[python-events] Repeating events

Tue Aug 16 10:26:55 EDT 2022

The discussion is getting a bit off-topic for the events list.

You're making lots of good points and, yes, user groups and
conferences work differently in different parts of the world,
so every group needs to reflect on their own setup and circumstances.
There's no silver bullet :-)

Back to the topic of repeating events: if you'd like to put
different titles on the various events, feel free to send in
requests for each one separately.

Just please give us some lead time, since we're a small team
and not always available to add events in a timely manner.
If we forget, do remind us - also to make sure that messages
did not get lost in spam filters.

We will always acknowledge adding events.

Thanks,
-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
eGenix.com

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On 16.08.2022 00:10, DL Neil wrote:
> Marc-Andre,
> 
> On 15/08/2022 20.24, Marc-Andre Lemburg wrote:
> ...
> 
>> We rely on user groups to let us know of changes. They submit their
>> recurrence rule and we add the event.
>>
>> We should probably do some reviews of the existing entries every
>> now and then, but volunteer time is limited, so this doesn't happen
>> often.
> 
> Yes, I can't see an answer for that. I've cancelled a couple of
> Meetup.com group-memberships after 'turning-up' to meetings that didn't
> happen, weren't going to happen, but lacked any such notice to
> faithful-members.
> 
> Have even contacted group-organisers* and not received a reply.
> Embarrassment? Grief? Laziness?
> 
> * asking about 'the future of the group', additionally with the offer of
> assisting the group to go-virtual. This probably a feature of
> individuals' reactions to the threats of COVID-19 and the impacts of
> 'lock-downs' in your areas too.
> 
> ...
>> Quite a few people value the calendars and that's why I started the
>> effort many years ago. We now have a small team working on collecting
>> and adding events, which makes things easier.
> 
> A most worth-while contribution to the Python eco-system!
> 
> 
>> Going online with an event certainly helps gain reach, but at the same
>> time it also loses a lot of social interaction. At least that's what I
>> found in the last three years. With our own user group in Düsseldorf,
>> Germany, we've gone back to in-person and even though we get fewer
>> attendees, it's a lot more fun and enjoyable for the attendees - which
>> is the main driver behind our user group.
>>
>> We also tried hybrid, but this resulted in fewer attendees joining
>> in-person and social interactions between the in-person attendees
>> and the online ones simply did not work out. YMMV, of course.
> 
> Completely agree, and you list a number of our anxieties. Pete, our
> 'benevolent PUG-leader for life' <joke> has been investigating
> facilities at the University of Auckland (where he works) to see how
> effective their most-advanced 'hybrid' facilities might be. Of course,
> they are currently booked-solid and not (yet) available for non-academic
> use.
> 
> Meantime, we recognise the 'fun' aspects and want to get back to
> in-person Coding Evenings (where folk either use the time for a
> 'sprint', bring a problem that is 'blocking progress', or feel that they
> can ask any question).
> 
> We're not so concerned about 'Presentation Evenings' because they are
> less interactive, by definition.
> 
> As mentioned earlier, whilst there are some who object to on-line
> meetings and may not (yet) have modified that stance, of those attending
> virtual-meetings there are only a few who would attend in-person if they
> were given a choice of the two (hybrid), or in-person only. I find this
> attitude slightly amusing, in that one vociferous objector to
> virtual-meetings is a very enthusiastic contributor to the PUG's
> Discussion (email) List - which involves equally 'virtual'
> relationships. (but daren't say anything about the latter, for fear of
> losing same!)
> 
> We regularly survey our membership (meeting attendees). So, we have an
> accurate picture (from the 'virtual community' at least) on scales such
> as Python Apprentice/Journeyman/Master, Student/Hobbyist/Professional,
> and where people are 'beaming in' from. The latter, recently expanded
> into questions about who can/can't move to in-person meetings (eg
> physical distance) and who would prefer/not. Let's quickly recognise
> that this is very much one 'side' to the story - but that we are
> reasonably well-informed for that part of the membership. By the way:
> one of our PUG leadership-team resides in the Philippines, which is
> further away than Kolkata/Calcutta, India from your city.
> 
> Which brings me to wondering if we will reach a point of offering two
> meetings, or even, splitting into two (discernable, if not 'official')
> groups - which would not help meet 'unity' and 'community' objectives.
> 
> Even if we restrict our analysis to the folk who live within the
> Auckland city boundaries, again given the option of (the previous
> 'formula') leaving work on-time, meeting at a pizza-place, and then
> going to the meeting-room en-masse; or running home/staying at work and
> attending virtually; the overwhelming majority chose the latter. I think
> this relates to the shape of the city (on an isthmus, so squeezed into
> an elongated north-south shape, the transport system, and the idea that
> people will return-home in-time to at least see their kids, etc. The
> other factor is the proportion of people who have continued the
> Work-from-Home practice, either full-time or some-days. They aren't keen
> to travel into the city, if the meeting is held on a WfH-day.
> 
> Then there are wider aspects of New Zealand which are very different
> from the Ruhr Valley. Our population of five million is very spread-out,
> as are the cities and major centers. We have PUG branches in four
> centers: Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, and Christchurch. The latter is
> the only one for the whole of the South Island (larger of the two main
> islands but only a quarter of the total-population - about 840KM from
> north-to-south). Hamilton is nominally 1.5hrs south of Auckland (at
> least 2.75hrs for me). Wellington is a day's drive or a one-hour
> air-flight from Auckland airport (amusingly, my 'equivalent German
> distance': is that Auckland and Wellington are almost as far apart as
> the distance between London and Stuttgart - both journeys that I used to
> make regularly)
> 
> The above is informative, but not particularly useful, except to
> illustrate that there are large areas where people have not feel
> 'included' by in-person meeting-opportunities in one of the major
> centers (regardless of COVID-precautions). Further, I suggest that there
> is a lot less 'business travel' here (particularly amongst IT-folk) than
> I noticed/experienced in EUR. A cultural thing? Financial? "Green"/eco?
> Accordingly, fewer people able to 'visit' another group - and when the
> opportunity did arise, rather than visiting a web-site, people posted a
> question to the Discussion List. However, and once-again, that works in
> New Zealand, but perhaps only?mostly as a result of our circumstances
> (eg geography and population), and may not elsewhere.
> 
> Personally, I agree with the social context. I much prefer a dynamic
> relationship over the more structured 'one presents, the others listen'
> presentation. Feedback is stifled in the virtual environment, and the
> encouragement is to 'consume' rather than 'create' or 'participate'.
> However, I remain committed to the virtual-option, and to improving it,
> finding ways of recovering what is 'missing', and so-on.
> 
> 
> The above is presented not as an argument, but as an illustration that
> the way PUGs (and no-doubt PyCons*) work in different places, have to
> meet their circumstances, and thus differences emerge between
> localities, nations, ... Secondly, in the hope that we/I might learn
> from your observations and wisdom.
> 
> 
> * Kiwi PyCon is being held this weekend - both in-person (Christchurch)
> and virtual.
> 