[MLB-WIRELESS] Your Feedback on General Meetings

[Dan Flett]

Hi Guys,

The Melbourne Wireless Committee have been discussing ways to get more
people to come back to General Meetings.  We've had a few ideas, and we'd
like your feedback on them.

The general ideas we've had are:

Bringing structure back to the meetings

Bring back nametags - different colours for Committee, Members and Visitors.

Giving people a reason to attend - Potential drawcards for meetings could
be:

Presentations at every meeting - from hardware distributors or from
Melbourne Wireless people

Workshops - breaking the meeting up into smaller, specialised groups to
discuss and learn about particular issues

Having a "welcoming committee" - make sure we acknowledge all attendees and
ask them what they want from the meeting - then direct them towards the
appropriate person/group.

A Swap Meet - encourage more members to bring in under-utilised wireless
gear to swap or sell.  If this proves popular we may start to invite
hardware retailers to attend.

Also, I've been thinking about the structure of the evenings - what time
should things happen?  I'd like to keep things moving along fairly fast so
the evening doesn't drag out for newbies.  When the planned events are over
people can hang around until late chatting like they usually do.

Here's a proposal for an agenda:
7pm    - Doors Open - Prepare BBQ
7.15pm - BBQ up and running.  Newbies directed towards "welcome committee"
or introduction workshop.  Members mingle and chat.
7.45pm - Committee Report, Official Meeting Business
8pm    - Region Group reports - pre-planned - short and sharp
8.15pm - Workshops - newbies, setting up a node, hardware "show & tell", etc
9pm    - Presentations - hardware vendors, Melbourne Wireless people, etc
9.30pm - Swap Meet until late.

The timing and order of things can be fiddled with - but once they are
agreed upon I'd like to try sticking to them.

I know having the BBQ that early is a radical idea. :) But I'd like to try
having it as part of the early welcoming phase of the meeting.  Once people
are fed they are more likely to focus on the meeting... That's the theory.
I thought I'd fly the idea up the flagpole.

Your feedback on these ideas would be much appreciated!

Cheers,

Dan