I am a Permanent Member (or Community Ambassador) of the Drupal Association.
I am a Permanent Member (or Community Ambassador) of the Drupal Association.Local Drupal groups and the Drupal Association
Tue, 03/11/2008 - 19:41 — Robert Douglass
The Köln / Bonn Drupal users group is in the process of deciding where to hold our regular meetings. After having four ad-hoc meetings in three different locations, the need to nail something down and say "This is where we meet!" has become acute. While everybody has suggestions, nobody has a room to offer that is big enough for our current and future needs which can be had for the perfect price (free). What is a local users group to do?
One suggestion that I proposed is to engage the Drupal Association and ask for some financial assistance. Without question, the association would like to help us. It is part of their mission to support Drupal related events of all kinds. The challenge, however, is to find a way for the association to be able to help not only our group, but the many groups like ours. With the large and growing number of groups around the world it would be unfair if only a few of them got any help from the association, yet if every group applied individually for assistance the association would crumble under the work load.
Another option would be for local businesses and individuals to carry the financial burden. I estimated that a budget of 1,600 Euros would give our group a small conference room in a hotel 8 to 9 times a year, which is all we would need. Now, depending on your background, 1,600 Euros either seems like a lot of money or pennies. I see it as a small price to pay to have a stable and comfortable atmosphere for learning and communicating. I see real business value in being able to talk to people in my area who are doing what I'm doing. I can imagine local businesses finding value in knowing who is an active Drupaller _and_ lives close enough to meet in person. Local meetup groups are also fantastic recruiting tools which effectively grow the community. Therefore a case can be made for having local businesses sponsor the group.
There is a problem, however, in both of these models. We're just an informal group of people with no real legal status and no bank account. To whom do we write the checks? Who pays the money to the hotel or venue? These are hard questions and will hold us back if no solution is found.
Perhaps we could ask the Drupal Association for sponsorship and pledge to try and pay it back by getting local businesses and individuals to donate to the association? It's a nice idea but it still leaves the problem of who makes the payment? 8-9 meetings a year would mean 8-9 invoices. If the association had to write 9 checks for us, and for every other group, it wouldn't scale. So effectively the association has its hands tied when it comes to helping us.
Anyone have any better suggestions?
Comments
Find a local
Why do you need financial assistance? In my opinion, if a local user group needs financial assistance to hold *meetings* ... you've already failed.
There has to be at least one local business/pub/whatever that can contribute space for 2 hours once a month. Afterwards, go to a pub/restaurant.
If you can't convince even one business or sponsor (whether it's money or space), then you haven't yet reached critical mass for local evangelism.
That's part of what the group is telling me, too =)
So the gauntlet is thrown... who is going to host the Köln/Bonn users group?
-Rob
pizza
fully agreed. you dont need money, you need a place, some coffee, pizza's, beamers, bandwidth etc. so ask sponsors to donate in natura, not in money.
How about University Space?
I know Koln and Bonn both have Universities. Have you tried to contact them?
University of Michigan School of Information was very helpful in providing space at the beginning. The School was also very helpful in convincing local business to support our Group.
- Michael
A2Drupal - http://groups.drupal.org/ann-arbor
more ideas
Here in Austin, TX we've had Drupal meetings at local consulting businesses, at bars/restaurants, and at a local university. We've even had individuals offer to host meetings in their homes.
I've been to other meetings at the local library. Drupal tends to be popular with non-profits and universities, so a little calling around might turn up some available space. Check out the local event calendars and see where other groups are holding their meetings. Maybe there's a local PHP meetup that you could piggyback on.
Libraries
The Boise, Idaho user group has gone through similar efforts to locate a stable and free meeting place, and just the other day it looks like we finally found our location in a local library auditorium. How libraries function seems to vary from country to country, but in the US at least, library auditoriums are often made available for groups, either free or for a nominal fee... So, don't forget to check your local library. (And it wouldn't hurt to let them know your group is dedicated to Drupal - libraries in the know _love_ Drupal.)
mlsamuelson
Don't go too far
I believe that you are over thinking this. I've been to and ran numerous meetups , gatherings, etc. over the past 10 or so years and not a single one of them has had an any sort of formalized or official backing behind it. Meetups that would occur monthly with upwards of 50 people in them had absolutely zero formal structure behind them other than a group of people that would (a) look for a venue and (b) find topics.
Venues are typically donated by a local business that is involved with the community somehow and if one can't be found you'd be hard pressed to find a bar/restaurant that wouldn't love to have your group of 10 or 20 people show up for a pint or two its usually only after 30 or so people that they start to say no.
At its height in Portland, Oregon the NoBUG user group had over 500 members with a regular attendance of 50-75 people. They have met everywhere from the local college campus to the local restaurant. As their size was rather large they didn't have a regular meeting place; nobody seemed to have a problem with that provided it was announced several weeks in advance.
The same was true for the LUG group.
In NYC the group (30-50 strong) has always met a local company's conference room. So far it hasn't been a problem.
I would be really surprised if you couldn't find a venue around town.
Meetups are informal and don't/shouldn't be treated like a formal organization. In my experience this only leads to burn out as the burden to maintain that formal organization generally falls on one person instead of the community and when that one person burns out the group tends to die out.
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