[Wellington-pm] Wellington Perl Mongers 2017

Richard Hector richard at walnut.gen.nz
Fri Feb 10 19:53:53 PST 2017


On 07/02/17 21:43, Grant McLean wrote:
> Hi Mongers
> 
> We need to talk about the future of Wellington Perl Mongers ...
> 
> Do people want to continue to have monthly technical meetings?

I enjoy them when I can get to them :-)

> Throughout 2016, attendance levels were low and I really found it a
> struggle from month to month to find people willing to do a talk - so
> huge thanks to everyone who did speak last year!  I'm leaning towards
> the conclusion that it's not worth bothering any more - convince me I'm
> wrong :-)

I do feel a bit guilty that I've only done one (IIRC). Unfortunately my
day job suffers from both fairly boring code and some restrictions on
how much I can talk about it .. and my hobby coding ends up with huge
gaps between efforts, so I mostly end up trying to figure out what I did
last time. I definitely appreciate others' talks, though many are a
little beyond me.

> The format we have been following is by no means set in stone.  If you
> have ideas for how to make it better and how to boost attendance then
> please reply on the list and we can talk about them.

I note that other meetings involve pizza ... I usually try to cram in
food before I come, because it's a little late for me by the end.
Perhaps we could do something like a curry pre-order, the way I've seen
it done in a certain workplace at lunchtime in the past?

> Are any of you keen to come along but have other commitments that clash?
> The schedule can be changed.  Would you be more or less likely to attend
> if meetings were every two months?

I've rearranged one monthly meeting that I organise to not clash :-) I'm
also trying to get out of running that one altogether ... But Tuesdays
do seem to be popular for meetings. (I rescheduled to Mondays, so doing
the same with PM would be a pain ...)

Meetings every 2 months could only reduce the number I can get to. What
effect it would have on the number I _do_ get to is less clear.

> What type of talks would get you coming back?  More beginner /
> intermediate talks or more advanced topics?  Any specific topics you'd
> like to see covered.

I guess I'm keen on not particularly 'beginner', but common.
Unfortunately that probably means 'the stuff that most people already
know about' - web development principles, efficiency of database access etc.

> Will you be volunteering to talk this year?  If so, what about?  If not,
> why not?

Um ... maybe? Experiments in session handling?

> Is there something that I'm doing (or not doing) that puts you off
> attending?  If there is, I need to know so I can fix that - please tell
> me.

Not that I can think of. But do we need a pool of organisers, rather
than just you? A ... committee? Is it easy enough for a non-Catalyst
person to arrange meetings? I guess a list of 'keyholders' (ie
Catalyst-employed regular participants) would be easy enough to arrange.

I occasionally have a theory that people are more committed to an
organisation if it's more formal and they pay a sub. But obviously there
are many who like the informal nature, and a sub would end up needing to
be spent on something ...

> Traditionally, the first meeting of the year is a lightning talk meeting
> on the second Tuesday of February - that would be next Tuesday (also, by
> coincidence this year that's also Valentines day, does that matter?).
> 
> Can we actually pull together a lightning talk meeting in one week?  If
> you think we can and want to take part, then email me to book a 5 minute
> talk slot.  If you think delaying until March would help then say so.

I will try to be there if I can, but can't think of anything to talk
about :-(

Richard


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