🌟New organiser(s)

[vitalbone]

Are you the next NodeSchool Syd organiser?

• Do you like helping people learn to code?

• Do you enjoy watching someone get that "aha" moment when their first Promise resolves ;)

• Do you like being involved in a community of mentors and mentees helping each other solve problems whilst eating gigantic pizzas?!

Yes, yes and hell yes! Perfect, then reply below about becoming the next lead NodeSchool Syd organiser.

I'm not going anywhere and will still be around to help mentor and the like, just need to ease up on the organising since I've got a little one (Alberto) and a big one (Picket) to manage these days :)

[nmors]

I'm interested!

[vitalbone]

Awesome @nmors!

I'll try to add as much as I can here on how I usually organise things. There's not a lot to it, particularly since the events have been sporadic in the last few years.

The Meetup group

If nothing else, NodeSchool (NS) is a community of learners. I've found the easiest way to organise our community is via Meetup.com. I set up this group a while ago and it's grown to over 800 members. Some of those are probably bots but the vast majority are people interested in learning javascript, particularly people who are new to the language.

I'll add you as an co-organiser of the Meetup group.

Organising an event

My original plan was to run an event every third month. I think I stuck to that schedule for two events 😂. Since there isn't a particular cadence to the schedule feel free to adapt it to whatever suits you.

However you organise an event, Meetup is probably the easiest place to make that happen. They've got tools there to email members and add event details.

Venue

The Microsoft Reactor Space is a fantastic space to hold a tech event. I can give you Aaron's details, who helps with the events there.

It helps to have labels, pens, stickers and the like so people can add name tags and attendees know who the mentors are.

Pro tip
In my experience only about 1/3 of people actually turn up on the day. Make sure to try to get triple the capacity to an event. So if the venue says it holds 50 attendees, then aim to have 150 "YES" responses.

Food and drink

The big pizzas have become a bit of a thing at NS but that doesn't mean they have to stay! Just make sure there's enough for everyone.

Unlike other meetup events, our events are held during the day so I haven't had booze but feel free to or to provide other drinks. If you're hosting at Microsoft I make a tab at the Starbucks downstairs and tell everyone to use that.

The food & drink are the most "expensive" things. That's where it's handy to have at least one sponsor. I'm happy to help with this if you'd like.

Website

Funnily enough our website doesn't use any JS ;) It's just a static site hosted on GH pages. I'll give you admin access to the repo so you can update it with new event details when you've got them.

Social media

I'm horrible with social media. We have a Twitter and a Facebook Page but they hardly get updated. I'll add you to these as well, send me your twitter and facebook usernames.

---

I think that's it. I've probably forgotten something but that's what the threads for! Let me know if you have any questions 🐢🚀

[vitalbone]

Oh I forgot to mention that Meetup costs ~AUD$25 per month. Another good reason for a sponsor! I've added you as a co-organiser on Meetup.

[nmors]

Wow, that's a great write up 👍

Thanks for all of the helpful info, all sounds good. I'm really looking forward to giving this my best effort!

[vitalbone]

Nice, NS is going to blossom with you at the helm!

I'm sure things will come up as you start to organise your first event so feel free to hit me up here or on Slack whenever you've got a question.