[kwlug-disc] Attendance

[CrankyOldBugger]

Lots of good comments have been made in this discussion, but let me go way
outside the box for a minute and come up with a really crappy idea...

My Dad was an ad-man, meaning that he sold advertising time on various
radio stations.  So I grew up knowing a lot about advertising.

So the problem, as I see it (and assuming we consider it a problem) is that
we don't have a lot of members attending the meetings, physical or
virtual.  Well let's assume that no matter how many members we have
(variable 'x'), we only have 'y' members attending meetings, physical or
virtual.  'y' will never equal 'x' as there will always be members who just
can't attend for whatever reasons.

So the challenge is to increase the total number of members ('x') and hope
that the meeting attendance ('y') goes up accordingly.  How do we increase
the 'x' members?  We advertise.  Now despite my Dad's expertise in
advertising, I don't think we want to buy radio airtime, or signs on buses,
or billboards, etc.  From what I heard, spreading the word on Twitter or
Facebook or any other social media doesn't seem to be working.  So we need
something new and (largely) untried before.

If you're not pissed off at me by now, just wait for the next part....

I think the best way to get the word out is to make our presence known in
key (strategic) areas.  For example, holding "Come learn about Linux"
sessions on UWloo campus.  Handing out laptop stickers (assuming we can
find a cheap print shop) at Communitech.  Setting up information booths at
job fairs.  Hell, doing a food drive for the homeless people in Tent City.
Anything!  Just make sure that any lost fool who happens to see us gets a
brochure telling him/her who we are, what we do, and how they can get on
the mailing list.

Growing our group isn't impossible.  It isn't even improbable.  But it's
not easy.  There will be a lot of hard work involved, so we need to decide
as a group if we want to keep things the way they are, or to see if we can
take things to the next level.

Commence flame throwing in three.. two... one...



On Wed, Oct 5, 2022 at 9:43 PM Chris Irwin via kwlug-disc <
kwlug-disc at kwlug.org> wrote:

> >On Wed, Oct 05, 2022 at 09:19:59AM -0400, Paul Nijjar via kwlug-disc
> wrote:
> >> The problem with online events is that they are not special.
>
> My thoughts as well. I've attended a few virtual meetings here and there
> (both KWLug and another group), but fewer than when we were in person
> (and I drove in from London for them).
>
> I think the problem is a virtual meeting doesn't keep either the sense
> of "live" or "community". It feels more like idling in IRC while
> everybody watches the same youtube video. Not that I think open mic with
> 30 people is a solution, either -- we have enough trouble once we hit 5
> participants in virtual work meetings.
>
> >> For another you can convince yourself that you can just look at the
> >> video if you skip the meeting.
>
> Purely from a time commitment point of view, an article or youtube
> series is going to be more useful, as I can scrub through for the
> relevant parts, skip the backstory, and it's not artificially limited to
> fit a time slot.
>
> Once you lose the ability to kind of blurt out a related question, or
> chat on the side with other people, you're really in a tough place
> competing with "on demand" media.
>
> >> For a third attending such a meeting is yet more time you are
> >> spending looking at a screen.
>
> I viewed KWLug (in person) as a night out, while the virtual meetings I
> attend from my desk -- where I already spend too much time working.
>
> On Wed, Oct 05, 2022 at 06:23:20PM -0400, Chris Frey wrote:
> > What can we change about the virtual meetings that would give
> >something special to those who show up, that just can't happen otherwise?
>
> This is a thought.
>
> I think the ability to go off-script is the key part of a live event,
> versus just watching it after.  For the most part, an
> in-person-presentation-but-online doesn't necessarily lend itself to
> that.
>
> I don't have any actual ideas to suggest, and I don't want to be a
> downer sapping anybody's motivation. But $above is why I haven't been
> attending, even though it's "easier" than in person.
>
> --
> Chris Irwin
>
> email:   chris at chrisirwin.ca
>   xmpp:   chris at chrisirwin.ca
>    web: https://chrisirwin.ca
>
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>
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