You might have said to yourself after reading my last cheerleading post on starting a FileMaker User Group (Why User Groups Matter), “Well, that’s all well and good, but you’re not the one trying to start a group in a virtual vacuum. Cheerleading’s easy.” Fine, point taken.
I realize that many of you are in regions that, on initial consideration, might not seem fertile ground for a user group. You may feel that being located in a smaller metropolitan area or rural region is an insurmountable roadblock to getting a group started. What’s the point of holding a first meeting if there’s no one else around?
Your first step is finding the 2 or 3 or 10 people you can connect with and agree to meet in person. We’ll get into the meat and potatoes of managing the group later; there’s no point talking about it until you’ve got enough interest to fill at least the seats around a kitchen table or bar booth. Finding people is, admittedly, hard. Luckily, there are plenty of online resources to datamine for prospects.
I ask for forbearance from those of you for whom all of this is painfully obvious. It’s not obvious to everybody, and this suite of blog posts is oriented to those at the beginner/intermediate stage of social networking (remember: user groups were perfecting social networking when Twitter’s founder was still in diapers). Continue reading ‘FileMaker User Groups: Thoughts and resources on getting started (Post #2)’
Recent Comments