On Tuesday 25 September 2007 09:05, Ted Roche wrote:
> The LUG membership committee is looking for few good geeks. Where do
> you find new members to join the LUG?
> Ideas welcomed.
("contact group" is a neutral term for the LUG mailing list to avoid the
much debated term "membership" which has legal implications)
If, after trying advertising experiments, a more studied approach to
the meeting-attendance-level problem is desired, I offer some starting
points for discussion:
How to increasing meeting attendance:
1) increase the percentage of the present contact group (mostly
computer professionals) that attends the meetings.
2) increase the size of the computer professionals contact group
assuming a relatively fixed percentage shows interest in any given
meeting topic.
3) expand the contact group to those outside of computer
professionals
While a combination of all is most promising, it is convenient to
treat them independently for analysis.
1) higher attendance percentage:
Assuming that subject matter and level of the presentations is the
primary draw, how do we find topics that appeal to a wider range of the
contact group? Do you ask those who attend regularly, as we did at the
MerriLUG meeting?
If our hypothesis is correct that subject matter which is is wrong
or slightly off target holds back attendance, these are exactly the
wrong people to ask. The people who don't attend must be asked. But
how?
I have no winning solution to offer. However, one approach might be
an auto-search the discussion list history looking for the top 25
threads rated by the number of different individuals posting, not the
number of posts. What brings lurkers out of the woodwork?
Will the present "regulars" drop out if the topics change? Not
likely. They will probably be delighted to see topic they didn't have
to devise. Besides, most of them attend to attend - they would show up
for a gnhLUG talk on dairy farming.
2) expanding the contact group-
Before beating the bushes, it would be nice to know if the bushes
can be expected to yield much of anything. There is a measure called
market penetration that might give guidance here.
What percentage of registered professional engineers join their
primary professional group, the National Society of Professional
Engineers (NSPE). What percentage of businesses have membership in the
Chamber of Commerce? What percentage of gun owners belong to the
National Rifle Association? What percentage of the eligible over 55
group belong to the AARP? (Add any groups you feel are more relevant.)
Statistics like the above are quite easy to get. They give an idea
of the number of a target population can be attracted by a well funded,
well organized group. Do you expect it to be closer to 90% or 10%?
(You might also look at the percentage of the members that attend
meetings in these groups.)
Next, compare gnhLUG's market penetration with that of the other
organizations. Go to the Bureau of Labor statistics. How many
computer professionals reside in NH and northeastern Massachusetts?
What percentage of these does the gnhlug-discuss mailing list
represent? How does that percentage compare with other technical
organizations that you would class with gnhLUG?
If gnhLUG has a much smaller percentage, more advertising is likely
to help. If the market penetration is average, there will not be much
long term gain from the recruiting effort.
3) expand the contact group outside of computer professionals-
How does one identify non-computer professional groups that would be
interested in Linux and the type of help that gnhLUG can provide?
I will toss out one idea, then run for cover.
Perhaps gnhLUG should run an "Ask Dr. Linux" column in the local
papers. (Sort of a Dear Abbie for computer users.) From the responses,
the group could get a feeling for the kind of people that want help and
what areas presentations should target. Answering the questions could
be a collaborative effort on gnhlug-discuss.
* * * * * *
Anyway there is my proposed approach for the record. If anyone
eventually wants to explore it, the list archive on the gnhLUG server
will enshrine it for indeterminate eons.
Jim Kuzdrall
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