This is a first draft of tips and tricks for new meetup group hosts. Soon we hope to have a semi-official onboarding process to go with this. :) In the meantime, read on! And please leave a comment or submit a pull request with any questions or suggestions!
Table of Contents:
- Initial Questions for Onboarding New Hosts
- Advice for New Hosts
- FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
- Ideas to Add to This Guide
Welcome to our Learn Teach Code community! We're so happy you're interested in hosting your own study group with us! :) Before we talk about anything else, the most important thing for you to remember is that you should make this as fun and convenient as possible for yourself first. Our community is large enough (over 6500 members in LA) that whatever works for you will work for other people too!
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What topics and formats are you interested in? Topics can be as broad or specific as you want, like "Computer science discussion group" or "Beginners Minecraft modding with Python". Formats include: casual study groups (hands-on with laptops), discussion groups (no laptops), group projects, workshops, or anything else you think of!
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How often would you like to host something? You can try a one-time meeting just to see how it goes, or you can do something weekly, monthly, or whatever works for you.
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What part of LA are you based in? We have members from all over, so host it in a place that's convenient for you! We are happy to help you find a venue too. Coffee shops, restaurants with wifi, coworking spaces, or libraries can all be good venues.
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What do you hope to learn from being a host? Just asking out of curiosity! For example, Liz Krane started Learn Teach Code (originally named Learn to Code LA) in early 2015 for a few reaons: to stay motivated in learning to code, to make friends, to get over her social anxiety, and to improve her leadership skills. Running a group is also an excellent way to build up your professional network!
So the first things you'll have to decide are:
- What's the topic of your study group?
- How often do you want to host it?
- Then pick a consistent day/time (so it's easy to remember, like "every other Friday at 7pm")
- How long do you want each meeting to be? (usually 2-3 hours is good)
- How structured do you want it to be? (totally up to you, however social/casual or structured/formal)
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Jump right in, host your first meeting, and see who shows up! You can change your plan at any time based on feedback from your group. Keep iterating until you discover what works best.
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Also take a look at this quick read which has good advice on starting a casual study group in SoutH LA: https://medium.freecodecamp.org/it-turns-out-my-neighbors-wanted-to-learn-to-code-too-they-just-didn-t-realize-it-was-possible-554a7bd8d4a7
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The venue is always the hardest part -- definitely check them out in person first and scope out the parking. Coffee shops are fine, just try to find one with decent wifi and access to electrical outlets. (If you can’t find any nearby, you can always just host a discussion group without laptops for now! And we can help find a better venue to sponsor the group once it gets started.)
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Decide how many RSVPS to limit it to and expect only 50% to show up, though the attendance rate can vary from anywhere between 25% to 100%. When in doubt, start small! Then gradually scale up as you learn what works best for your particular group.
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Always have a backup plan for what to do in case the wifi doesn’t work, and for the people who can’t tether their phones. (In the past I’ve tried running an impromptu discussion session, or bringing a couple USB thumb drives with PDFs of programming books on them for people to read together, or bringing extra pens and paper for people to practice solving whiteboard problems together.)
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Print out some paper Meetup signs (like this PDF: http://files.meetup.com/661701/Table-top%20Sign%20-%20T.J.%20Maher.pdf ) to make it easier for people to spot your group if you’re meeting in a public place
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The description page for your meetup events should start with your elevator pitch, just 1 or 2 sentences to entice people to join your group and let them know what it’s about. Then you can add more details below, like an agenda or any other important info.
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Embrace the initial awkwardness! Any time you have a group of people meeting each other for the first time (and likely at a location they’ve never been to before), everyone will usually feel a little awkward/shy at first. Break the ice by just introducing yourself ot everyone, asking for their name and what brings them to your group, and offer to help them out if they have any specific goals or questions.
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It can take several weeks for the group to start to feel more cohesive, but if you do meetups on a consistent schedule, eventually a core group of regulars will start to form and you’ll have your own little community! And once that happens you should ask those regular attendees to help you out with hosting from time to time for the occassions when you can’t attend yourself.
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If you’re able to and interested, try including some purely social outings before or after your main events to give people a chance to get to know each other as friends and not just study partners! Going out for food or drinks after the meeting once in a while is a great way to increase the sense of community -- plus it can be really fun! (One time our web dev study group even went bowling after the meetup. It was awesome!)
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Either post the meetup events one at a time, or if using Meetup.com's recurring event feature, only post them for one month at a time. (The feature can be a bit buggy, and also this way you don't need to commit to hosting too far out in advance.)
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Post each meetup event ideally 1-2 weeks in advance of the event date.
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If there is any prerequisite knowledge expected or items to bring (like laptops), clearly list them on the meetup description page After each event you run, take 5 minutes to jot down some notes about how it went, what could’ve gone better, what you want to try differently later, and any questions you’d like to ask other organizers/hosts/teachers so we can discuss it later. That gives us all a chance to improve not only our programming skills but also our leadership skills!
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Ask your attendees for feedback regularly -- what could be done better, what suggestions do they have for topics or projects, do they know of any good venues or potential sponsors, etc.
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Remind your attendees that we have a chatroom on Slack, and give them the link: learntocodela.herokuapp.com (soon we can give everyone a link to our website instead which will have the slack signup form on it, yay!)
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Soon after every meeting, post the next event on our calendar and share that link with the attendees of the previous meeting -- you can just leave a comment on the previous event’s page saying “Thank you all for joining! See you next time: [link here]”
Do I need to be a professional programmer or an expert to host a group?
Definitely not! The best study group hosts are people who want to learn and collaborate with others, regardless of experience level. All you need is an idea, a friendly attitude, and your enthusiasm for whatever it is that you want to learn or build with your group! You don't need to do any teaching if you don't want to or aren't ready yet, but we will say this: beginners can often make the best teachers, because they know what questions other beginners will ask!
Why is my group getting less attendance this week?
All of our study group hosts have noticed fluctuations in attendance, so this is completely normal and expected! Sometimes it's completely random, but some possible causes of low attendance include: announcing the meetup too late (usually 1-2 weeks in advance is best), other big events (ex: presidential debate night), bad weather, or holidays.
...add more questions here!*
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This should definitely go up on our website :)
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One day I also hope to make a more general article (or even a video!) to share what we all are learning about organizing a meetup group with people outside of just our group -- so the same stuff, but reframed for a general audience
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Maybe add a checklist for new hosts/teachers/organizers, with an easy-to-print version
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A section specifically on finding good venues for study groups
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A section on getting sponsorship from companies (either to donate their space, donate food, donate their time to speak or teach, or just donating money)
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A section on virtual study groups? (Running them over Slack or over video chat)
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Notes, quotes, tips, stories, and photos from our other meetup group hosts