Starting a JUGgernaut How to start and rapidly grow your Java Users Group Scott Kramer, STA Group & Illinois JUG Matt DeFano, STA Group & Chicago JUG.

Starting a JUGgernautHow to start and rapidly grow your Java Users Group

Scott Kramer , STA Group & Illinois JUG

Matt DeFano, STA Group & Chicago JUG

About Scott….

Wrote and sold first program in high school on one of worlds first hand held computers.

Been published a few times for some Oracle ERP stuff.

Coding for over 20 years, 10+ years in Java.

Love Construction; Built my own home! Happily married to woman of my

dreams!

About Matt….

Owes his career in software engineering to Apple’s HyperCard (in which he developed stacks and XCMDs in Pascal)

Developed ASICs and FPGAs for a North Bay telecom startup; prototyped interactive television applications and network DVR inside Motorola’s Applied Research Center.

Why are you here?

Learn how to start a new JUG or quickly grow an existing one! Solve key problems like getting volunteers, meeting spaces,

and attendees Gather metrics to measure your success Discover how running a JUG will help your career, your

community, and possibly the tech world! Understand the many tools at your disposal to achieve

success!

“…ask not what your JUG can do for you, ask what you can do for your JUG…”

A Refined Problem Statement

Every JUG has a common set of needs. We’ll address each of them: Develop a product offering Define a target audience Create a marketing plan Implement and operate your JUG

It’s a Volunteer Organization!

A Java Users Group:

Requires volunteers to donate time Offers no appreciable monetary benefits for its volunteers Frequently requires a great deal of time organizing, managing,

and soliciting help and favors from people in the community.

Like a full time job… that pays nothing!

Think Startup!

A JUG is a business A JUG has the same issues and problems any business has

compounded by being entirely dependent on volunteers and donations

Since it’s really a business without a payroll, lets explore how to build and grow a JUG as though it were a business.

“It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.” – The Godfather

Learning from the Dead…

No offense to these JUGs, but lets consider some failures (and near failures) to learn what not to do….

Calgary, Alberta JUG Lake County, Illinois JUG

“…Failure is a great teacher and, if your open to it, every mistake has a lesson to offer…” O. Winfrey

Calgary JUG

Calgary JUG originally started as the OO/Agile/Enterprise Web/Java Users Group. (They figured if you were doing any of those things, you were doing them with Java.)

Then CAMUG started (covering the Agile/OO side); JUG had to compete for those speakers and audience.

Microsoft pushed .NET hard in Calgary reducing the number of Java shops in town.

Java became a “mature technology;” speakers like to pontificate on the next big thing and fewer of those things were perceived to be Java related.

JUG leadership was stagnant: The same board was in place for a long time; made it difficult to recruit new help.

“Blame Canada!”

Lake County, Illinois JUG

Currently disbanded. Past president said his 3 biggest challenges were:

1. Finding meeting locations2. Finding presentations3. Finding Java enthusiasts to attend

Learning from the Living

Lets consider some successes to figure out what they did to succeed…

Chicago JUG Illinois JUG

“…Failure is a great teacher and, if your open to it, every mistake has a lesson to offer…” O. Winfrey

Chicago JUG – “The Before”

In fall of 2012, meeting attendance had dwindled to less 15 people at many meetings.

In fall of 2012, CJUG actually missed one or two meetings due to lack of planning (no speaker or venue)

CJUG board meetings shrank to three people on a conference call.

At one point, people were unsure who was even president. Another period in that year the board had weekly meetings

lasting hours.

Chicago JUG

Reached out to bring in new CJUG Board members (like 30)! Created roles and responsibilities. Got rid of sponsors telling JUG what to do and how to do it Crafted a sponsorship program (clearly defining what was

provided, and what was not). Placed emphasis on valuing volunteer time as a precious

resource, and requiring at least 15 minutes a month on JUG business. No more wasting volunteers’ time.

Held networking events (with free drinks) after JUG meetings Got a list of “hot” subjects from attendees to plan future

meetings

Illinois JUG – “It did not exist”

April 1st 2014, it did not exist. It has 3 “social group” locations throughout Illinois – over 3

hours away from each other! It has 2 meetings a month in 2 separate geographic locations.

Illinois JUG Reached out to friends, co-workers, attendees and asked them to

join Illinois JUG Board Crafted roles and responsibilities Talked to potential sponsors about benefits for them and asked them

to agree to fund incorporation and promotion of the JUG. Asked local authors (find ‘em on java.net) to do presentations. Convinced friends, co-workers and Oracle to present Asked attendee’s to invite co-workers Got sponsors to donate space, and food and soda. Got a list of “Hot” subjects and planned meetings to address them. Planed 3 meetings in advance.

Starting or Growing Your JUG

Follow these five steps to make your Java Users Group a success: Recruit volunteers and sponsors Market your offering to the Java community Reach out to employers and schools Legalize the entity Manage and operate the JUG

Create a Plan

Remember “Parkinson’s Law” Work expands to fill the time available. Don’t give yourself too much

time!

Create a 3 month plan First thing to do: plan and schedule your first meeting date!

Address each of our five steps Recruit, market, reach out, legalize and manage

“…Failure to plan, is planning to fail…” J.Wooden

Recruit!

Don’t try to do it all on your own Just like in any business, success requires distributing

the workload It’s more challenging in the volunteer world because

you cannot motivate individuals with money

“..Be yourself, everyone else is taken…” – O. Wilde

How to Recruit?

Consider the reasons why people volunteer as insight into how to motivate others.

Reasons why individuals offer their time (according to CJUG volunteers): Ability to learn new technologies Opportunity to network with similar companies and people Socialize (and maybe drink beer) with like-minded folks Polish the resume with community leadership posts Scott pesters you until you say yes

“…only way to make someone do something is to make them want to do it…” – Dale Carnegie

How to Recruit – just ask!

Review the benefits for the volunteer. Tell them they would be a great board member, officer, or

whatever. Be direct: Tell them you want them to join.

Recruiting Tools Titles

Give volunteers a title Examples: Community Leader, Sponsorship Director, Director of

Meetings, Honorary Board Member, Executive Board Member Responsibilities

Give volunteers clear responsibilities… and watch stuff get done! Remuneration

Probably can’t offer cash, but many vendors offer JUGs free licenses and conference passes

Positions may allow the volunteer to choose meeting subjects (i.e., they can set direction to their own interests)

Marketing

Biggest threat to a JUG: Low attendance (usually because the community doesn’t know it exists or understands its benefits) Identify your target market

Identify individuals most likely to be interested in your offering, then promote to that target.

Marketing isn’t sales Marketing is specific to a target; marketing is about fitting a solution to

your market’s problems. A JUG’s attendee target market is professional developers,

architects, students, and hobbyists

Marketing: Attendee’s Desires

Tech people have a variety of desires: They want to learn new skills They want to refresh existing skills They want to meet new friends and peers They want to be successful at work They want better job security and income though better connections and

skills

… but they can be tough and finicky: JavaOne attendees (2011) who’ve never attend a JUG meeting: Cited reason too busy to attend: Cited no perceived value:

66%52%

25%

Marketing: Where are the attendees Where are target attendees hiding?

Companies, schools and online forums. So in order to “get to” our target audience we need to also

market to companies, schools and online. Companies and Schools Interests: Promote their “brand”,

educate staff for little or no cost, be part of local community, garner new connections for hiring. Last year BBC reported that experts predicted a 22% growth in I.T. Jobs in next

5 years and also a 16% jump in average I.T. salaries in last 2 years. Recent study of the top tech companies (oracle, apple, google, etc) found they

have the high turnover (average employee tenure? 1 year). So Companies and Schools desperately need to find tech people.

Marketing Tools

Manage your JUG’s brand! It’s powerful and valuable… unless you water it down and give away its

value.

Don’t dilute its value! Don’t spam your members with job offers Don’t offer useless raffles and giveaways Don’t let recruiters/marketers speak at your meetings without getting

something in return.

Quid pro quo: This for that; live by it!

More Marketing Tools

Picking presentation subjects: Companies want presentations that their staff will learn from

and will bring in prospective Java Enthusiasts. So pick subjects they want to hear about.

How do you know what that is? Ask them.

“Its always Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.”

Knowing what’s not your target market is just as important as knowing what is.

NOT your target market: Companies that want free marketing or want to post jobs Companies that want to host a free raffle for a token gift card

or similarly trivial giveaways. Companies that want to go to JUG meetings to leverage group

members for their needs, but don’t care to give back to group by supporting it.

Reach Out! Reach out to local employers. They have a big interest in

finding quality people (and a JUG’s a low-cost way to do that). Start with consulting companies (STA Group, TEK Systems,

etc.). They’re always looking for talent and may market your meetings for free.

Ask your attendee’s and board members where they work and how to get those companies to sponsor. This is a great way to get meeting spaces, sponsor bucks, and promotion.

Reach out to local schools and colleges, they have active teachers, professors, etc. that want to help!

Financing your JUG

Any JUG will fail without revenue to keep it going. Create a sponsorship program with tiered levels of

commitment For example, CJUG offers a “Gold” Level for $5,000 that entitles the

sponsor to a 15 minute pre-meeting presentation. Offer discounts: CJUG offers originally offered 50% off

sponsorship prices for board members’ employers.

Tools for Reaching Out

How do you contact local companies? Look ‘em up in the phone book? Use social media (like LinkedIn) Ask your members (and friends) for connections at a target company

or school. Face-to-face always beats telephone calls and emails!

Be clever! Large consulting companies have vast databases contacts. Properly

motivated, they’ll work on the JUG’s behalf. Call them as a potential job candidate to reach a recruiter, then pitch

the recruiter about your JUG and its many members!

LegalizeYour JUG is a non-profit with income, expenses and legal responsibilities. Treat it as such! You need to incorporate (try delawareinc.com; about $200 and takes ten

minutes). You should file as a “foreign corporation” in your home state. In a couple days they’ll email you the papers. Use these to go to the IRS website

and get a FEIN number (its free).

Why bother? Need the paperwork to accept money! After a year, you can become a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit—and get free

Google Apps!

Register your JUG with existing Java resources like Oracle’s Java.net!

Legalize (Part 2)

You probably don’t need any liability insurance: Hold meetings at an insured location. To limit liability, never let the JUG “serve” alcohol. Pay a

bartender or let a sponsor do that.

“I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t play one on TV”

Legalize (Part 3)

Create a web presence Use Google Domains (beta) to buy your domain name ($12). Create a Google Apps account; costs $60 a year but offers ~30 email

forwarding addresses, central document storage, and free websites.

Organize your meetings Use Meetup or Facebook to organize your meetings Ask attendees to use their “legal name” (sooner or later a security

guy will demand it for meeting spaces).

Craft a initial set of bylaws for your JUG

Delegate

Give up control to get control. You can’t do everything! First priority: spend time finding others to share workload. Create roles and responsibilities for volunteers

Titles cost nothing and give a sense of pride and ownership At minimum, appoint or elect a President, Community Leader,

Meeting Director, and Sponsorship Director.

Q&A