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.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">2009/5/7 David Salgado <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:david@digitalronin.com">david@digitalronin.com</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
What he said.<br>
<br>
2009/5/7 Roland Swingler <<a href="mailto:roland.swingler@gmail.com">roland.swingler@gmail.com</a>>:<br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5">> The phpLondon group used to charge for attendance to help cover the<br>
> cost of the room - it wasn't strongly enforced, so it was more along<br>
> the lines of "if you turn up every month and get something out of<br>
> this, help us fund it" - no one minded if you didn't pay anything if<br>
> you were just finding out what the group was like.<br>
><br>
> It wasn't a lot per-person - around a pound or two, but it helped<br>
> cover the costs. I don't know if something like that would be worth<br>
> considering - I wouldn't mind paying what amounts to less than the<br>
> cost of a pint to attend.<br>
><br>
> Cheers,<br>
> Roland<br>
><br>
> On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 8:33 PM, Jon Lim <<a href="mailto:snowblink@gmail.com">snowblink@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>> Muz,<br>
>><br>
>> What how much money are they talking about per month?<br>
>><br>
>> Cheers,<br>
>> Jon<br>
>><br>
>> On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 20:07, Murray Steele <<a href="mailto:murray.steele@gmail.com">murray.steele@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>>> Hey all,<br>
>>><br>
>>> I'm sure that most of you will be aware that in recent months the meetings<br>
>>> have been selling out and we've had to have waiting lists and last minute<br>
>>> swapsies. This happens because the rooms that Skills Matter have in their<br>
>>> offices can only take 60-70 folk. Given enough notice Skills Matter can<br>
>>> book an alternative venue, which is why I've been trying to get the<br>
>>> registration links for future meetings out there well in advance (speaking<br>
>>> of which the June meeting reg link is here:<br>
>>> <a href="http://skillsmatter.com/events/ajax-ria/lrug-june/" target="_blank">http://skillsmatter.com/events/ajax-ria/lrug-june/</a>).<br>
>>><br>
>>> However, these larger rooms aren't free and until now Skills Matter have<br>
>>> been footing the bill. They've asked me if there's anyone out there that<br>
>>> would be willing to sponsor the meetings to help them out with the cost. I<br>
>>> have to say that I don't think this is an unreasonable request, Skills<br>
>>> Matter do a lot for us already for free and shelling out for an extra room<br>
>>> isn't going to give them much of an extra benefit.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Obviously we could approach large companies involved with Ruby like Sun or<br>
>>> Thoughtworks, but I wonder if we can get the local ruby community to support<br>
>>> it's user group directly. Could some of you approach your bosses (or if you<br>
>>> are the bosses, approach your finances) and see if there's any way your<br>
>>> company could sponsor a meeting? We'll need to work out exactly what we are<br>
>>> willing to give these sponsors, logo and links on LRUG meeting pages is an<br>
>>> obvious, but what else?).<br>
>>><br>
>>> Another solution is to look for another regular venue, but as I said Skills<br>
>>> Matter do a lot more than just provide the chairs, so we'd be turning our<br>
>>> back on all that if we move on. Any other venue would have to accommodate<br>
>>> ~150 attendees (apparently we had 140 registrations for the last meeting, so<br>
>>> this isn't such a far out figure), have a data projector, have wifi, and<br>
>>> ideally be close to a pub large enough to cope with an influx of a hundred<br>
>>> or so rubyists.<br>
>>><br>
>>> The other solution is to not bother with sponsorship at all. This would<br>
>>> mean that we'd be faced with an artificial limit on how many rubyists can<br>
>>> attend the main meeting and I worry that this might fragment the community,<br>
>>> or make it seem non-inclusive. Given the current stuff going on in the ruby<br>
>>> / rails community in that area it seems like it would be a bad thing.<br>
>>><br>
>>> I'm not hugely in favour of the last 2 and would prefer getting sponsors<br>
>>> from local ruby companies if we can. That said, there might be other things<br>
>>> I've not thought of, so let's put our thinking caps on.<br>
>>><br>
>>> If anyone is up for sponsoring a meeting get in touch with me directly and<br>
>>> I'll give you an idea of the total cost and put you in touch with Skills<br>
>>> Matter to work out contributions.<br>
>>><br>
>>> Cheers,<br>
>>><br>
>>> Muz<br>
>>><br>
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>>><br>
>>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> --<br>
>> <a href="http://snowblink.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://snowblink.co.uk/</a><br>
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