176 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
176 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Organizer tips
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path: tips
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menu: Organizer tips
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---
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Contents
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========
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The OpenStack User Group HOWTO is intended to serve as a guide to founding,
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maintaining, and growing an OpenStack user group.
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Starting a new OpenStack User Group
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-----------------------------------
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Based on the experiences gathered by other OpenStack user groups, like the
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San Francisco User Group, the questions and answers below will help guide
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you to creating a sustainable user group. We have an
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[Ambassador Program](https://groups.openstack.org/ambassador-program),
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which you can ask for help for mentoring through the process.
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Here are the steps to create a new OpenStack User Group:
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1. Contact your local [Ambassador](https://groups.openstack.org/ambassador-program),
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they're here to help you through the process!
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2. Add yourself to the mailing list for
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[community organisers](http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/community).
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3. Check the [User Group List](https://groups.openstack.org/) to double-check
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there is no existing group nearby. If there is a group in your city,
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contact their organisers and offer to help. Note that some countries have
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an umbrella group that covers the entire country.
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4. It takes a lot of work to start and operate a user group, so make sure that
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you get at least one additional person to help you and act as a backup.
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5. Find your audience. Who do you want to attract to your user group meetings?
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Where do they live and work? What will their skill level be? What content
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do they want?
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6. Ask for more volunteers - many people are willing to assist with tasks like
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registration, contacting lecturers, hosting meetings, sending reminders,
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taking photos.
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7. [Register a new group](https://groups.openstack.org/node/add/group) in the
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Groups Portal. Ensure you fill in the description and add all the details
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to allow your audience to find you. Once your Ambassador approves the
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request, add your co-organisers as administrators.
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8. Announce the new group on the openstack mailing lists and any social media
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that is popular in your location.
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Working with different skill levels
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-----------------------------------
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Even though you may be an OpenStack expert, not everyone who comes to your
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group will be. Here are some tips for the various skill levels we've observed:
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- Beginner: If you want to attract new users to OpenStack then you will want
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to discuss the architecture and the basics of how to use OpenStack.
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There are many suitable presentations available online.
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- Intermediate: Developers and operators that want to understand how to make
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OpenStack production ready for their organization need a place to discuss
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setups, review and share topics like details on APIs, package installation,
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and configuration. You might teach new attendees how to use devstack, or
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hold bug squash hackathons for developers.
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- Advanced: Some groups tend to call this a ''devOps meeting''. The topics
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are generally about blueprints, advanced operations, or specific deep dive
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into part of OpenStack like Neutron. You may ask OpenStack developers for
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assistance with the advanced meetings, even if they can only present
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remotely.
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Planning your meetings
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----------------------
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A surprising amount of effort goes into making an informal gathering
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successful. Here are some quick tips.
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- Attendance: For free events, it's not uncommon that 30% of people who
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register don't show up, so plan accordingly. Track the no-show rate for
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improved planning.
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- Sponsorship: There are many vendors in the OpenStack community who are
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happy to provide space, food and drink, or money in exchange for placing
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their logo on your group page, putting up banners or giving a 5-minute pitch.
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Go through the [list of companies](http://openstack.org/community/companies/)
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and contact who you can in your area. If the company is serious about being
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involved they will help you out! Ask them if they can do a short talk on
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their company's involvement with OpenStack.
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- Food and drink: If you can afford it or have a sponsor, it makes the
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meetings much more sociable.
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- Promotion: Look for local sysops/sysadmin/network ops email lists or online
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forums and promote your events there to get folks along. Also write to the
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Heads of Schools of the University IT faculties in the area and
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invite them and their school along.
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- Content: Your topics will your different types of users who attend. Have a
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look at other user groups on the groups portal to see what they have done
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recently, or ask your ambassador for help. An interesting user story is
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always a good bet. Once you have an idea of content, you can contact
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potential speakers.
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- Location: This is critical part of your user group. It makes your life much
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easier if you can find a location that will be there long term. There may
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be a local function room that is under-utilized early in the week, or
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cloud computing companies in your area may have a conference room. Local
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universities, technical colleges or co-working spaces may also be interested.
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Check other non-OpenStack user groups in your city. And ask your friends,
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relatives and colleagues about other meetings they have gone to. Free spaces
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can be found basically everywhere in the world.
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- Materials: there are some basic meeting materials you will want to go ensure
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are present. White boards, projectors, tables and chairs are the basics.
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The location you secured may have a few of these things, but don't assume
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they do.
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- Other Venue Preparation: Consider after-hours heating or cooling, lighting,
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and security. A small room can get hot or cold, very quickly with the air
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conditioning turned off. Sometimes our security forgets the event and locks
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our doors.
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- Reminder Announcements: A lot of OpenStack User Group use [Meetup](http://meetup.com)
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to announce their meeting, since it automatically sends reminders. You can
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pick the tool you prefer to organize your events.
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- Afterward: keep the conversations going online after a meeting. In order to
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support those who couldn't make it this time, collect materials such as
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speech scripts, photos, video, and reports and make them accessible online
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as much as possible, Collecting the material immediately at the event works
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better than chasing speakers afterward. Write a blog post and share the
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materials.
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Example Planning Schedule
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-------------------------
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This is an example planning schedule from the SFBay OpenStack User Group.
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1. Establish dates and times at least 6 months in advance
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2. Schedule speakers, assistants at least a month in advance
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3. Schedule tweets and emails to go out 7, 2, 1, and 0 days before the meetup reminding possible attendees of the meetup. Examples below
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* T-7 day 11:30: @[[OpenStack]] #OSSFO hackathon meetup happening next Thursday at #Yahoo Sunnyvale, RSVP via ow.ly/g2V3u, webex avail
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* T-2 day 11:30: @[[OpenStack]] #OSSFO hackathon meetup happening next Thursday at #Yahoo Sunnyvale, RSVP via ow.ly/g2V3u, webex avail
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* T-1 day 11:30: @[[OpenStack]] #OSSFO hackathon meetup happening tomorrow at #Yahoo Sunnyvale, RSVP via ow.ly/g2V3u, webex avail
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* T-0 day 11:30: @[[OpenStack]] #OSSFO hackathon meetup happening today at #Yahoo Sunnyvale, RSVP via ow.ly/g2V3u, webex avail
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- Schedule an email to go out to the community mailing list with the same content
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* To: community@lists.openstack.org
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* Subject: [[OpenStack]] SFBay hackathon next Thursday
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* Body: @[[OpenStack]] #OSSFO hackathon meetup happening next Thursday at
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* #Yahoo Sunnyvale, RSVP via http://meetup.com/openstack, webex avail. More updates via @sarob
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4. Book your meeting space at least 1 month in advance
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5. Notify security about the meetup and so they can provide directions so
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visitors do not get lost
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6. Order the food at least 3 days in advance. A good gauge is about 70% of the
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RSVPs actually show up. Better topics get a higher percentage turnout.
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7. Prep the room about an hour before the meetup. Check the AV equipment,
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power strips, seats, food, drink, and white boards are ready to go. Setup
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the video camera, so you know where the static viewing area is. Line up
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the projector screen to be in the picture. Lay down a tape box where the
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speaker should stand. Dial into the audio conference line. If you are using
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webex or youtube, check for connection to the remote server.
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8. Post Meetup: After the meeting, you can prepare a summary blog post with
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images, links to video, marketing updates for the OpenStack blog.
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User Groups covering larger geographical areas
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----------------------------------------------
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The exact spread of a user group, in terms of the area it covers and how it is
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managed, depends on the needs of the area and its cultural norms. Some regions
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value independence and autonomy (eg a city taking care of its own needs),
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whereas others prefer more coordination and sharing (a nationally coordinated
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group with meetings in multiple cities). This section aims to provide some
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examples of the latter:
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- Australia - Due to the sparse population, the group is centrally coordinated
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at a national level, with one group entry and meetup.com page. Local
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organisers in each city arrange events to post on the central page, and
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national coordinators help share speakers and organisational practices
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between cities.
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- China - There are leaders in several cities who organise the local meetup
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group there, and each city has their own group entry/meetup.com page.
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However, for national events such as China Day, and to help start and mentor
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new groups, leaders based in various locations come together to collaborate
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nation-wide. Some highly respected leaders are granted administrative rights
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over the meetup.com pages of the local city groups, in addition to the local
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organisers.
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- India - A strong national-level group helps mentor leaders in many cities,
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and organises nation-wide events like India Day. Local groups organise
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events and post them on single group entry/meetup.com page.
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- USA - no national coordination, each city has a completely separate
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meetup.com group and organising team. Coordinated loosely by ambassadors,
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using the Official User Group Process to avoid overlapping claims.
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