Growing Your User Group

GrowingYour
User Group
LinuxFest NW 2014
Growing Your User Group - a talk for LinuxFest NW 2014!
(Insert obligatory plant image here.)
Art by me. It’s pretty obvious why I’m working in tech and not art.

Hi, I’m Kara Sowles
Community Initiatives Manager
Puppet Labs
Portland, ORTwitter: @feynudibranch
Email: kara@puppetlabs.com
Hi, I’m Kara Sowles! I work at Puppet Labs, where among other things, I run the Puppet User
Group Program. I help connect over 40 community-run Puppet User Groups around the world
with the right resources to overcome obstacles. I’m no expert, though, so I look forward to
hearing *your* advice in the discussion section at the end of this talk!
My goal is for you to come away with at least a few thoughts for how to reinvigorate your
user group.
This is the part where I’m supposed to prove I’m a fun human with interests or something. I
love mushroom hunting, edible wild plants, boardgames, Dungeons and Dragons,
Lovecraftian horror, kids cartoons, superhero cartoons, and making stop-motion
animation.... that enough? But, we can talk about all that stuff afterwards, because today I’m
here to talk to you about...

Where are we
headed?
Agenda! User Groups are formed in the comfortable Hall of User Group Creation, and we
*think* we’re going to ﬂoat up through the clouds to the perfect user group in the sky or
whatever...but instead there’s a treacherous journey through many of the scary places you can
see here...From the Foodless Flatlands (so hungry!) to the Speakerless Swamps.
This talk fails to cover the VAST world of user groups, but in the limited time we have, I’ll
blast through some common obstacles, and some common solutions to try.
We all know this difficult journey in some way or other. It starts with...

I made a user group!
I MADE A USER GROUP! It’s great.

Awesome
ﬁrst meeting!
:D
AWESOME FIRST MEETING! All my friends came, and some other people too! It was so perfect,
we had a great time! :D

ELEPHANT GRAVEYARD
And then...
- from The Lion King copyright walt disney pictures -
My group never met again
My cousin is in town
I couldn’t ﬁnd a presenter except that one friend last time
I don’t want to pay for pizza again. Frankly, I don’t want to eat pizza again, I’ve been eating it
all week
(This image copyright Walt Disney Corporation)

“The internet is littered with ghost towns where
communities used to be.The people still exist - but
the structure fell apart.”
- I couldn’t ﬁnd a quote about this so I made one up
To create an in-person community, often you’re also creating an online community where you
gather people to meet in person. The sign of user groups that no longer meet is usually in
abandoned meetup pages, unused forums and google groups....

Obstacles
No Speaker
No Venue
No Food
Few Members
No Momentum
So, what went wrong? You might encounter any of these obstacles. Everyone running a user
group will run into at least one of these problems, likely more. It varies - for some groups, it
might be easy to ﬁnd a venue, but hard to ﬁnd members -- others might have no speakers,
but a huge user base. Some may have all the ingredients, but somehow meetings are just
never planned. It’s ok! These obstacles are normal :) Running user groups consistently - or
at all - can be really tough.

Obstacles
No Speaker
No Venue
No Food
Few Members
No Momentum
Let’s ﬁx
this!
Ok then, let’s ﬁx this!

First, let’s start at the
beginning...
Because not everyone in the room has necessarily started their group yet, right? I don’t want
to jump into this book mid-chapter. I won’t cover everything, just a few points.

Starting a User GroupStarting a User Group
So, you’re planning to start a user group

THE BASICS
Date / Starting Time
Venue
Speaker
Way to communicate with members
Let the world know it exists
Maybe food?
You know the basics! Blah, blah, blah. Moving on.

RECONNAISSANCE
When do similar groups meet?
Is there already a group about X?
What works well for other local groups?
Make sure you do local reconnaissance! This helps make sure you:
- Don’t make a repeat group
- Don’t choose a time/day that conﬂicts with similar groups or groups w similar audiences
- Familiarize yourself with what other local groups do. Do people travel far to to to a user
group? Do they generally start early, at 5, or later at 7 so everyone has time to drive there?
Every area has its idiosyncrasies.
- What meetup tools do ppl use in your area? If no one in your community uses meetup not a
good choice - same for google groups.
- Don’t re-learn what other local groups have already learned. Talk to them. They’ve made
mistakes in the past, and you don’t want to make the same ones!

Choose an online home for your group
Pick an online home for your group. Meetup.com, google groups, web pages, forums, mailing
lists, etc. There are two separate functions: Communicating when & where & what your
events will be; and staying in touch between events.
Consider which method is most used in your speciﬁc locale. I use Meetup.com the most
often, mostly in the United States and some in Europe, but in Portland we use a Google
Group.
Some groups use a Meetup page to post events (easy for anyone to see, but not good for
discussion) and a Google Group to discuss upcoming events (not everyone is interested in the
planning) - if you do this, make sure to make the separate purposes of the platforms clear.

SET EXPECTATIONS
Find a cadence and stick to it.
We’ll come back to this later...
setting expectations is key.
Find a cadence: ﬁrst thursday, fourth wednesday, etc. You’ve done reconnaissance, so you’ll
choose a date that doesn’t conﬂict with similar groups.
Setting expectations is KEY - and a big theme in this talk.

Ok, let’s start removing
some obstacles!
Ok, let’s start removing some obstacles!

Finding aVenue
Finding a Venue
Again, art by me, drawn awkwardly on my ipad with my ﬁnger really late at night. Daytime art
is sadly no better. All buildings have angled roofs because I am from New England.

MAKE
A
LIST
Brief description of group’s purpose
Average # of members at each meeting
Date / Time of meetings
A/V requirements
Any other space requirements / needs
Make a list of info about the group BEFORE you start asking for space, and include that info in
the request for hosting space. It saves the person on the other side time, and it helps make
sure you ﬁnd a space that’s appropriate for your group. It sets expectations.

THINK
ABOUT
PERKS
“The hosting company is invited to
announce any open jobs at the beginning of
each meeting.”
“The hosting company is listed as a
sponsor on our meetup page, and at our
yearly event.”
“The hosting library has interesting events
to advertise and bring in more people.”
Think about how a hosting company might benefit from hosting your group.
I don’t mean to be crass. Obviously not every group finds it appropriate to talk about open
jobs, or sponsorships...so tailor this to your group’s proclivities. Ideally, both sides benefit!

Ask your company
First choice - you naturally ask your company (if you work at one)

Ask your friend’s company
Usually our second instinct - to leverage strong connections.
That’s ﬁne, though - you don’t need good friends all over town in order to ﬁnd a hosting
company. I don’t have a lot of friends, so let’s move on to new strategies!

When thanking those
that said ‘no’, ask them
for recommendations.
When a place turns you down, email thanking them for their consideration, and politely
asking if they might be able to recommend any other companies which might be interested in
hosting.

Are there any local
companies that cater to
your attendees’
demographic?
For example, a cleaners’ group might ask to meet at a cleaning supply company. This
company is more likely to say yes. Think about your attendees, and the topic of your user
group, and see if you can ﬁnd a local company that might be more likely to say yes to a ‘cold
call’ request. For example, at Puppet Labs, we would love to host a conﬁguration
management or IT related user group.

Ask your user group
Post it to the message board of your user group if there is one, and bring it up as a topic at
the end of the next meeting. Often, someone will say the company they work at can likely
host.

Local University
or
Local Library
Try a local university, a local library, or a local community club. More on this at the end of the
presentation from audience members.

Check where other
user groups are hosted
Look online at other user groups in your area, and see where they are hosted. Reach out to
those companies. You already know they host user groups - maybe they’ll host yours! You up
your chances if you actually *attend* a user group in that office ﬁrst : )

Get flexible
If you’ve tried all these steps and you’re not having success, try to find out what the issue is -
why you’re getting turned down - and be flexible on that point. Did you accidentally choose a
date that everyone’s busy? Does your meeting end at 11pm, and no employee wants to stay
that late? Can you alternate between locations until you find a permanent one? Some
companies are more likely to say yes to a one-time event.

STILL NO HOST :’(
Ok, I know you’re sad. But we can work with this.

Temporary, alternate
locations
(often bars)
When I want a meeting to happen somewhere, but there’s no venue I can use, I’ll plan it in a
bar. Ideally it’s got a quite back room that I don’t have to pay to use, but that’s just a bonus.
This has some severe downsides: (1) you can’t have a presentation and (2) it’s alienating to
some and (3) it’s loud. You need to also watch that you’re making a comfortable environment
a little more closely. Then, during your meeting there, ask the members again if any of them
have connections at companies that might host you instead. You can meet up before you’ve
solved this problem, but keep trying!
Some groups *prefer* meeting in environments like this -- that’s ﬁne too.
Often, this is a great strategy for a ﬁrst meeting.

BE A
GOOD
GUEST
Leave the space clean
Turn off the projector
Don’t act entitled to the space
Check back in every month
Thank the host regularly
SET EXPECTATIONS - no surprises!
bringing your own paper plates / cups are usually an important part of leaving the place
clean! Check in with the company every month to thank them and check that the space is
reserved for you. This comes back to setting expectations! Might seem basic - but we all
forget things.

Finding Speakers
Finding Speakers

“What topics would you
like to hear about
next month?”
At the end of each meeting, the group “What topics would you like to hear about next
month?” Write them clearly on the whiteboard

“Does anyone
have experience
with [X topic]?”
Then, ask the group “Does anyone have experience with [the ﬁrst topic on the list]?” If
someone says yes, ask if they’ll present to the group on it next meeting! Go down the
proposed topic list in this manner.

Post the list of
suggested topics to
the group online, and
ask again.
Take the suggested topic list and, after the meeting, post it to the group online. Ask for more
suggestions, and ask if anyone can speak on any of the topics.

Ask individual members
what they’re doing.
Still doesn’t work? Talk to individual user group members at the meeting, asking them what they’ve been doing with the technology, and
when they say something neat, ask if they’ll speak on it at the next meeting. : )

Cultivate those who
don’t give talks (yet)
Support people who haven’t talked before. User Groups are a great way for them to practice
talks in front of a smaller group, and build up to conference talks!
Consider holding a lighting talks day - with just 5 minute talks - to encourage people to
speak.

At your company:
Look for managers that
want to foster speaking
opportunities for their
teams
When I’m looking for speakers for the Portland Puppet User Group, I have say 50+ people I
could approach and ask to give a talk - but many of the usual engineers who speak at
conferences will tell me they’re too busy. However, I know that the VP of Operations has been
trying to foster speaking opportunities for his team members, so I can ask him what
employees on his team might enjoy the opportunity.

To companies:
“Would you send
someone to give a talk
on [X topic]?”
Topics are the hard part. If you can ﬁnd topics, speakers are more convincible.
Email companies that you know are using the technology - see if they’ll send someone!

Still no speakers?
Hold a...
Discussion Session
Hack Night
Still no speakers?
Many user groups don’t choose to use speakers. They have discussion sessions - often with
pre-arranged topics, to set expectations - or hack nights. These are awesome too!

Finding More Members
Finding more members

Local Community Sites
In Portland, we use Calagator, where anyone can post tech events and user groups that are
happening

Local Conferences
and apparently
not-so-local conferences!
At LinuxFestNW, I just ran into the Greater Seattle Linux User Group! The GSLUG has a table
here, and they’re recruiting members, with the thought that many folks from Seattle are
attending this conference in Washington.
I love the cards they’re handing out - they have all the details one might need, clearly labeled.
Plus, it’s an alluring logo!

Joint Meetings
Find a similar user group, and
team up for a talk aimed at
both audiences!
For example, DevOps and Puppet
or Puppet and OpenStack
Find a similar user group, and ask if they’d like to team up for a meeting! Invite both user
bases for a talk that everyone can enjoy together. Ideally, both groups will grow from it!

Keeping Momentum
Meet regularly
Same cadence (“Fourth Thursday”)
At the end of each meeting, talk about
next time
Set expectations for yourself
Co-Organizers
What happens if you leave?
Meet regularly
same cadence
talk about next meeting at end of each
post early about next meeting
set expectations for yourself (when do you communicate with the group? etc.)
get help if you need it - co-organizers are great, but have ownership of different aspects and
roles. Get help! Train new user group leaders!
Is ownership transferrable - do you think of your group as yours? Could it survive if you
moved to a different city? Ask yourself these questions and ﬁnd answers you’re comfortable
with.

Finding $ponsors
*I* can’t afford to buy food for my user group every month. Let’s talk about some ways to
ﬁnd sponsorship for your user group. This is one of the trickier ones, since it involves cash,
but fortunately it’s not necessary - you can meet without food.

The company
that’s hosting you
Your best bet is the company that’s hosting you. Sometimes the host will buy you food -- but
sometimes, they just say it’s ok for you to eat their snacks and drink their drinks. Depending
on how exciting their food and drink pantry can be, this can be amazing, and it’s a boon that
deserves a big-thank you!
That said, if they say no on you noming their stuff, be respectful and make sure your user
group members don’t partake of something that’s not theirs.

Your Company
Your company! Sometimes a user group organizer’s company will spring for food every
month. If you need to pitch this to your boss, think through the potential beneﬁts of you
running the user group. If your department doesn’t bite, see if there’s another department
that might be interested. I work in the Community department, so I might help sponsor
something that another department doesn’t have money allotted for, and I’m doing it
because I want to encourage employees to be participating in the local tech scene.

Other Companies
Let’s think about other companies that might sponsor, even though they aren’t hosting you,
and you don’t work at them. Reasons would include wanting to me more visible to an
audience they’d like to hire from, wanting to be more visible to an audience that might use
their product, simple philanthropy & good will, or one speciﬁc attendee with a company
credit card.

Perks
One site-speciﬁc example of this is that Meetup.com has a function for this, with Sponsors,
and Perks. O’Reilley frequently sends out both booths, and discount coupons for books.
On Meetup, the Sponsor function also allows a way for groups to show that they’re
advertising their sponsor’s involvement.
Having O’Reilley as a sponsor, for example, can also help groups look credible.

SWAG
If you’re hosting a user group around a technology, see if the persons creating that
technology will send you some shirts or stickers to hand out to the group!

Your Company as a
Support Structure
Your company as a support structure. This is very speciﬁc, so I’m not going to talk about it
much. Not many people at a company that supports their user group. But since it’s such a big
part of my experience, I wanted to touch on it.

Think Like
Other Departments
Leverage Sales team
Leverage Professional Services team
Leverage Education team
Leverage Marketing team
Leverage Engineering team
Leverage Community team
Think how they interact with the community - touchpoints. Think about their goals.
For me, working at a company that makes the software the user groups are centered around,
I talk to nearly every department for support. I try to think about their goals, and how the
usre groups intersect with that.
Sales - source talks and venues for user groups, because it improves their sales region
Prof Services - they’re always traveling, so I ask them to do talks
Education - they may add community links to their mailers
Marketing - add community links to their nurturing email campaigns, or send email to
regions
Engineering - local talks
Community - well, that’s me : )

Making your group
inviting:
Setting
Expectations
See, we keep coming back to this! If you want more members, you need to convince those
on-the-fence people to come to your meeting. Setting expectations helps draw people in.
One of the key parts of this is to try to think outside of yourself. You know what the meetup
is, and you know you’re comfortable there. This is for others.
This is that feeling before you open a new book. You really have no idea what’s going to be in
there. Similarly, your potential new members have no idea what your meetup is going to be
like!

Anatomy of a Meeting
Socialize
Introduction
Presentation
Next Meeting topic & talk sourcing
Socialize
Just an example....
Setting expectations. There are many, many different agenda formats; this is just an example.
Post an agenda on your page for the meeting (not just the talk title). This helps make new
members feel more comfortable attending; they know what will be happening, and when.
Example:
6:30-7:00pm Socialize and get to know each other. Free pizza and salads.
7:00-7:15pm Introduction, group notices, announcements, local job openings
7:15-8:00pm Presentation on “Using Linux to feed local wildlife” by Gary Gygax
8:00-8:15pm Choosing topics for next meeting
8:15-8:45pm Socialize, with free beer, water, and soda provided by Local Company

Clear familiarity level
Are the talks this month for intermediate users?
Is this session accessible for absolute beginners?
Set expectations: Make it clear what level the talks or activities are. Don’t do this to make it
exclusive; do it to make people more comfortable attending. “Absolute beginners welcome”
You can also vary this from meeting to meeting. We’ve had groups that had issues where
because the software was becoming so popular, a wave of new folks would show up every
meeting. This didn’t leave the intermediate and advanced users time to talk - they spent all
their time introducing new users to the software. You can handle this AND get more people
into the group by alternating between clear beginner sessions, and clear advanced sessions.
Just make it clear what level the talks will be! (ie “This will be an advanced talk. Beginners are
always welcome to attend, but please save your questions for the beginner meeting next
month.”)

ACCESSIBILITY
Is it easy to ﬁnd the venue?
Is there parking nearby? Bike parking? Bus
access?
Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
Who can people email with special
accessibility requests or questions?
You don’t need to change venues! Just make it clear in the event description. If there’s a
weird trick to getting into the building, list it. Make a point of mentioning that the venue is
wheelchair accessible. This comes back to setting expectations

Have a Code of Conduct
Very simple question: Do you want more people at your meetup? This is one very simple way
to get more members interested in attending, and it (again) helps set expectations in a way
that’s clear, and that you can point to. Many people appreciate knowing what’s expected of
them!
I’ve heard of instances where people had bad experiences at certain user groups, just
because of a few individuals’ behavior, stopped going to the meeting - then returned when
they heard a code of conduct was implemented. I’m more likely to go to events where I know
I can point to behavior and point to a code of conduct and say ‘that’s not ok.’ I’ve never had
to point to it - but knowing it’s there makes me feel a lot more comfortable. And feeling
comfortable is an important part of what makes me go to a meeting or event!
It’s not a sign of a bad meetup to have a code of conduct - it’s the sign of a good one.
If you haven’t had issues (that you’ve been aware of before) that’s great - and means you
should implement a code of conduct now so you’re already prepared.

― Bell Hooks, Teaching Community: A P
“To build community requires vigilant awareness of the
work we must continually do to undermine all the
socialization that leads us to behave in ways that
perpetuate domination.”
― bell hooks
Teaching Community:
A Pedagogy of Hope
We don’t intend to be exclusionary. We’re good, welcoming people. But we unintentionally do
things that exclude people, that are hurtful, that are sexist or racist -- and we need to always
work to become aware of those things, and stop doing them.
Goes the same for me as for anyone else - I’ve got a lot of work to do. I look back a few years
at some of the things I said and I’m like “How did I think that was ok?!” Never stop improving.

If you’re going to pay
attention to one thing:
pay attention
to your humor
I’m not saying don’t be hilarious, I love humor. I’m saying that in many cases where awesome
people I know unintentionally say hurtful things, it’s in the context of humor, so that’s
something I’ve been trying to watch for myself. Don’t assume that because people are
laughing, that they all think it’s funny. This One Weird Trick will help you make your user
group a more welcoming place.

Fortunately, you don’t need to write a code of conduct - others have already done that for
you! You can check out the Geek Feminism Wiki or other resources online. http://
geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Geek_Feminism_Wiki
In the discussion after this talk, a variety of audience members re-enforced that ‘setting
expectations’ by instituting a Code of Conduct has been a very valuable tool for them.

Did we
make it?
Ok, so......did we make it? Have we overcome these obstacles?
Let’s hear from the audience. What’s your advice? What are your experiences?

Kara Sowles - Puppet Labs
Your advice?
Twitter: @feynudibranch
Discussion!

ideas brought up by the wonderful
audience in the discussion afterwards:
What is the purpose of your group?
Do you have a charter?
One participant said she walks around to vendor
booths at the end of large conferences, and offers to
take any extra swag to her university LUG, so that they
don’t have to ship it home! caveat: she warned to
have a large closet ready to store it in : )
Is there a similar group that used to exist in your
region, that you can revive? Can you get access to the
user mailing list or page?
Notes from the discussion after this talk at LinuxFest NW

Meeting at Universities:
Many groups have had success
meeting at Universities. Some
mentioned beneﬁts and
drawbacks they’d experienced.
Beneﬁt: Helped some with
university course curriculum;
University helped advertise
group to students.
Drawback: No alcohol;
needed faculty member each
meeting present to use room
or had to pay.
Meeting at Libraries:
One participant said that he
has had very positive
experiences meeting at
Libraries. He said many
Libraries want more
technology discussions and
resources in them, and will
welcome user groups.

One participant has been
purposefully rotating
locations every meeting in
order to draw in new members
from the hosting companies.
Some members, however, have
been displeased with this.
We discussed food at user
group meetings. Many people
are tired of pizza, but having
trouble ﬁnding alternatives.
Potlucks: Several user groups
have enjoyed potlucks.
Nothing messy: Is it a meal with
rice? Will there be rice kernels
everywhere afterwards that
you’ll have to clean up?
We discussed rotating content
levels - have a beginner
meeting, then an advanced
meeting - just make
expectations clear.
Free O’Reilly book requests:
http://oreilly.com/ug/
Free O’Reilly book request form for User Groups: http://oreilly.com/ug/

Kara Sowles
Community Initiatives Manager
Puppet Labs
Portland, OR
Twitter: @feynudibranch
Thanks for listening!
You can reach me at kara@puppetlabs.com or follow me on Twitter as @feynudibranch. This
is my ﬁrst solo public talk, so thanks for watching, and I’m looking forward to improving it
further (consistent slide format, anyone?).
I’ll be giving a version of this talk at OpenWest in Utah (2014), and I’ll be giving a different
talk on events at OSCON in Portland, OR (2014). Come say hi!

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