STC Events Plan for 2019

As you may recall, in December 2018 the East Bay chapter partnered with Silicon Valley, Berkeley, and San Francisco to float an idea to all of you: merging the four chapters into STC NorCal. We asked for your input, and you responded brilliantly – thanks to all who contributed.

Although the response was overwhelmingly positive: 88% of all respondents supported the plan as written (of these, 62% indicated strong support), and offered a variety of reasons and suggestions for their approval. Some folks had very reasonable concerns regarding responsible budgeting and content archiving, to name a few. The chapter leadership will work to address these points going forward.

Unfortunately, our grand experiment didn’t work out. It’s a lot harder getting the machine to change than expected. However, we’re taking what we learned to try again. We picked the event from the last six months that had the best response from our members.

What does this mean?

A lot less push email and a lot more fun.

We’re moving all meeting announcements to the meetup group that Berkeley started. Don’t be distracted by the meetup group name. They’re listing everything in the East/North CA region and we decided to work within that framework rather than try to start and manage a whole separate group on our own.

Join the Meetup Group: https://www.meetup.com/STC-Berkeley/

That’s where you’ll find announcements for upcoming meetings and social events. It will send reminders automatically for any event you RSVP to. You can always change your mind. Events will not also be posted to the website except occasionally. Meetup will be the primary announcement application going forward.

You still have three ways to attend meetings!

This is one of the things that worked. All four chapters started broadcasting meetings to Facebook. You can now:

Attend in person

Meet the speaker and network with your peers. Drive to the “Host” chapter and attend meeting (the way it’s always been).

Attend a viewing party

Get together with other chapter members who are in your local region and watch the live stream. At a regional viewing party, you have the chance to network and learn, to mingle and discuss, without having to cross town or sit in traffic! You can attend to any local Viewing Party.

Start one of your own or check Meetup to find out if someone else has arranged one in your local area.

Watch remotely

Watch the livestream on the NorCal Facebook page. We’ll be keeping an eye on the comments stream, so you can send in your comments and questions!

Example: February 2019

In February, the Silicon Valley STC Chapter hosted a Speaker Presentation meeting.

Because they were responsible for finding a facility and a speaker, the event occurred on a date that they set and in a location they found.

How did other people attend? Remember, there were three choices:

Option 1: Drive to Santa Clara and be in the same room with the speaker and the members and guests of the host chapter (Silicon Valley)

Option 2: Attend to a viewing party be in the room with other chapter members and guests, and watch the live stream together. You can go to any of the viewing parties:

  • East Bay Chapter Viewing Party
  • San Francisco Chapter Viewing Party
  • Berkeley Chapter Viewing Party

Option 3: Watch the live stream, on your own, from anywhere!

No matter which option you choose, new content will be recorded and made available afterwards for anyone who misses it, allowing archive-hunters to learn valuable tips and tricks!