August has now just ended, and (just like we planned in June) soon we’ll be actually getting our fall chapter launches off the ground. Let’s go over everything we’ve done so far to prepare over the course of the past month!
What we’ve done over the month:
- We visited the HOPE_16 conference and held an informal roundtable in which we got members of the community to discuss FOSS advocacy and possibilities for organizing towards that end. By doing this, we recruited a ton of new members and might have enough people to begin planning a NY chapter soon!
- We’ve gone ahead and created a group calendar for members to more easily track upcoming events rather than having to rely on following the Signal group.
- We recruited @beardystarstuff, who currently runs a group in Missouri. Missouri is now one of our chapters, and he has some events set up where he’s planning to help set up workshops to assist people in switching off Windows.
- Both the Boston and D.C. chapters have their initial meetings scheduled for the first week of September, and have enough members to launch.
What discussions we’ve had:
- A large point of discussion has been figuring out how to best encourage widespread engagement among members. How do we best get members comfortable with starting and organizing projects/events? How do we make sure everyone is able to keep up with the pace of the group’s discussion, even if they aren’t regularly checking the chat? How do we still give members without a chapter something to do and include them in discussions? How do we most effectively make plans and schedule events in a fashion whereby everyone is able to make it?
- During the roundtable at HOPE_16, we talked a lot about the role of idealism in FOSS advocacy, and how to balance it against pragmatic concerns. We talked about the pitfalls other organizations have fallen into and discussed the ways in which we can avoid repeating those mistakes.
What we want to get done in the near future:
- All hands are on deck for the chapter launches. We need to get into a rhythm of regularly meeting and breaking the ice between local chapter members. Following that, we can begin to expand our activities.
- We still need to work with the organizers trying to get South Florida and Central Illinois chapters off the ground. The HOPE conference provided a key contact in South Florida, so we’ve put him in touch with Laura and will see if their combined efforts will yield enough members to begin launching.
- We need to work with the various members around NYC to begin organizing a chapter for the area, this is looking to be one of the most promising areas. Identifying someone willing to run the chapter is a key priority.
- We have plans in place to get the “book club” off the ground in September. We have someone willing to regularly run it beginning towards the end of September, but in the meantime Laura is planning a presentation on Linux From Scratch to act as an icebreaker of sorts. We’re hoping this will connect chapter-less members to the wider community and also help to provide people with new venues for engagement and discussion.