awesome!

On Nov 13, 2012, at 2:38 PM, Sallie Goetsch wrote:

> Hi, everyone. Back in January, the WordPress Foundation declared 2012 the
> Year of the Meetup (http://wordpress....)
> and suggested that they foot the bill for the cost of the meetups. This
> sounded like a pretty good idea to me, so I signed up.
> 
> I just got the following message from Jane Wells at Automattic saying that
> they're ready to put the plan into action, though it may take a while before
> anything concrete happens. 
> 
> We won't have to charge as much for the meetups, which is good. We may even
> be able to get some things we need, like, oh, a portable sound amplification
> system or a new projector. They are going to ask us what we need, so if
> you'd like to send in ideas for what would benefit the whole group and wider
> WP community the most, please do.
> 
> Cheers,
> Sallie
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jane Wells [mailto:[address removed]] 
> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 2:25 PM
> To: undisclosed-recipients:
> Subject: WordPress Meetups
> 
> Holy cow, did consolidating meetups into one main account turn out to be 
> more complicated than I ever imagined! I have a giant spreadsheet with 
> all the info you (and about 500 others) submitted earlier this year, and 
> it has been illuminating to sort through it all, to say the least. We 
> have a huge opportunity to increase WordPress meetup activity while 
> reducing the burden on organizers of these events; I want to make sure 
> we do it right.
> 
> You are getting this email because you replied to that survey at the 
> beginning of the year and said:
> a) You lead an active meetup
> b) You use meetup.com (at least in part) for your group
> c) You want to bring your meetup under the central WordPress account
> 
> For some of you I know circumstances may have changed -- people have 
> moved, groups have splintered or joined forces with other groups, etc. 
> I'm including you here anyway because you are about to get an email from 
> Kathryn at meetup.com about moving your group into the central account, 
> and I wanted everyone to get a heads up. If you are no longer running a 
> meetup, just let her know that, or you can ask to have her add your new 
> group to the list.
> 
> What moving to the central account will mean:
> - WordPress Foundation will pay the dues, and will be the lead organizer 
> for your group. You would be a co-organizer.
> - Moving forward, other people in your area could propose/organize 
> events or event series and potentially be promoted to co-organizer. So, 
> for example, if your meetup is a presentation + discussion format aimed 
> at users, someone else could organize meetups for developers in hack day 
> format or something. More meetups per city/area without one organizer 
> having to do it all is the ultimate goal.
> - If you currently charge money (presumably a nominal amount to cover 
> costs, not to make a profit) to attend meetups, you'll need to collect 
> that some way other than through meetup.com, as we will not collect and 
> disperse money via the central meetup.com account. Note that the 
> eventual goal is for meetup attendance to be free, but we'll try to get 
> there in time after we have more information about what expenses each 
> group has.
> - The meetup group is for the good of the local community, not anyone's 
> personal business, and should not be treated as a free list of business 
> leads or a marketing platform.
> - You'll be in the first round of the "What do meetups need?" 
> experiments. This could mean projectors and screens, swag, signs, venue 
> arrangements, who knows. Your feedback and early experience with being 
> part of the central account will help us shape the program for future 
> groups that join.
> 
> If all that sounds good, then when Kathryn emails you, say yes. If any 
> of it is giving you pause, email me with your concerns and we can chat 
> about it via skype or phone.
> 
> Of note: something we'll have to figure out is a naming convention. It 
> would be ideal for all the groups to have the same general name format 
> [eg. City/Area WordPress Meetup Group] so that they're easy to find and 
> can be inclusive (like in cities where we'll be combining multiple 
> groups into one mega group).
> 
> Also: If you haven't seen the activity over on 
> http://make.wordp..., check it out. We're trying to make 
> event organizers a regular contributor group, and there are new 
> opportunities to help shape policies and programs around WordCamps, 
> meetups, etc. I'll be looking for 3-5 meetup organizers who come into 
> the central account in this first wave to volunteer to help shape/lead 
> the program, so if you're interested in that, let me know (or comment on 
> the post I'll be putting up on the make/events blog). I'll want to get 
> half who have been using meetup.com, and half who've been self-hosting 
> their group's site so we can get both perspectives, and would like it to 
> include at least a couple of people from outside the US (including 
> countries where meetup.com isn't popular).
> 
> Hope to talk to you more soon!
> Jane
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> This message was sent by Sallie Goetsch ([address removed]) from The East Bay WordPress Meetup Group.
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