How to successfully operate PM user group
ROM: Joe Jiang's Out: China Perl Association FPC (Foundation of Perlchina) Original Name: Perl Mongers: How to Run A Successful GroupPerlchina Reminds you: Please protect the author's copyright and maintain the crystallization of author labor.
Each Perl Monger Group is a bit different, some are a pure social group, some are a pure technology team, and most of them are between the two; some members are more than 100 people, but only have a few. There are some efficient ways to help your PM team succeed. In this article, Dave Cross and we share some successful experience in leading the London.PM team in his three years.
The most difficult thing to find members is developing new members. If your group is very famous, then new members will find themselves (for example, find "London Perl in Google, the first return entry is the connection of the London.pm team); but if it is just established A new group is hard to let people who may be interested in knowing your existence.
I will recommend two solutions for the same work: You can advertise those who are looking for your group in the area where Perl Hacker likes to find yours. You can also find advertisements in your local Geek who likes you. People expected to become Perl Hacker.
When four years ago, London.pm has just been established, it is now more suitable for adopting the first solution. I just sent a message in comp.lang.perl.misc, now you can also send a notice in use.perl.org and Perlmonks. You can also pull some of the like-like porters in other local PM groups (of course you have to get their consent before you can send such a letter to the mailing list).
For the second solution, you can find someone to other local GEEK users. Do you have a local Linux user group there? Or Is the Group of * BSD? There are many benefits to establishing an interconnection with them. To further, you can try a small message on the magazine you like Perl users. Extremely an extreme example, I have tried to mention London.pm in the Guardian's IT sector, and the visit of our website has increased much.
Another possible way is to look for other Perl users in your company's company. Maybe there may be some internal BBSs to present advertisements to introduce your group.
The mailing list will establish a mailing list as soon as possible. This will become the main communication channel between your members.
Obviously, the content and the main purpose of the mailing list are depends on you and your team itself. But according to my experience, if you don't mind everyone to discuss some of the questions in the mailing list, you will be more close to success.
The topic discussed in the message list of longdon.pm is always very wide. Through it to discuss the decision to the meeting, talk about the nearest Perl news, as well as all other Geek content, oh, there is a movie buffy the Vampire SLAYER. A sign of success in the mail list is that those who can't live in your one have begun to don't speak in you, because the topic in your list is really interesting.
The power to decide the format of the letter is also you, you can set a way to send letters is harmful to others. This includes any email with HTML format, a non-stop post message, too long signature, or any other serious fault. I personally feel that the Perl community sometimes criticizes these people too much. I still recommend that these rules are more guided rather than punitive, and at least two faults should be wide. Also, you don't only have a list of mail. Some people in London just want to know the time and place of the next meeting, but do not want to participate in the general discussions. To do this, you need a list of messages for a special release notice. I know that the groups of other places have set up a special mailing list for recruitment to facilitate the transmission of recruitment requirements, and only those who are looking for work need to be added.
Website Website is a very useful tool for the presence of your existence, especially when you let it appear inside the common search engine.
But the website is also a double-edged sword. If the information above the website is over, the visitors will miss your group may have no longer exist. The best example is to put your team's next party time on the web page, but if you have already passed this time, who will come?
Ok, you have remembered that you want to update your group information. Next, it is some ideas about which information on the website.
The next meeting should not only stop at the date of publication of the next meeting, you can also list the next three months of meeting schedule. Of course, you can do this, it is necessary to build on a good organizational management, so you may know what will happen within three months.
The meeting report told everyone that your meeting is. It is best to see them, such as some photos at some meeting, can be placed online. If you open a technical conference, you can put the slideshow of the lecture. After a few months, I will make an archive.
The book reviews a lot of publishers edit the book of Perl, most of which will give you a group of books, as the price, you have to give them a book review. Put the book review on the website will make them happy.
An interesting phenomenon in the publishing world is the more book reviews you write, the more books they also give you.
Are you using your membership if your member is available for useful modules in CPAN Modules? Or they participate in a Perl project? Remember to mention these in the web page.
Mail list archive About this problem You need to negotiate with members, some people don't like to publish the contents of the discussion to the Internet. But there is a complete archive that is always good, even if there is a password protected.
The RSS summary has a good way to update the content of the website is to subscribe to the RSS summary from other websites. For example, you can
Http://Use.perl.org/useperl.rdf to get
User.perl.org site's latest story, you can also
http://search.cpan.org/recent.rdf Gets the latest CPAN module publishing information. Every day you can get the latest information from these information sources, and provide daily latest information with XML :: RSS.
The conference meeting is the core of most PM teams. There is a good Email or IRC exchange every day, but it can't replace the communication. How to (when and where to manage) is of course determined by yourself, some suggestions are given below.
The agenda has arranged a clear and wide-known way to calculate the date of determination of the meeting held since London.pm was established. The benefits of this agreed algorithm are that you don't have to discuss this fee every month. Everyone knows how to adjust their plan to adapt to this arrangement. Additional benefits, you can write a program published online will meet the date.
When setting this schedule algorithm, you have to look at whether the local other Geek team is conflict with it. You will definitely don't want to start a meeting at the same night and the local Linux user group (unless you want to do with them). After having a schedule, there is still a flexible change. Indeed, sometimes it will meet at other times (someone may come from other cities to visit, and you also hope that they will come together, or make a lecture). In this case, I recommend not changing the date, but a additional meeting (London.pm is called an emergency meeting).
Social conferences are not all groups have a social conference, even in a variety of different forms. The most common is to meet in a local bar or tea restaurant, and there is also a hotel or a member of a member. Sometimes it will also combine in various ways, last time in the bar, next time you are a very common choice.
The meeting to be remembered is to welcome new members. You have to make sure: First of all, people can easily find your group; second, you must welcome new people. In the technical details, it is ensured that people are very convenient to find the way to use the "a little perl" on your desk. From Perl's book, you can go to something with camels. Make sure new people are welcoming, but there are some techniques. The best way may be to choose a member who is willing to receive a stranger to discover the new faces of tension in the corner. Another way, can give everyone yourself at some point in that evening. Let everyone bring the nameplate with their own name, it may be too extreme.
If your team is large, you'd better look at whether you can book a private room inside a bar. Most places allow you to use free use in the event of minimal consumption, you should not be particularly difficult.
Some teams at the beginning of the technical conference are just a technical conference. Other (including london.pm) will only have a technical conference. There will be a lot of conditions (a conference venue and a spokesman) when it is held in a technical meeting (a spokesman), people can easily forget some other matters, such as whether you need a network link and projector, and so on.
The most difficult thing in the prevention of technical conferences is often looking for venues. It is best to borrow a meeting room in a member of the company. You also have to be roughly estimated to participate in the number of people to send 40 people to only 20 people. Another way is to rent a room at night. For example, when Damian Conway came to London, we booked a room in the same name of Conway Hall. In that case, you can ask members to donate to fill the expenditure, or charge the admission fee.
The resettlement meeting spokesperson is not a difficult thing. You can always find those people who are happy to share in the group's members. Sometimes people will be shy when they do their speech, but they will not be tired soon. Maybe you have members who have made speeches at the Perl Conference, or those who are preparing for this.
Another good spokesperson is an Visiting Perl master. The famous people in the Perl community will be happy to speak to your local PM when you have been in your town.
Very good way to encourage everyone to speak is "Lightning Speech". This is invented at Mark Jason Dominus at the first YAPC conference in Pittsburgh. Refers to those 5 minutes. In the statement, you only need a short description of the main topics, so no one will be afraid of long-term big.
When the agenda of the planned technical conference, you should also count your members' time to get the same time. Try not to start a meeting before most listeners arrive. If there is no particular interesting topic, you should also don't want the meeting time for more than two hours. I prefer to prepare 4 to 5 lightning sponsors and speak in 2 to 3 and a half hours. Don't forget to prepare for 15 or 20 minutes in the middle.
It's a way I am known to make London.pm becoming one of the most successful PM groups. I know that my experience may only apply to the UK. If you have more international experience, I am very happy to communicate with you. What have you done to make your group success? Or turn, what do you find out? Please send me an email: user_groups@pm.org. I will revise this article to announce those good suggestions.
