Attracting more organisers (& coaches)

[Angus Gratton]

Hi folks,

I think we're doing pretty well at running OTS in Melbourne. We've got
mostly-regular workshops happening that are getting good
attendance. We attract attendees from fairly diverse backgrounds, with
a reasonably good gender split (not consistently 50/50 but recent
workshops have been close). The learner's meetups are proving popular
and seem like a model we can further build our community through (huge
props to Lilly for those).

However I think we could use a few more active organisers. The size we
have now means that if 1-2 people aren't available in a particular
month, no workshop/meetup occurs. It'd be great to have about double
as many, I think, to keep things ticking over sustainably.

Ideally OTS would also benefit from a more diverse group of organisers.

Does anyone have ideas for attracting some more people? My brainstorm
list so far:

* Inviting people we already know.

* Putting out the call to "user groups" again (I know Steven did a lot
of this when first setting up the group, with mixed success I
think).

* Printing up some flyers to drop at coworking spaces and other likely
spots.

For brand new people, I suppose encouraging them as coaches first is a
good avenue (Matt C's been along as a coach a few times and is
sticking around, which is awesome!)

On the flip side, are there other things we can improve that might be
discouraging new coaches or potential organisers?

I'd be keen to hear anyone's thoughts on any of this.


Angus

[Danielle Madeley]

My problem has been time. However my management at Infoxchange was talking about community tech training and so I've said that OTS is an organisation already set up who I'm sure would love our support. I'm hoping we can encourage the staff here to get involved in some way through that.

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[Angus Gratton]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 07:47:55AM +0930, Danielle Madeley wrote:
> My problem has been time. However my management at Infoxchange was talking
> about community tech training and so I've said that OTS is an organisation
> already set up who I'm sure would love our support. I'm hoping we can
> encourage the staff here to get involved in some way through that.

Hi Danielle,

That sounds terrific! Please let us know if we can help make that
process easier in any way.

- Angus

[Lilly Ryan]

Hey all,

Danielle, if Infoxchange wanted to support OTS in any way, that would be fantastic. What kind of things are you looking for? If any Infoxchange staff would like to become organisers, I think we would really benefit from that - and I'm sure we can be of benefit to Infoxchange as well! As Angus said, let us know how we can help.

Angus, all of those are great ideas. If anyone has time to make flyers, I can certainly distribute them. I can start to discuss the idea with friends who might be interested.

Cheers,

Lilly

[Angus Gratton]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 11:42:15AM +1000, Lilly Ryan wrote:
> Angus, all of those are great ideas. If anyone has time to make flyers, I
> can certainly distribute them.

Yay!

This get us to the "hmm where do we find a graphic designer?" point, I
guess. Does anyone know someone who might be able to help us out?

I'll put a post on the global OTS Discourse forum and see if any
flyers already exist for other groups. We might be able to adapt one.


Angus

[Angus Gratton]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 08:20:56AM +1000, Angus Gratton wrote:
> I'll put a post on the global OTS Discourse forum and see if any
> flyers already exist for other groups. We might be able to adapt one.

Could have searched before I emailed, I guess...

http://discourse.opentechschool.org/t/promo-merchandise-for-ots/66

I've emailed Ola to see if she can share the .PSD files with us to
adapt.


Angus

[Lillian Ryan]

Thanks, Angus!

--
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

[Angus Gratton]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 08:40:42AM +1000, Angus Gratton wrote:
> I've emailed Ola to see if she can share the .PSD files with us to
> adapt.

Seems Ola no longer has the original files, but she's happy for us to
adapt the design concept.

Mentioning it again in the hope someone knows a friendly/sympathetic
designer. Maybe I'll ask the Meetup group directly.


Angus

[Lilly Ryan]

Asking the Meetup group might be a good idea. I also know a designer I can ask, although they may not be able to do it for free.

At worst I'm sure I can probably fire up GIMP and give it a shot.

[Angus Gratton]

Hi Matt,

(CCing back on-list as from the content I'm guessing it was
only accidentally an off-list reply.)

On Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 10:53:12AM +1000, Matthew Iversen wrote:
> I have PS skills left over from highschool... I can recreate some similar
> to Ola's of you like? With any particular message / intent?

Thanks!

The goal is to drop flyers to attract some more coaches, potential
organisers. "Share your skills" / "Join a teaching community" /
"Couple of hours a month" kind of message.

The message itself could probably use a bit of working out. I guess
the key things is for it not to be daunting (you don't have to be a
seasoned pro, it won't consume your life), feel-good (helping people
have positive technology experiences, promoting diversity), and
actionable in some way (join this mailing list?)

Doesn't have to necessarily follow the aesthetic theme in Ola's
posters, either. Although they are simple and on-brand with the rest
of the OTS stuff.

> Having some nice shiny posters to stick up for workshops and things would
> actually be really nice... Anyone know rough printing prices for these
> sorts of things at places like office works (or any better solution)?

Officeworks is pretty cheap for that kind of thing:
http://www.officeworks.com.au/print/print-and-copy/posters-and-plans

I think there are slightly cheaper online services, for example
VistaPrint, but I've found it's a pretty soul-destroying experience
using them (they try to upsell you a dozen times before you can
successfully order something).


Angus