Since a large part of our December meeting was given over to a discussion of the goals and direction of the group, this recap post serves the added function of discussing some of those goals and how we plan to work toward them.
Recap!
Two dozen FileMaker enthusiasts converged on the the IT Solutions office for the 5th Annual PFUG Year End Bonanza on December 15th.
We continued our annual tradition of vendor discussions and giveaways, of course – congratulations to Dan Stein, Todd Chronister, Walter Burns, Preston Cabe, Tim Lynott, Mike Ahern, Bryant Minard, Gale Raspen and Michael Reddy for winning bonanza prizes from our generous sponsors! And a big thanks to SolutionMakers, Ben Waldie, ProofGroup and Seed Code, Thorsen Consulting, 360Works and Real EVO for participating and contributing to our event.
Our 2008 predictions for 2009 were, as usual, mostly wrong, but I don’t think anyone can be faulted for not guessing all the twists and turns 2009 held in store for us. We’ll have to wait until December 2010 before we can weigh in on the latest batch – though I somehow doubt “BJ and the Bear” will make it to the big screen this year (sorry, Jason).
We spent a good portion of the meeting discussing the long range focus and goals of the user group, a free-ranging roundtable conversation that included:
- How to increase monthly attendance
- How to tailor the meeting structure for better participation, away from the active presenter/passive audience model
- Better networking and support methods between members
- In general, how to make the group more useful for the members
All in all a great way to end the year – and a big thanks to Jason Fiske of FMI for providing the excellent buffet!
Goals!
Some of the takeaways that we’ll be acting on…
Meeting Structure
We’re going to move the “Stump the Chump” session from its current slot at the end of the presentation to the opening slot; e.g. after opening remarks we’ll jump right into it. Also…we are ALL Chumps. Previously we picked folks to answer questions from members; now it’ll be a free-for-all (which it always devolved to anyway!).
Presenters will be asked to tailor their presentations for more interactivity, where possible: in other words, where it makes sense to “workshop” a topic, let’s encourage that.
2009 was heavy on “big names”: most of our presenters had a history of speaking at DevCons and other venues, had high level topics that may have had the “just getting started” developer feeling a little left in the dark. In 2010 we’ll be mixing things up a bit – more roundtable discussions, more group critiques of member work, more member presentations. We’re going to keep getting whatever superstars we can, but hopefully the mix will be more healthy.
Audience Building
Up until now, who shows up at meetings has been pretty much dependent on the size and quality of our mailing list, and exposure we get through various passive advertising venues – the FMPug site, syndication of this blog, and so on. That’s all well and good, but in my opinion our reach is limited. This is promotion, not networking.
Since it’s in the best interest of the members to have sizable attendance, fresh faces and all that comes from a growing audience – because of the networking opportunities, job prospects, and information sharing – we’re charging you, the members, with the responsibility of spreading the word about the group. Tell your co-workers, your clients, your consultants, and your friends.
Bring someone who has never used FileMaker before.
Bring that IT guy across the room who hates FileMaker, so he can see what it’s all about.
In short, evangelize.
We’re averaging 18 people a meeting; it would be very nice to reach 25 this year. And it can only benefit you to reach that number.
Networking
You may recall we discussed how to encourage member communication between the monthly meetings. At the moment we have a single mailing list, announcement only, and some of you belong to the FMPUGTalk list, which encompasses all user groups.
We’re going to look into setting up a mailing list for members to provide a localized communication resource – you’ll be able to post questions, jobs, chat or whatever you like. That’ll be forthcoming and I should have some news on it at the next meeting at month’s end.
We also discussed the idea of member profiles on the blog or of finding some way to provide a public face for the members – for each other and to raise the profile of the group by giving it a personalized identity.
We’re going to look into this as well, though I don’t expect any movement on it before the January meeting.
That’s it for now. I’ll be announcing the next meeting (January 26) early next week.
Happy FileMaking!
- Colin
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