Antonio,<br> We, <a href="http://www.baltimorenode.org">www.baltimorenode.org</a>, have only been an organization for 2 months now and have 19 members so I haven't had too much experience with retaining members and I don't know what hours you are allowed to use the shared space so take this all with a grain of salt. I have found that the themed meetings are the ones that get the most attendance. We meet weekly to discuss buisness and then hack afterwards, we reguarly get 6-9 people at the meetings. We also have an open hack session on Thursdays, which i have not been to, that attract a fair number of people and there is now a lot of interest of people meeting that day to live code together.<br>
<br> The way i think about themed sessions is that there is a goal, a reason to be there and people with like minded interests to bounce ideas off of. Also just because there is a theme to a certain block of time does not limit or alienate anyone else from doing what he/she wishes to do in the space.<br>
<br>Let me know if that helps.<br><br>-Mark<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 12:48 PM, Antonio Roberts <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:antonio@hellocatfood.com">antonio@hellocatfood.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Hey all.<br>
<br>
I'm the founder of a group/space in Birmingham, England<br>
(<a href="http://www.fizzpop.org.uk" target="_blank">http://www.fizzpop.org.uk</a>). We're based at someone else's building<br>
(which I know is risky) and we've been going for just over 7 months.<br>
Whilst I'd love it if we had our own space I currently don't think<br>
that'll happen as I feel we're having a bit of trouble getting people<br>
motivated in the first place.<br>
<br>
When we first started we toyed with the idea of having theme based<br>
sessions e.g. arduino hack day, circuit bending session etc, but some<br>
of the attendees felt that this could be restrictive and might<br>
alienate those who don't want to take part, thereby reducing the<br>
attendance numbers and possible members. So, every fortnight when we<br>
meet we have just a random hacking day. Some long-term projects have<br>
emerged from this but overall I've noticed that newcomers and even<br>
some current members just don't know what to do or expect when they<br>
turn up. So now I'm toying again with the idea of having theme-based<br>
sessions. If anything it'll just give a bit more focus to the group<br>
and its activities and possibly spawn bigger projects.<br>
<br>
I know that meeting once every fortnight is a bit counterproductive in<br>
itself, but out of the five tech groups nearby we're one of two that<br>
meet this frequently. All of the others meet monthly. So, I'm thinking<br>
of more projects that could take place outside of the space and<br>
possibly even on the Internet.<br>
<br>
This is where I ask you guys for help. Not necessarily for ideas for<br>
activities (though they're always useful) but just your experiences of<br>
what type of session works best. Is it better to have sessions be<br>
free-for-alls or set a task?<br>
<br>
Cheers for your input<br>
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</blockquote></div><br>