Gastown Gang can curate a public calendar of meetups

[keywordnew]

The calendar would include both meetups within it's support network and without.

[caffodian]

First reaction: this is a good idea, meetup's calendar view sucks, especially if you haven't joined all the meetups

Second reaction: there are so many tech-related calendars in Vancouver, that seem to all fall along different dimensions of startupy-ness and salesy-ness

[Qard]

I think we should have our own calendar focused on our own events, at the least for our own coordination purposes. However, I think we should also make sure our events are in https://www.startupdigest.com/digests/vancouver and on a consistent ticketing platform. (meetup? something else?)

[Mariatta]

With the API we can retrieve upcoming meetups within our group:
https://www.meetup.com/meetup_api/docs/:urlname/events/#list

[keywordnew]

Meetup API would work for all right now: PyLadies Vancouver, Code & Coffee YVR, and NodeSchoolYVR 👍🏽 We could extend the current site, and not have to rely on an external calendar. At least for now.

Second reaction: there are so many tech-related calendars in Vancouver, that seem to all fall along different dimensions of startupy-ness and salesy-ness

Can this problem be mitigated by coming up with some guidelines around which meetups can make it onto the calendar?

Salesy/startupy meetups are typically run by businesses. Community meetups are run by the community but often supported by companies (massive thanks to all those companies that sponsor without much of a salesy agenda 💛).

I see this leading into the question of which meetups we can support. For example, if we chose to encourage only community-driven meetups, then those are the meetups that make it onto the calendar. This would go into our charter.

[caffodian]

A really hard rule to write down, but probably a good rule of thumb to follow is reciprocation - support this group (whether that's volunteering at a meetup, help promote it somewhere, providing space, etc.) and we will support you (in the calendar.) Maybe this creates a barrier for newcomers though, and I can't think of how to mitigate that.

One thing I've recently learned - a lot of the other citywide calendars have VERY VERY SLOW review times - I've had a few last minute submissions get approved several weeks after the event actually happened, which is...not very useful. Hopefully we can do better