Bruce Momjian: Postgres Blog

Postgres Blog

This blog is about my work on the Postgres open source database, and is published on Planet PostgreSQL. PgLife allows monitoring of all Postgres community activity.

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Growing Postgres User Groups

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Our web site lists many Postgres user groups, but perhaps only a dozen are active, having monthly meetings. Why is that? What makes a Postgres user group successful? How can you help create or revitalize a user group?

The answers aren't a great mystery, but it does require hard work. I think a lot of people who start Postgres user groups don't realize the work necessary to make it successful. They probably think, "Oh, I will announce a user group meeting, and people will show up, and it will be fun." Well, the "fun" part might be right, but growing a user group long-term requires lots of work — let me explain.

The first meeting is usually deceptively easy — you just announce it and curious Postgres users attend. But what next? You can't just keep calling meetings hoping people will show up. You need to give people a tangible reason to attend future meetings. That's where the hard work comes in:

Communication: Clear an consistent communicate are a requirement for any successful user group. Many USA-based user groups use Meetup, because it provides an easy, single point of contact for the group. The New York City Postgres User Group's (NYPUG) web site is a good example.
Consistency: When you set the expectation of monthly user group meetings, people then plan their schedules around those meetings. If leaders get busy and can't host expected meetings, people start to wonder if the user group is useful for them, and attendance lags. Most successful groups need at least two leaders to avoid this problem, so one can take over if the other is busy.
Speakers: Providing meaningful content is an important part of growing attendance. In the first few meetings, it is often necessary to bring in well-known, outside speakers to generate excitement. After the group grows, the members themselves can often be effective meeting speakers.
Food: Let's face it — no one wants to grab a warmed-over meal from a convenience store and eat it in the car in the way to the meeting. Provide food and advertise it so people know they can come right from work and have a nice time socializing and eating before the meeting starts.
Funding: Funding for communication, food, and speaker travel costs is often available from region-specific Postgres organizations, like the United States PostgreSQL Association.
Determination: As the group is getting started, there will be meetings that are poorly attended, which can lead to discouragement. Leaders should avoid scaling back and just continue going — it takes time to build momentum.

The bottom line is this — if leaders consider the user group important, then others will as well. If leaders behave in a way that indicates it isn't a priority, the rest of the group concludes the same, and the group fades away.