[LRUG] Meeting sponsorship

[Murray Steele]

I considered donations / pay-per-UG, but then I found out how much the room
costs and I don't think we can cover it with beer money.  The Old Sessions
House costs Skills Matter £700!  They have access to another room (the
crypt) that costs £250, but it's got much worse availability - so I don't
think we can bank on that.

2009/5/7 David Salgado <david at digitalronin.com>

> What he said.
>
> 2009/5/7 Roland Swingler <roland.swingler at gmail.com>:
> > The phpLondon group used to charge for attendance to help cover the
> > cost of the room - it wasn't strongly enforced, so it was more along
> > the lines of "if you turn up every month and get something out of
> > this, help us fund it" - no one minded if you didn't pay anything if
> > you were just finding out what the group was like.
> >
> > It wasn't a lot per-person - around a pound or two, but it helped
> > cover the costs. I don't know if something like that would be worth
> > considering - I wouldn't mind paying what amounts to less than the
> > cost of a pint to attend.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Roland
> >
> > On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 8:33 PM, Jon Lim <snowblink at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Muz,
> >>
> >> What how much money are they talking about per month?
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Jon
> >>
> >> On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 20:07, Murray Steele <murray.steele at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>> Hey all,
> >>>
> >>> I'm sure that most of you will be aware that in recent months the
> meetings
> >>> have been selling out and we've had to have waiting lists and last
> minute
> >>> swapsies.  This happens because the rooms that Skills Matter have in
> their
> >>> offices can only take 60-70 folk.  Given enough notice Skills Matter
> can
> >>> book an alternative venue, which is why I've been trying to get the
> >>> registration links for future meetings out there well in advance
> (speaking
> >>> of which the June meeting reg link is here:
> >>> http://skillsmatter.com/events/ajax-ria/lrug-june/).
> >>>
> >>> However, these larger rooms aren't free and until now Skills Matter
> have
> >>> been footing the bill.  They've asked me if there's anyone out there
> that
> >>> would be willing to sponsor the meetings to help them out with the
> cost.  I
> >>> have to say that I don't think this is an unreasonable request, Skills
> >>> Matter do a lot for us already for free and shelling out for an extra
> room
> >>> isn't going to give them much of an extra benefit.
> >>>
> >>> Obviously we could approach large companies involved with Ruby like Sun
> or
> >>> Thoughtworks, but I wonder if we can get the local ruby community to
> support
> >>> it's user group directly.  Could some of you approach your bosses (or
> if you
> >>> are the bosses, approach your finances) and see if there's any way your
> >>> company could sponsor a meeting?  We'll need to work out exactly what
> we are
> >>> willing to give these sponsors, logo and links on LRUG meeting pages is
> an
> >>> obvious, but what else?).
> >>>
> >>> Another solution is to look for another regular venue, but as I said
> Skills
> >>> Matter do a lot more than just provide the chairs, so we'd be turning
> our
> >>> back on all that if we move on.  Any other venue would have to
> accommodate
> >>> ~150 attendees (apparently we had 140 registrations for the last
> meeting, so
> >>> this isn't such a far out figure), have a data projector, have wifi,
> and
> >>> ideally be close to a pub large enough to cope with an influx of a
> hundred
> >>> or so rubyists.
> >>>
> >>> The other solution is to not bother with sponsorship at all.  This
> would
> >>> mean that we'd be faced with an artificial limit on how many rubyists
> can
> >>> attend the main meeting and I worry that this might fragment the
> community,
> >>> or make it seem non-inclusive.  Given the current stuff going on in the
> ruby
> >>> / rails community in that area it seems like it would be a bad thing.
> >>>
> >>> I'm not hugely in favour of the last 2 and would prefer getting
> sponsors
> >>> from local ruby companies if we can.  That said, there might be other
> things
> >>> I've not thought of, so let's put our thinking caps on.
> >>>
> >>> If anyone is up for sponsoring a meeting get in touch with me directly
> and
> >>> I'll give you an idea of the total cost and put you in touch with
> Skills
> >>> Matter to work out contributions.
> >>>
> >>> Cheers,
> >>>
> >>> Muz
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Chat mailing list
> >>> Chat at lists.lrug.org
> >>> http://lists.lrug.org/listinfo.cgi/chat-lrug.org
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> http://snowblink.co.uk/
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> >>
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