Re: [SAGE] Starting a local sage group

["J. Lasser" <jon@lasser.org>]

In the wise words of Craig Hancock:

[ . . . Perceived Difficulties in starting a local Chicago SAGE Group ]
> 1) Distance
> 2) Convincing syustem admins that this would be beneficial
> 3) Other User groups who deal with one aspect of system adminstration and only care
> about that aspect.
> 
> If anyone has any stories or advice I would greatly appriciate it.

Well, while I didn't start the Old Bay SAGE group in Baltimore, I have
now run it pretty much single-handedly for about a year and a half, and
was part of the ruling cabal for at least another year and a half. When
I became unofficial meeting instigator, the group was essentially
defunct. (I certainly welcome other opinions on that, but I'd argue that
three people showing up for beer with no speaker and no agenda doesn't
really constitute a functional group.)

I'm not sure what you mean by point three above, so I'm going to
basically ignore it for the time being. I do have stories about the
other two points, along with some observations of my own:

Convincing other admins that a local SAGE group would be beneficial is
indeed the first step. Frankly, in my experience you can't simply
declare by fiat that this is so. I'd really recommend starting a local
mailing list first, and then when that's achieved a certain critical
mass, proceed from there. Here's why:

If your goal is to attract more than three or four people on a regular
basis, you need to have eight to ten people, minimum, who you can count
on showing up to meetings. Fewer than that and, generally, you'll have
people show up once or twice, decide that the group's not really
worthwhile (for whatever reason: nobody just like them, too much
similarity in group members, no help for a very specific problem, etc.),
and not return. To attract that many people on a regular basis, I
believe you need some sort of group identity.

Starting a local SAGE-ish mailing list in your area will allow people to
come to know one another without committing to attending a physical
meeting. It will allow people to trade useful information
(problem-solving, jobs-offered, seeking-employment, etc.) without too
much commitment. If your list develops succesfully, you'll have to work
to keep people from getting together in person, at least occasionally
and informally.

Once you've got people who want to meet each other, you need to provide
motive. This means having a speaker, usually. Refreshments are also
helpful for this. If you can have a speaker every meeting, two if the
presentations are brief, then you can attract not only regular attendees
but additional people who might choose to show up for further meetings.

A third critical component, in my opinion, is consistency. Pick a
meeting day --- something that works for your core group of 8-10 people
--- and then unilaterally declare that it is so. And then meet on that
day every month, every other month, or every third month. (The Baltimore
group meets on the second Tuesday of each month. The DC group has a
funny rotating schedule that the Baltimore group used to use, and which
seemed to lose us as many attendees as it brought us.) Announce meetings
two weeks in advance, one week in advance, and then the day before the
meeting. Include an agenda in the meeting announcement, with speaker
information, round-the-room introductions, job-hunting and job-seeking
time, and then additional business. Finally, I'd suggest adjourning to a
local bar or restaurant afterwards, and try to keep the main part of the
meeting under two hours, or ninety minutes if you can manage it. (OBS
doors open at 7:15, meeting starts at 8, and ends no later than 9:30 if
we can manage it.)

If you can have that sort of consistency, and know enough people to
speak at three or four consecutive meetings (yes, you count, but not
more than once or twice at first), and you've developed some local
community, then convincing people to show up is no problem.

As far as location, I've discovered that absolute convenience of
location (ie centrality) is far less important than simplicity of
directions. OBS, before I became Unofficial Meeting Instigator, used to
meet at Johns Hopkins University, which is quite centrally located ---
but also difficult to get to if you're not intimately familiar with
Baltimore City. No directions seemed to work. We've had three meeting
locations since then, and they're no more than two turns off of the
highway, even if it's a number of miles up the road.

Pick a location that's convenient for a core group of 8-10 people (the
same ones from whom the date is convenient, preferably!), announce the
first meeting at least a month in advance, have speakers, and keep it
consistent. If you can make it worth folks' while, they'll travel a
reasonable distance to attend your meeting. (We've had people attending
from DC for our last several meetings --- we had Tom Limoncelli speak
last month, and the month before that an FBI agent was supposed to have
spoken, but that turned out to be the day of the big Warez bust, so he's
coming back in February.)

Generally, I buy about $25 worth of soda and chips, get a speaker, and
send out meeting announcements. If you or your cabal can come up with
that money on a regular basis, then I'd recommend against starting with
any sort of formal organization. If you later discover you need one,
then by all means do it, but we paid for Tom Limoncelli's train ticket
from New Jersey totally through informal donations --- basically people
handing me cash at the meeting, and then me keeping running totals on a
sheet of paper. (We also encourage local folks to speak by covering
their food/drink after the meeting, also paid for through completely
informal donations.) And I'd recommend against a cabal of people running
things, mostly because people take less responsibility when there's no
blame if things fall through the cracks.

I'd also like to hear from other local group coordinators and find out
what their experiences have been...

Jon
-- 
Jon Lasser	
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