Ruby Groups: Act Locally - Think Globally

There are thousands of local Ruby groups worldwide. Sadly, many suffer along, become stagnant, some even die off. How can you make your local Ruby Group better and in so doing, improve the global Ruby Community?

This talk focuses on the human side of getting a group together and making it successful so the members, as a group can contribute to the larger community. It is a universally useful guide to improving all parts of the ruby community, starting on a local level.

Transcript

1. Act Locally - Think Globally PJ Hagerty @aspleenic EngineYard pjhagerty@gmail.com
2. What’s in a local Ruby group? * There are hundreds of Ruby User Groups across North America and probably around the world * These groups are primarily either socially based or they’re hacker groups who gather regularly to work on group or individual “toy” projects * Groups rarely act as a group to interact with people outside of the group, whether in the Ruby community or or communities
3. It’s fun because it’s easy Most groups will remain small and insular. It’s easy to stick with what is familiar and keep recycling the same format every month. Unfortunately, this leads to stagnation and apathy by group members. People will eventually leave.
4. What if? What if a ruby group started to break out of that insular shell and look into other parts of the community?
5. Baby steps The first steps always seem the hardest, but end up picking up the momentum needed to get things moving in the right direction.
6. Everyone needs a job Diversify responsibilities Have a coordinator for “outside of our group” activities Start with the people who seem most motivated * Giving people something to do to help group outreach and visibility helps keeps everyone fresh and in the game * Getting someone to be a point person for any given activity relieves stress from the main organizer’s shoulders. * There are usual a few people in the group who are energized, but rarely jump in on a project or give a talk at the meetup. If they are motivated to be part of the group, help them to be a behind the scenes ninja to get things done.
7. Social Media Meetup.com Twitter FB groups Blogs The importance of social media for meetup groups can’t be stressed enough. Especially if meetings move from location each month. Getting the local group well organized is the first step to getting people involved, but it can’t just be a mention here and there just before meet ups. Communicating what group members are up to between meetups is a great way to get more people interested.
8. Remember... Remember the human factor. While everyone is tech oriented and a bit on the geeky side, every member of the group is also a person with interested OUTSIDE of the tech. Sometimes it’s good to recognize group members for the things they do that’s aren’t Ruby.
9. The “Community” Joint meetups (e.g. invite the local PHP group to a social meetup with beer and hacking) Drive to nearby groups Send group members to regional conferences Reaching out is easy, sense there are likely other people doing the same thing you are, just without the Ruby part. *Try getting in touch with other local programming groups. There is already a base of shared interest there. Use that meet new people and get new perspectives. Start it socially then move on to shared meetups and maybe even hacking challenges or barcamps. If debates arise, keep it friendly. * If there are meetup groups within driving distance, go check them out. Take notes and maybe invite their speaker to come give a talk to your group or present their group project over a webcast. * There are lots of ways to get people to conferences. Have someone representing your group attend an affordable regional or nearby conference and have them come back and present a rundown of good talks and what was learned.
10. Don’ts!!! There are a few things to avoid in all this happy fun User group huggy feely rainbow time
11. Dont’s Don’t exclude - ANYONE Don’t make it all experts Don’t be a dick The whole point of having a meetup or hackfest is to include as many people as possible. ALL OF THE PEOPLE!! Young or old, n00b or leet hacker, student or trained professional, woman or man, brogrammer or nogrammer, none of this matters: everyone should be in the group. If you don’t include fresh people, new to Ruby or programming, the group will get repetitive and possibly even contentious.
12. Do’s Some things to do to keep the group groovy on the local level...
13. Do’s Students Experienced programmers from other disciplines Fresh perspectives on related topics Get the local CS students out an interested. Our job if to train the people (or robots) who will replace us as we move upward to being more awesome. At the same time, grab folks who have been programming for years and have them talk about their journey. Experience is important, without a lot of “look at how awesome my code is”. Think about the human factor: Yes, we are programmers, but we are people too, with interest in things outside of code.
14. Things to Open Up Language Agnostic Talks The art of programming vs. straight code High level talks Make sure to be inclusive. It’s easier if you can make things High-level and keep it non-specific. Showing code is good, but that can also cause people newer to programming tune out or people from other disciplines to just turn away from the group.
15. Remember... This is still not uncommon - as a Ruby group (or any language group really) there are going to be people who are against what you do for whatever reason. Don’t be discouraged, and, if anything, let it be a talking point for why you’re doing what you’re doing.
16. Act Globally Technology being what it is, there is no reason why a local Ruby group needs to be so local.
17. Why Bother? It’s always about giving back Helping globally, makes things better locally A few people may ask, “why bother trying to break out of the local? We are happy here”. Just like contributing code to an open source project or creating a gem that helps you that might help others, being a part of the global Ruby community is a good way to give back. Being more global will help refresh things in the Ruby group and refresh the folks involved.
18. Act Globally Cross group projects Regional social meetups Guest speakers Web broadcasts There are lots of ways to get the worldwide community to your group meeting. Use github to start a project related to the group then invite another group to help out and fork the repo. Setup a picnic or drinkup with a group that is nearby and meet in the middle to hang out. Invite speakers from other meetups to come to town. If there is an expense, see if a sponsor will kick in a little something. Anyone can be anywhere with skype, webex, or google hangout and they can therefore present to your group at little or no charge (technical difficulty may vary)
19. Act Globally Free training Community Outreach Get the kids involved Incorporate students Use your group as an opportunity to be part of al communities. Offer to teach a free Ruby class for beginners for 6 months to get people interested. Have a member of the group run through KidsRuby with a local Girl Scout troop (possible repayment in cookies). Go to the CS departments of local schools to see if you can give a talk there to get the students interested.
20. Sponsors Get sponsors involved in your meetup. This is a two way street. Most sponsors will be willing to send swag in exchange for something. Some are just happy to send you t-shirts or pens. Either way, offer to give back. Many bigger companies in the global community like to give podcasts or blog posts be people involved. So get involved with sponsors that can promote you as you promote them. And it’s easy to get started...just ask.
21. Keep moving forward... The entire point of having of Ruby group is to make the experience better and to share it with others. Growing a local Ruby group to become a member of the local Ruby community benefits all the members on all sides. If we keep moving forward, we can all become better global ruby community citizens
22. Questions?
23. Thanks @aspleenic pjhagerty@gmail.com I’ll leave you with my info and a lasting impression....also, don’t play with fire...thanks.