Planning meeting 2

What follows are notes from our second planning meeting. The objective was the get feedback on how things went last year, and set some goals for next year.

What worked last year

This was a discussion of what went well and should be repeated next year.

• Build Night
  • this was a good attempt at outreach to the broader community
• Ruby news recap
  • handy summary of news, gems
  • helps to have it on the blog later too
• Having talks on JavaScript, and other topics that aren't Ruby but are of interest to Ruby developers
• A good way to meet people
  • drinks afterwards are especially good for this
• Meetup is a way to find and share jobs
• shows Ruby in Edmonton
• we had lots of success getting good content onto the wiki

What didn't work

This is discussion of things we won't do again, or would like to do differently next year.

• There were some events which conflicted with peoples schedules

  • unfortunately, this is always going to be the case
  • we'd like to find a member to take charge of archiving and sharing talks
  • talk to [email protected] if you're interested

• some talks went to long

  • in-depth talks should be moved to non-meetup nights
  • need to enforce stricter time limits (10 minutes talk / 5 minutes questions)

• not enough hackups

  • we know this is an area we need to do better in
  • we'd like someone to step up and take charge of organizing the hackups
  • If you're interested email [email protected] or reply @yegrb on Twitter
  • could move them online
  • collaborate around a GitHub repo (yegrb already has one of these)
  • hackups are mainly about having a chance to program with others

• didn't seem to be enough retention of people between events

• should be a more consistent format for each meetup

  • describe this format somewhere accessable

• should more clearly identify skill level for each talk

• Make sharing jobs and candidates simpler

  • integrate it with the website?
  • include a directory of members

• convore

  • seems like the site is struggling with load
  • a good tool, but it's not working like it was 6 months ago
  • will need to explore more stable options

• Announce drinks in the meetup announcements, and at the end of each meetup so people who can make the meetup can still attend

Ideas

These are those outrageous things we'd do if we had all the time in the world to do them.

• Having beginner / advanced talks clearly identified in advance
• Challenge people who haven't done a talk to try doing one
• Have a demo (like DemoCamp) during each meetup
  • shows what people are working on in Edmonton
• Integrate a job posting board into the website
• Have more themed talks
  • local demo
  • ruby recap
  • ruby news
  • gem of the month
  • question of the month
    • ask one meeting in advance so there's time to prepare a good answer
  • monthly YEGrb project update
    • describe what people can help with this month
• bring back introductions at the start of the meeting
  • name, company, one question
  • it's a great ice breaker
• Code Joe's
  • a bunch of people already get together semi-regularly to program or OJ's Varsity on Sunday afternoons
  • we could promote this and make it accessible to more YEGrb members
• Improve YEGrb's visibility in the broader community
  • are we trying to get the attention of Rubyists outside Edmonton, or non-Rubyists in Edmonton?
  • create a high profile project or event
  • run more cross promoted events with other organizations
• Lot's of interest in some sort of Ruby project coordinated through YEGrb
• Run a RailsCamp or other larger event
• Get shirts
• Run a logo contest
• Ruby Book club
• Make talk planning more communal and collaborative
  • Put talk slots on wiki so people can sign up themselves
  • Have a set number of beginner and advanced talks
• Have hackups on a different week night than meetup for people who can't do Tuesdays

Goals for next year

1. Find a hackup coordinator
   • needs to be available to coordinate hackups at least once a month
   • we can use space at the university or find a space somewhere else
   • reply to @yegrb on twitter, or email [email protected] if you're interested
2. Find a project coordinator
   • they'll be in charge of selecting a project
   • giving updates on the project to the group throughout the year
   • coordinate the work of other YEGrb members
3. Create a section on the wiki to coordinate talks for each meetup
   • DONE! See our new Meetup Format and the list of meetups on the wiki home.
4. Add a description of the meetup format to the website
   • DONE! See our new Meetup Format page.
5. Challenge new members to do talks
   • this will need to be explored more
   • planning next months talks at the previous meetup may help with this
6. Arrange someone to run the Sept meetup
   • Mark's away

• You can signup to talk at