[vox] Extremely low meeting attendance!

[Jonathan Stickel]

Bill

I am not surprised: meeting attendance was on this trend back when I was 
president for a short time in 2005.  If you recall, the reason I 
resigned was that officers were not even showing up!  I've heard it said 
that the drop in activity is partly due to improved employment for 
Linuxers. I know that I personally was never drawn to meetings.  The 
topics are often of most interest to those who program for a living or 
primary hobby, not to the general public who may just want to try Linux 
out.  Also, I have a hard enough time finding free-time in my evenings 
without attending LUGOD meetings.  Perhaps, also, attendance is partly 
related to big improvements in Linux distributions.  Now just about 
anybody can get Linux running without help from a local group.

Anyway, those are a few of my thoughts.  I am sure LUGOD would have 
ceased to exist altogether without you, Bill!  Now it lives on mostly 
due to your efforts in maintaining group services online, which I 
continue to use regularly.  I really can't think of any advice to turn 
meeting attendance around.  Perhaps they should go entirely to a social 
format until more serious interest breaks out.

Regards,
Jonathan


Bill Kendrick wrote:
> Wow -- on the heels of spending two hours of my time for LUGOD, when I
> should be sleeping before a workday, Nick just emailed me regarding the
> last LUGOD meeting (the Ingres talk)...
> 
> ...it seems only _six_ (6) people attended!  That's extremely depressing,
> considering our speaker drove for at _least_ an hour and 45 minutes each way!
> (Also, at least two other LUGOD members did a bunch of work to find an
> alternative venue for that meeting.)
> 
> What gives!?  I really feel like I'm wasting my time finding speakers,
> and feel VERY bad that we're wasting somewhere along the lines of 5-6 hours
> of our speakers' lives!  That's _shameful!_ :^(  (Can you tell I'm
> flabberghasted? :^) )
> 
> 
> I recall a day when our meetings pulled in 30-40 people, twice a month,
> regardless of the speaker or topic.  Where are these people now?  Graduated?
> 
> So, time for a survey:  If you're still in or near Davis, and out here on the
> 'vox' mailing list, but you're not going to meetings any more, would you
> please tell us why you're no longer attending?
> 
> Although I'm no longer physically _in_ Davis (though that will hopefully
> change some time this year), and therefore not going around town and campus
> posting flyers like I used to, I'm PRETTY sure I'm still doing the same
> things that I did in the past:
> 
> * Finding (hopefully!) compelling speakers/topics
> * Trying to announce meetings two weeks in advance, with reminders the
>   day before (or at least of) the event
> * Posting meeting announcements to other local LUG mailing lists
> * Sending meeting announcements to local newspapers/etc.
> * Posting announcements to online calendars and Usenet (when I have time to)
> 
> The main thing that I can think of that we're NOT doing any more is having
> general meetings alternate which day of the week they occuring on.
> We currently switch between social gatherings and general meetings, so the
> meetings with presenters are always on the same day of the week: Monday.
> (Sorry to those of you who have classes or work on Monday evenings. :^( )
> 
> 
> Our next speaker will be Oracle, in April.  Should they expect the same
> single digit attendance!? :^(
> 
> -bill!
> pr at lugod.org
> http://www.lugod.org/
> Linux Users' Group of Davis
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