now, it appears that this group has interest.

The key thing is to have an infrequent meeting with a well-planned actual
activity. The infrequency will allow people to adjust their schedules around
it. It will also leave people wanting a little bit more, so they'll find a SIG
to join. Then you have frequent get-togethers of people with very similar
interests for general bull-sessions. Don't expect them to be hugely attended:
you are focusing those meetings on tightly similar groups of people.

Also, always remember Jason's number one important thing about any meeting.
All meetings start on time. If people are late, the meeting starts without
them. If only one person is there at meeting time, the meeting is canceled. If
only two people are there, they assume that they will be the only ones to
attend, and carry on appropriately. This both encourages people to be there on
time, and allows you to get stuff done when you don't know exactly how many
people will be showing: you don't waste 20-30 minutes waiting to see if others
will show up. And you don't get a larger table than you need for the 3 people
there.

OK. Thoughts / rant over. Again, I'm 1000 miles from there, so it doesn't
matter what you do: I won't be attending meetings. However, you may want to
listen closely to those people who are there, but aren't going to meetings.
And you may want to look at how other user groups are organized (BTW, all of
them up here are much like JUG. They were the basis for the organization that
I just mentioned).

Arlo


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