[Baypiggies] BayPIGgies - a year later / Progress in 2017 / KUDOS to Jeff - he's so awesome!

[Deirdre Saoirse Moen]

I want to thank all for taking this little group I started in 1999, keeping it going, and making it far bigger than I ever did.

Deirdre

> On Jan 2, 2017, at 10:07 AM, Jeff Fischer <jeffrey.fischer at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Happy New Year!
> 
> I'm looking forward to another great year of talks. I think 2016 turned out great for BayPiggies, in spite of the rough start. Thanks, Glen for the kind words, for all your help, and for using your extensive connections to line up great speakers. A thanks also to:
> Bill Deegan for redoing the baypiggies.net website
> All those who helped with logistics at the meetings
> LinkedIn for hosting us and providing food
> Everyone for coming to the meetings, providing a lot of positive energy for the speakers, and asking great questions
> 
> Here's to a great 2017! See you all on the 26th (note it will be back to the normal 4th Thursday).
> 
> Regards,
> Jeff
> 
>> On Sun, Jan 1, 2017 at 10:18 PM, Glen Jarvis <glen at glenjarvis.com> wrote:
>> Year 2016 was quite a dramatic and difficult year for BAyPIGgies. Exactly one year ago, there was confusion about the control of the MeetUp site and potential dues being charged. Because the MeetUp site was set to charge dues (not something that we agreed to), and because we had lost some control of the site, we saw many members being automatically removed from the MeetUp group. Our MeetUp membership dropped from many thousands to a small handful.
>> 
>> However, we have been a group long before MeetUp (an awesome disruptive tool in this space) was even around. And, we decided to focus on our purpose and what we have always done: Bring speakers and an audience together around the subject of Python.
>> 
>> This brought out the best in us. Volunteers from our community came together and pulled together like never before. We had help in everything from greeters to help people find the room to metric managers. For example, Grant Ridder completely owned the attendance numbers so we have metrics on our growth.
>> 
>> We were able to get over 100 people together for that first January meeting. We were also able to sort out the MeetUp control issues as well. And, our MeetUp numbers rebooted. We started with just a handful and, one year later, we now have 1,559 members registered for the MeetUp site.
>> 
>> None of this would have been possible if it weren't for one member of our community: Jeff Fischer. Jeff owned the lion's share of work. He helped get speakers, he ran the full meetings, and he was at the "helm of the ship" for months at a time completely by himself. And, not once did he complain. He gave so much of himself to this community and is continuing to give more this year.
>> 
>> I am so lucky to be part of this open source community. People often ask, "I want to participate more in Open Source, but I don't know what to do." There is always something that we can do to help our community, and we don't have to be the most experienced coders to do it.
>> 
>> I believe the year 2017 will be even better for us. There is only one change that we're implementing this year. Our audience interest pool seems focused around three main areas:
>> 
>> 1. New Learners - growing a new community of programmers
>> 2. Data Science - Python has exploded in this area and we have a great deal of interest here
>> 3. Advanced topics - Our core audience, that has been around for many years  has interest in those advanced talks, for example, talks from Alex or Guido.
>> 
>> To keep talks that appeal to our audience balanced, we will try to organize our talks in this manner:
>> 
>> January: Beginner talk
>> February: Data Science talk
>> March: Advanced talk
>> April: Beginner talk...
>> etc.
>> 
>> To kick this off, we have our first beginner talk: Python Buzzwords by Charles Merriam. 
>> 
>> 
>> Please RSVP today:
>> 
>> https://www.meetup.com/BAyPIGgies/events/233553028/
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I look forward to another great year with a great community.
>> 
>> 
>> In awe of being here,
>> 
>> 
>> Glen Jarvis
>> 
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