Channel the Energy
Unless you’re employed by your organization, chances are you have limited time and energy to run your group.
As your group gains momentum, you’ll attract attention. This is a Good Thing, but it can gobble all the time and energy you set aside, sometimes in unhelpful ways. * Entrepreneurs and head-hunters email you to see if you’re interested in building their idea, or “know of any programmers.” * New volunteers show up with great intentions and a pile of suggestions - some you’ve already thought of, maybe even tried - but vanish at implementation time.
These are all actually good things, because they’re a fuel that can sustain your group - you just have to channel it.
Pay attention to the kinds of requests you typically get, and create a sink for each of them. Rather than dealing with them one-by-one, you can batch up the requests, take them in at a glance, observe patterns, etc.
Again these are good things, you just need to channel them appropriately.
Examples
Sending Suggestions to a Google Form
Spencer Brown organizes BoilerMake, an overnight hackathon at Purdue University that hosts about 500 students each year.
The organizing team had people responsible for different parts - swag, sponsors, speakers, space, food, and so on - and one group responsible for Event Design, the overall branding and feel of it. Lots of people had ideas for this team, so, to ensure they didn’t get overwhelmed, they set up a simple Google form, and directed all Event Design ideas there. They focused on their planning, and periodically reviewed the incoming ideas. Everyone felt like their ideas where heard and considered, but the team wasn’t swamped.
NewHaven.IO’s Pitch Night
The NewHaven.io organizers get lots of email from Entrepreneurs in search of programmers. The request is often in the form of “hey, can we get coffee or a beer sometime? I’d like to talk to you about _______.” An entrepreneurial community is a great thing to have in a tech town - it can provide jobs, attract tech talent, and help put the city on the tech map. As the community organizer, you’re probably the most visible tech talent the enterpreneurs see, so you’re the one they email.
But an enterprising entrepreneur (and aren’t they all?) crashing your tech meetup can monopolize all the conversation. You want to let developers have a space to talk shop without a blow-hard boring everyone with their flaky business plan.
So NewHaven.IO is experimenting with holding Pitch Nights: regular events where entrepreneurs have a time slice to pitch their idea to an audience of developers. When an entrepreneur emails you, you direct them to the sign-up sheet, and tell them when the next pitch night is. When you’re getting ready for Pitch Night, each of the entrepreneurs pays for an equal share of the costs (space, food, drink, etc), and gets an equal share of the time. (If you have too many entrepreneurs, consider a lottery and a waitlist.) The entrepreneurs each give their pitch, and you close the night with an hour of mixing. This gives developers a chance to speak to the entrepreneurs they might want to work with.
This clearly benefits the entrepreneurs - they have a chance to attract the tech talent to build their idea. It also benefits developers looking for a new gig, or a side-gig. But it can benefit the broader community, too, by showcasing what’s going on it town.