Things that worked well

  • amount of discussion

    • adds to the meeting
    • more interaction than other meetup groups

  • overtly talking about free software

  • deliberately non-technical

    • even though most members are technical
    • less jargon, good for newcombers

  • getting a bit bigger, more momentum

  • great letter to Mozilla

    • been wanting to do more outward-facing stuff like this
    • perhaps more opinion pieces for website
    • Facebook's internet.org

  • introducing continuity, new committed people getting involved

  • working well with LUV, eg. Software Freedom Day

  • inviting women specifically

  • just inviting people in general working too

  • not a problem turning up late with phone number

  • become more a part of society, public facing, activism

  • photo carousel on website makes a big difference

Things that didn't work so well

  • not enough women

    • encouraging women event was good

  • time of meeting may not be ideal for many

    • getting into city is hard
    • consider closer to a station?

  • getting locked out is still a hassle

  • we don't have any money

  • discussion can make it harder to be an anonymous newbie

Things to work on

  • more educating the public on privacy and security

  • following up on invites

  • publish "I'm late" phone number in meeting announcement

  • print and laminate the window sign

  • go to other compatible groups

    • freedom and openness
    • community groups
    • non-technical
    • societal issues

  • GovHack presence

  • invite Pia to talk at FSM?

  • follow up with a blog post after meetings

    • builds confidence

  • go back through archive and list past meeting topics somewhere

  • LCA presence?

  • being called upon as practical educators

  • ask about what sort of event would suit our (not yet present)

Meetup.com members

  • run joint events with other groups

  • explicitly welcome newbies

  • keep making an effort to start on time

    • make sure we nominate a meeting chair/host/timekeeper
    • nominate someone to sit on door for first 15 mins

  • mix in more informal events, schedule them well ahead to give us a break

    • trivia night
    • clash of the licenses
    • things involving teamwork
    • things in Gnews

  • find groups we haven't partnered with

    • makes normal sounding activities new and interesting

  • run keysigning parties

    • roll out same thing with different groups

  • run something not on a Thursday night

    • perhaps on a day that doesn't typically suit committee members
    • LUV Beginners?

Ideas for "contribute to free software" event

  • next thing is to pick a date well in advance, eg. 2 months
  • Melb Uni venue looks like it would work, may provide catering
  • warmup by making a contribution to Wikipedia
  • then a contribution to Open Street Map
  • then a documentation change
  • talk to people who run Open Tech School

Ideas for June meeting

  • Scott: Distributed social networks
  • Ben M: Guy on Android in schools{: page-href="wiki:///CommitteeMeetings/20150508"}