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I've got a bit of rambling to do about the subject. I have some
experience organizing groups as I helped out with the Toronto Ruby
Users Group, Victoria Perl Mongers, KW Perl Mongers, Toronto Perl
Mongers, Toronto Lisp Users Group, Victoria Open Source Users Group,
etc. to different extents. <br>
<br>
Organizing is hard work and you're going to do have do a few hours
of leg work to have a successful meet.<br>
<br>
My recommendation would be to start a temporary meetup.com meetup
group. The software is irritating and the service annoying but at
least you advertise your group there. The cheapest long term
platform beyond the PMs is twitter and github. Make a twitter and
github. <br>
<br>
I recommend starting a lonon perl blog and getting on planet perl so
perl bloggers will notice you.<br>
<br>
I recommend finding the london on reddit and announcing there. <br>
<br>
Get on the london linux users group list, ask the moderator if you
can advertise.<br>
<br>
Find any other form of "nerd church" even other languages like the
python group or ruby group. Be prepared to volunteer a tutorial.<br>
<br>
Also UWO is a good resource. Try to find a computer science club or
group there and advertise with them and get their permission to post
a poster.<br>
<br>
Once you get the word out I recommend finding another keener (not
Jim Keener necessarily) and make them 2nd in the command. You need
someone to do things when you're too busy to.<br>
<br>
Free food is helpful. I recommend following Kitchener Waterloo
(KW.PM.ORG)'s methodology. Anonymous donor donates pizza at the
start of the meet. First 15 minutes of a meeting are news and eating
pizza. Eventually people are ready to pay attention. This allows you
to have a 6:30-7:00 start time and not stress people out because
they know they are going have food. Then afterwards fine a nearby
establishment that isn't too loud (Burgundys was actually really
nice for not being excessively loud for a pub) and stay out and
visit.<br>
<br>
You probably need to decide if you want to just do social meets, or
have some kind of formal lecture structures. Formal lectures need
chairs, a quiet room and a projector. This is where finding UWO
people will help out. <br>
<br>
If the Perl Mongers doesn't pan out, try a dynamic languages group
or an open source software developers group. <br>
<br>
Regardless, be creative at the start, provide people with some
structure to latch on to and once you have people they will probably
help you direct it.<br>
<br>
* Social Networks in the real world are important but the virtual
social networks can help you advertise [twitter, reddit, pm, github,
etc.]<br>
* Free food is good at the start <br>
* Social or Formal<br>
* Find a 2nd organizer :)<br>
* Latch onto UWO, Computer Science undergraduates are both
interested (they should be!) and useful (room booking and
projectors). A faculty sponsor is better because their power to book
rooms is much stronger.<br>
<br>
abram<br>
<br>
<br>
On 11/29/2011 05:07 PM, Matthew Phillips wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAFWy7AY0jZY9-6pMdXOo1QiPx0sMXifO-i651dbvmOoGseOq_Q@mail.gmail.com%3E%20(sfid-20111130_094903_447137_C91A9B9A)"
type="cite">The first step would be finding anyone else interested
in Perl in London interested in meeting monthly.<br>
Having gone to Western, I sadly can't name any companies that use
Perl in the general area, nor any mention of Perl while I was at
school. So that doesn't bode too well.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Matt<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 6:27 PM, Kartik
Thakore <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:thakore.kartik@gmail.com">thakore.kartik@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt
0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);
padding-left: 1ex;">
I was thinking <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lonon.pm" target="_blank">lonon.pm</a><br>
<br>
Sent from my iPhone<br>
<br>
On 2011-11-29, at 5:22 PM, Jim Keenan <<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:jkeen@verizon.net">jkeen@verizon.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
<div class="im"><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> On 11/29/11, Kartik Thakore<<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:thakore.kartik@gmail.com">thakore.kartik@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
><br>
>> I am a londoner and would like to kick start a
London perl monger<br>
>> group. What should I do? Any ideas?<br>
><br>
</div>
> First, get into a tussle with London.pm (UK) over naming
rights ;-)<br>
<div class="HOEnZb">
<div class="h5">><br>
><br>
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