[kwlug-disc] Attendance

Wed Oct 5 22:35:20 EDT 2022

No flames from me, as a matter of fact, I am in total agreement.
I will restart my efforts with getting a flyer out to cop shops, local
libraries and hospital wait areas.

I've had decent success with 2 libraries here in Waterloo, KPL said get
lost last time I tried.
The police HQ in Kitchener was kind enough to hang a blurb in a lunch room.
Hospitals were a bust the last time, but mebbe I will fare better this time
around.
I will also check to see if some local high schools will permit a flyer
tacked in school event boards. Was able to get SJAM to do it once.
Oh yeah, I will ask CanadaComputers about putting it up again.

Can someone email me a QR code for the KWLUG homepage? I am a dumb and know
not how to do this(OK, a lie, I am just being lazy about finding an app to
do so), but I think having a QR code visible in that 1-pager is likely
useful.

That notice has a fetishistic 90s look about it that might appeal to the
fringe-dwellers that make up a good portion of the Linux community...so
yeah, I will give it another go 'round. I like 80s and 90s blurbs, so there!

Ron S.

On Wed, Oct 5, 2022 at 10:09 PM CrankyOldBugger <crankyoldbugger at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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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