Review of September 17th meet-up

[Martin Provencher]

Bonjour,

    Hier soir au meet-up, nous avons eu une discussion à propos du groupe et de ce qui s'y passe. Je vous fait parvenir ce courriel pour faire un résumé des actions que je vais mettre en place suite à cette discussion.

Premièrement, comme vous pouvez voir, la première partie de ce message est écrit en français. Je vais désormais faire les annonces au groupe dans les 2 langues. Le but ici est d'encourager les gens avec un peu moins de facilité en anglais à venir présenter des sujets ou discuter sur la mailing list.

Deuxièmement, j'ai été grandement surpris hier que la mailing list n'était connu que par 50% des gens à l'événement. Alors, nous allons encourager les gens à s'inscrire de façon à ce qu'il puisse se tenir à jour avec ce qu'il se passe dans le groupe. Tant qu'à faire cela, j'ai créé un nouveau groupe avec notre nouveau nom (Montreal.rb). Notre nouveau Google Group est: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/montrealrb. L'ancien était à l'adresse: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/montreal-on-rails. Si vous connaissez quelqu'un qui participe régulièrement ou à l'occasion au groupe, invitez cette personne à se joindre à la nouvelle mailing list.

Troisièmement, nous allons avoir besoin d'un volontaire à chaque meet-up pour accueillir le gens. Le but ici est de bien accueillir les nouveaux participants à nos rencontres. En même temps, cette personne pourra inviter les gens à se joindre à la mailing list pour suivre le groupe. Selon moi, ce poste serait en rotation à chaque événement, je vous invite donc à vous y inscrire - c'est un excellent moyen de rencontrer les autres participants.

Quatrièmement, à chaque événement, nous allons réserver un talk de 5 minutes pour les personnes qui n'ont jamais parlé à Montreal.rb. Les nouveaux-venus auront un moment réservé pour eux. Ils pourront ainsi être moins intimidé par une présentation, se faire un peu d'expérience et une présentation de 5 minutes demande moins de préparation qu'un talk complet. Les gens seront encouragé à présenter un gem, une feature de ruby/RoR qu'ils viennent tout juste de découvrir et qu'ils apprécient. Ils pourront également présenter un projet qu'ils ont fait avec Ruby/RoR.

Finalement, je vous demande votre aide pour m'aider à organiser Montreal.rb. Il est difficile de trouver des talks. Si vous avez une idée intéressante et n'avez pas le temps de la présenter, partagez la avec le groupe. Quelqu'un d'autre sera peut-être intéressé à présenter le sujet qui vous intéresse. Je vais créer une liste sur le site web avec les idées proposées. Si vous êtes intéressé à faire un talk dans 1-2-3 mois, faites le moi savoir, je réserverai votre place à l'avance.

Pour conclure ce message, je voudrais vous rappeler de vous inscrire sur le nouveau Google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/montrealrb.

On se voit sur la nouvelle mailing list.

Martin

---

Hi,

    At the meet-up yesterday, we had a discussion about the groupe and what's going on with it. This email we summarize the actions that I'll take following this discussion.

First of all, as you can see, the first part of this email is in french. From now on, I'll do the post to the group in both languages. The goal is to encourage people which are not fluant in english to come do a talk or share on the mailing list.

Afterward, I was really surprised that only 50% of people present yesterday know about the Montreal.rb mailing list. We'll do some shmoozing so people can know about it and register. By doing that, I created a new mailing list which as our new name: The new Google group is: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/montrealrb - the old one was: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/montreal-on-rails. Please share the new mailing list address with people who are participating to Montreal.rb that you know.

Then, we'll need a volunteer at each meet-up to welcome people. The goal is to be welcoming to new participants et invite people to register on the Google group. I think this position should be in rotation at every meet-up. You should register now to do it - it's a great way to meet the other participants.

A each meet-up, we reserve a 5 minutes talk for participant who never talk to Montreal.rb. The newcomers will have a spot were is less stressful, less intimidating and require less work than a full blown talk. They can talk about a gem or a feature un Ruby/RoR they just discover and like. They can also talk about a project they did with Ruby/RoR.

Finally, I need your help to organize Montreal.rb. It's really hard to find talks for the meet-ups. I you have an idea for a talk but you don't have time to present it, please share it with the group. Someone else could be interested in presenting it. I'll create a list on the web site to list those ideas. At the same time, if you are interested in doing a talk in 1-2-3 months, contact me, I'll reserve you a spot in advance.

To conclude, please subscribe and share the new google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/montrealrb.

See you on the new mailing list,

Martin
   

--
Martin Provencher
Ruby/Rails developer
www.vivrass.com
514-882-6640

[Karim Helal]

Hi Martin,

Thanks for organizing all these events and for offering the opportunity to help setup the next ones.

As a newcomer to Montreal, here are some of the things that I've noticed:

• Loved the energy and the presentation during the last meetup, it was really interesting, even for somebody who's not a developer.
• If you had not mentioned the group during the event, I would have never known it even existed. The only website that I had been to was the one that came out in Google, http://www.montrealrb.com/, and unless you actively read some of the posts, I couldn't find the link to the Google Group. Personally, I think that there are now far better solutions for this kind of things rather Google Group:
  
• Facebook Groups: great as they provide full suite of tools (events, discussions, polls,....) and are free and allow for quick expansion as they already feed into people's news feeds, thus increasing visibility of the forum.
• Meetups: pretty much the current 'standard' way of creating and managing groups and allowing people from all around the world to see the group. it also has all the usual tools (polls, message boards, ....) but isn't as user-friendly as Fb and is paid (around $6/month if taken for a 6 month duration TODAY or otherwise around $12)
• Some ideas for the content:
• Work today requires loads of other techs (languages, tools, techniques). Why not do regular cross-groups events?
• Do video-confs with external, well-known speakers or devs. Shouldn't be hard to do I would assume and would bring in a different point of view.
• Debate nights regarding specific topics (tech A vs tech B, .....)
• Gem presentations - or even better : what are the best gems for a specific topic or need? 
• What's coming up in future Rails or Ruby?
• ....

Would love to hear your feedback.

.K

[Mathieu Martin]

Hey Martin,

Thanks for the writeup.

I agree with moving to the "montrealrb" Google Group.

But I think the most important point about the Google Group was that it needs to be a lot more visible by default. I'm thinking either at the very top of the website (besides "About") or at the top of the sidebar (over or under the search):

Although I enjoy Facebook Groups and they can be very successful (e.g. Mtl + Startups), I like plain old email better. Some people have qualms about using Facebook for professional stuff, and some people are still (or not anymore) on Facebook. Email is the lowest common denominator and that will reach everyone, every time.

That's my 2¢

Mat

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[Karim Helal]

Hey Mat, fair enough. 

I think it really depends on what we're trying to accomplish. If it's to glow slower and more organically, then I think Google Groups are fine. If we however want to expand the reach and bring new people in, something else has to happen, either Fb, Meetup (which I'm happy to pay for the first 6 months), or any other tool that you think might work best that has this 'social' aspect to it.

.K

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