On Tuesday 25 September 2007 23:54, Ben Scott wrote:
> We still have no agreed-upon definition for "member" or "join". I
> originally just found that humorous, but I suspect that
> indefiniteness may be relevant to the topic at hand.
>
> People rarely do things without a reason. If one wants to increase
> "membership", one needs to find reasons for people to join. Once
> you're got a reason, the rest will fall into place.
I would give the "reason" part much more effort than a membership
definition.
There is little reason to join Mensa (the "high" IQ society) other
than "look at me, I'm smart". Its activities are fairly limited to
eating out (with an unstructured dinner discussion) or playing with
games and puzzles. The reasons Ben gives for being in the LUG don't
have much connection to those activities.
Is that the reason why Mensa attracts only 1 in 1000 qualified
people - despite a large international advertising budget? For most,
the membership stay is short. Informal observation indicates the major
reason for joining is divorce or loss of job. In other words, a sudden
need for a social network.
In devising a strategy, Ben's reasons make a good starting point:
self-betterment; an opportunity to give of one's self; idealistic
goals; and social contact. Those reasons certainly worked over the
years for the Boy Scouts, for example, so why not for the LUG? Note
that the Mensa offering meets these criteria rather poorly.
But all of the above reasons need a focus. What kind of betterment
is offered, for example. Health care? Forestry management? Free
software?
The three examples I gave in my previous post all attracted large
numbers of bright young people in their time. Consider them closely.
What characteristics do they all share? (An exercise for the reader.
But the answers are in the back of the book.) Once the features of
their particular successes are abstracted and generalized, the various
LUG activities you wish to consider can be tested against them and
Ben's list.
I sense that there is an aversion to considering unpleasant
possibilities. What if the day of Linux as a social movement is on the
wane? Is it best to avoid the thought? Wouldn't it be better to stack
up reasoning for and against the hypothesis to see if it is really
true.
Perhaps being too formal (or scientific) takes all the fun out of
this topic, but that is the approach an expensive marketing
professional would suggest.
Jim Kuzdrall
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