I’d love for this to come back Nick, thank you so much for stepping up to help catalyze it!
-Chris
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Ok, I’ve “run the numbers” with my director. Waiting to hear back on the budget allocation. Stay tuned.
The last time I attended a Bay Area social, it was massive, and I ended up sitting with some people who barely knew what LLVM was; they just knew there was free food and beer. So a mild -1 to a fully free event.
Sorry for the delays. I just got approval for a small budget; for now we’ll be able to run ONE instance of the meetup at the prices I estimated. I can’t promise anything, but I suspect once we get this going and exercise our internal expense reporting, organizing a second instance should be more straightforward.
Next, I will contact the venue about scheduling.
@pogo59 I agree; there’s probably more cost effective means of raising awareness of LLVM. I was thinking I’d send out a Google form for folks who were interested in attending to RSVP (since this venue will need a headcount) that asked for their email and SHA from a commit of theirs in LLVM? WDYT? Could be a SHA within the past 6 months? Then I’d send a calendar invite with the details once I’ve verified the SHA.
The budget I have prepared also assumes cash bar.
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Depends on the goal of the social. I no longer live in the bay area so it’s a pretty abstract exercise for me; I just thought it was worth observing that attendance got out of hand in the previous model. Limiting to recent contributors is one tactic, although it’s a chunk of work on your part to do the verification.
I would like to discourage limiting any meetups to recent contributors only.
I am happy to book meeting space at local community centers for the LLVM bay area meetup as I think that would help alleviate some space constraints from restaurant venues. However, this would be different than what they were in the past as it would not have any open bar (which I don’t think should be a prerequisite but I realize some folks enjoyed that aspect). I also think putting this with a small cost to attend is reasonable (ie 10 dollars) as it would make ordering food much easier for a group.
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@tonic
Fair, some longtime members of the community may not have contributed recently. No need to exclude them.
I’d still do a Google form though limiting the headcount to a certain number, since the venue I was thinking of does have a limit.
Though, if you’d prefer a higher limit, I’ll defer to you to organize the events at local community centers.
To be clear, I’m not trying to take over organizing this. I was providing help if you wanted it. I read you could host one meetup on your current budget and that you were worried about size/RSVP. The large banquet area you mentioned is far larger than the meetup usually is (AFAIK) and even the small area seems sufficient. So space isn’t an issue, it just sounds like you may be paying more out of pocket if people RSVP but don’t show up? Maybe I’m reading that wrong.
The LLVM Foundation is hoping to help local meetup organizer with some expenses going forward. The would include rental fees for spaces like community event spaces and then charge a small fee to cover food for the event and also help with the RSVP no-show situation.
What would this google form include other than name? A small fee could be setup in Meetup to try to discourage no-shows. I assume you are charged per person?
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Oh, I see. Sorry; I think I had just misunderstood your points.
The venue I’m thinking of I’m pretty sure doesn’t charge for plates that are RSVP’d but no showed; I should confirm that with them though as I’m not 100% certain that’s their policy. I think it’s more so that they need some rough-ish number to ensure they have staff on hand at that time, and whether to seat folks in the smaller or larger of the two distinct rooms they have. If we RSVP that there will be 40 people, and only 30 show, I think they will only charge us for the 30 that do show, but I should confirm with the venue. If that’s indeed the case, the no-show aspect becomes a non-issue.
Oh, I didn’t know about the LLVM Foundation’s budget. I suspect that if I have a hard time getting an approval from my employer for a second instance, maybe that’s something I’d look into making use of.
In terms of splitting the cost (between my employer’s budget, LLVM Foundation’s budget, and any fee charged or collected), I’m curious how paying for and then expensing might be complicated (particularly if there’s a fee or donation), but perhaps it doesn’t have to be complicated. Like paying would be use up the cash fee, then have budgets to cover the rest. Collecting the fee in person is another complication; I wonder if we could do that ahead of time online, and that becomes the RSVP? Know any sites that can do that? I wonder if meetup.com you can charge for events like that? Perhaps that complicates the expensing further… If no-shows aren’t an issue, charging a fee is perhaps better than asking for someone’s recent contributions to LLVM…though folks might not be able to cover a fee, but not charging a fee is simplest.
A form might include name and email address; I live and die by Google calendar, so I’m happy to send calendar invites as reminders. Those help alleviate no-shows, too.
I assume if there is a fee, collecting it per person would be simpler (than say by employer).
@tonic when you refer to community center, I’m curious about food. I was imagining a restaurant again for the food (not the beer). If we host at a community center, then I guess we’d look at having the event catered then at that point?
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Stein’s in Mountain View also has a nice outdoor location and before the pandemic we were at that location as well. I agree that being close to transit did make a difference for a lot of folks.
I would not object to charging a fee for those working full-time but I would prefer that it would be free for students, interns etc
The previous meetups could be very well attended and while I really enjoyed this since I was able to meet a pretty diverse group of folks and had so many amazing conversations I think I would feel safer with a limited attendance. While being outdoors does reduce the risk a lot, it does not eliminate it. Unless we plan on requiring a negative covid test. If that was the case I would feel comfortable with unlimited attendance.
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From discussion here on this topic I can’t tell if the July 7th Meetup event at Steins is actually happening or not. It looks like it could be a recurring event from when they were definitely still occurring.
If not, my input is to make organizing or attending the social event uncomplicated and unburdensome. I’m happy to pay for my own food and beer and wouldn’t expect otherwise.
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@teej I could not agree with you more. I just posted about this in the Discord
So you know what? Fuck it, I’ll say it.
@teej I’ll be at Steins on Thursday July 7th at 7:00 
PM
If it’s just you and me, we can grab a beer 
and talk about compilers for a bit 
If it’s just me, I hope they have good beer 
! Either way, I’ll be there this Thursday
p.s. First round’s on me!!
So if you really want to make me broke, then a hundred 
of you better show up
Sounds good, see you there at 7PM next Thursday.
-T.J.
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I thought the meeting was for July 7th, not June 9th.
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I’ll join too! I’ll bring the waffles. 
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(I’m worried you thought I meant this Thursday (today) and you’re gonna show up)
I’m always down to meet new people, so we can hang today, but I had in mind that the meetup would be on July 7ᵀᴴ
Ohh, ok then - July it is!
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yay 