[Chicago-talk] Chicago-pm Meetup group is expiring and will be removed in 48 hours

[Alan Mead]

On 8/12/2021 12:03 PM, James E Keenan wrote:
> On 8/12/21 12:46 PM, Mike Fragassi wrote:
>> Meetup's utility seems to be:
>>
>> - it provides a discussion system, although we already have on here, 
>> on the mailing list.
>>
>> - it provides a group home page. Although we also have one at 
>> https://chicago.pm.org/ <https://chicago.pm.org/>, there are a few 
>> disadvantages to that. I think Doug owns it and bears the brunt of 
>> maintaining it, for one, along with the duties of updating it with 
>> events. There are events on the Meetup page that aren't mirrored on 
>> the .pm.org <http://pm.org> page. (For the record, Joel Berger and 
>> myself are both listed as "Organziers" for the Meetup page.) Also if 
>> it matters, I don't see a way to comment on the pm.org 
>> <http://pm.org> page.
>>
>> - because it's a platform in use by many other user groups, in and 
>> out of Chicago, announcements of meetings (even if strictly virtual) 
>> can have much greater visibility than they do if we only post about 
>> them to the mailing list. I've attended a few virtual events Jason 
>> Crome has put on for Charlotte.pm, for instance. Although having that 
>> outreach doesn't do much good if we don't even have any meetings to 
>> speak of.
>>
>
> Some out-of-town perspective.  My impression is that in New York City 
> very, very few tech user groups are having meetings right now -- 
> virtual or otherwise.  We in ny.pm did have a couple of tech Zoom 
> meetings last year, but none so far this calendar year.  The fact that 
> the meeting was virtual meant that we could have an out-of-town 
> speaker and had attendees from two continents -- but that was 
> independent of meetup.com.  (Fortunately, I'm not the one writing the 
> check for that group.)
>
> The NYC Linux group has not met, virtually or otherwise, since the 
> start of the pandemic.  The NYC BSD User Group has held several tech 
> meetings via Zoom this year -- but we don't use meetup.com for that.
>
> My recommendation is that if you can renew your meetup.com membership 
> at a reasonable rate (perhaps by sharing with another *.pm), then you 
> should do so; put together a few Zoom meetings just so people know 
> you're alive; and hope that sometime in the future IRL meetings can 
> resume.


These responses are convincing to me. Pre-pandemic, I drove out to 
Aurora (?) to see Jason talk about Dancer based on a MeetUp invite. So, 
I agree that MeetUp extends the reach. I'll chip in if someone will be 
the point person.

-Alan

-- 

Alan D. Mead, Ph.D.
President, Talent Algorithms Inc.

science + technology = better workers

https://talalg.com


Observe a man's actions; scrutinize his motives; take note of
the things that give him pleasure. How then can he hide from
you what he really is?

-- Confucius, Confucian Analects