I was the main organizer for the NYC LW/OB group until I moved out to the Bay Area a few weeks ago. From my experience, if you want to encourage people to get together with some frequency you need to make doing so require as little effort and coordination as possible. The way I did it was as follows:
We started a google group that everyone interested in the meetups signed up for, so that we could contact each other easily.
I picked an easily accessible location and two times per month, (second Saturdays at 11am and 4th Tuesdays at 6pm) on which meetups would always occur. I promised to show up at both times every month for at least two hours regardless of whether or not anyone else showed up. I figured the worst that could happen was that I’d have two hours of peace and quiet to read or get some work done and that if at least one person showed up we’d almost certainly have a great time.
We’ve been doing that for about 9 months and I’ve never been left alone. In fact, we found that twice a month wasn’t enough and started meeting every week a few months ago.
At the moment, only one meetup per month is announced to the “public” through the meetup.com group (so that we don’t have to explain all of the basics to new people every meeting), one is for general unfocused discussion and two are rationality-themed game nights (such as poker training).
You should probably set up the google/meetup.com group first and poll people on what times work best for them and what kinds of activities they are most interested in and then take it form there.
I wish you the best of luck, and I’d be happy to answer any other questions you might have.
I was the main organizer for the NYC LW/OB group until I moved out to the Bay Area a few weeks ago. From my experience, if you want to encourage people to get together with some frequency you need to make doing so require as little effort and coordination as possible. The way I did it was as follows:
We started a google group that everyone interested in the meetups signed up for, so that we could contact each other easily.
I picked an easily accessible location and two times per month, (second Saturdays at 11am and 4th Tuesdays at 6pm) on which meetups would always occur. I promised to show up at both times every month for at least two hours regardless of whether or not anyone else showed up. I figured the worst that could happen was that I’d have two hours of peace and quiet to read or get some work done and that if at least one person showed up we’d almost certainly have a great time.
We’ve been doing that for about 9 months and I’ve never been left alone. In fact, we found that twice a month wasn’t enough and started meeting every week a few months ago.
At the moment, only one meetup per month is announced to the “public” through the meetup.com group (so that we don’t have to explain all of the basics to new people every meeting), one is for general unfocused discussion and two are rationality-themed game nights (such as poker training).
You should probably set up the google/meetup.com group first and poll people on what times work best for them and what kinds of activities they are most interested in and then take it form there.
I wish you the best of luck, and I’d be happy to answer any other questions you might have.
Thanks, Jasen. What is the turnout at these meetups? How did you find it grew?