I attended the
Raleigh.rb meeting last night. My interest was twofold, for while I am getting into Ruby, as the president of TriNUG I was interested in seeing what these guys were doing right in terms of running their meetings, since apparently the group is growing like crazy.
I had a good time, and came away with a few things I liked:
Pizza Doesn't Define the Group
Raleigh.rb meets at 7pm, and food is not provided. This worked for me, as I didn't have to choose between the meeting and having dinner with my family. I got to put my daughter to bed, and go to the meeting. Win win win.
No Fluff, Just Stuff
The meeting started promptly on time, quickly went through a quick spiel on Hack Night and the upcoming Ruby Hoedown, and then the speaker started speaking. This meeting was about 99% content.
Respect Your Members' Time
Start-to-finish, the meeting lasts an hour. Folks linger and hang out and talk afterwards, but it was nice to attend the meeting, see some friends, and still make it home at a decent hour.
This said, I think the TriNUG main meeting is a different beast, and I'm not recommending TriNUG abandon food and sponsorship, but if I was
starting a new user group, I might take a page from these guys.