A user group officer has referred a friend to me -- his friend wants to start a user group and does not know where to begin. The three of us are going to work together to get a group up and running. I will blog my advice, the acutal steps (and notes on what works and what doesn't).
Phase 1: In this phase, we're going to start planning and create the user group. The group must exist before you can do anything else (promote it, recruit speakers etc).
- Find one enthused person that wants to spearhead the effort. (We've got that).
- Contact existing user group leaders. They will have contacts with Microsoft, presenters and vendors. (Did that).
- Find a few other local folks to assist. Assist is the key word here. At this stage of planning, you definitely need a point person -- ruling by commitee tends to slow things down. Things they can do that will help:
- The folks will turn into the initial user group core. They can help along the way. Just as important, they will be attending almost all UG meetings and the UG networking will radiate from this initial group.
- Begin creating a distribution list of potential members
- Find a venue and pick a recurring date/time for the meetings. Consistency is very important. This makes it easy for members to plan to attend the meetings. Also, it makes it easier for the UG leadership to do everything; scheduling presentations, marketing, recruiting sponsors, venue setup/cleanup, communication with members. Some ideas for venues:
- Community colleges (this one is especially nice because they also provide a great avenue for promoting the group)
- Training rooms of local companies
- Libraries
- Create a user group name.
- Make it easy to remember. For ideas look for other user group names. INETA is a great place to start.
- Make sure there is a domain name available. (Having a web site will be a requirement).
posted @ Friday, December 12, 2008 10:37 AM