SPUG: Dec. Mtg: State of the SPUGion; Free Books

[Tim Maher/CONSULTIX]

On Mon, Dec 18, 2000 at 09:34:52AM +0000, Leon Brocard wrote:
> James Munger sent the following bits through the ether:
> 
> > So oppurtunist vultures like myself, who've never gone to a meeting,
> > don't just show up for the freebies.
> 
> Interesting tactic. Generally I've found in the past at Bath.pm and
> London.pm that giving freebies attracts people who might not turn
> up. Thing is, they generally turn up for every meeting after that ;-)

We've given away free books at *most* meetings over the past 6 months,
so those interested only in freebies have already had plenty of
opportunities to compete for them. 

> Perl Mongers tends to be about including, not excluding. OTOH perhaps
> the group is getting too big?
> Leon Brocard.............................http://www.astray.com/

The primary reason for excluding newbies at tomorrow's meeting,
as I've stated elsewhere, is that it's an organizational meeting,
geared to collecting feedback from experienced participants and
making plans for the future.  This is the only meeting in our
nearly 3-year history to which the general public has not been
invited; we're *all about inclusivity*, and have been that way
since long before "Perl Mongering" caught on.

Excessive attendance is not a problem; although we always pack
our room to capacity (about 50 people) when "The Damian" is the
speaker, my guestimated attendance for a meeting with no technical
content just prior to Christmas would be about 8 people. I find
it ironic that nearly that many people, most of whom have never
attended a single meeting, have voiced objections about being
excluded, and imagined all sorts of nefarious underlying reasons.

Is the lesson here that to boost attendance, we should be much
more restrictive about who can attend, and perhaps even start
charging admission?  It worked for Studio 54!  8-}

==========================================================
|  Tim Maher, Ph.D.           Tel: (206) 781-UNIX        |
|  SPUG Founder & Leader      Email: spug at halcyon.com    |
|  Seattle Perl Users Group   HTTP: www.halcyon.com/spug |
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