On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 12:18 PM, Charley Sheets <rcsheets@acm.org> wrote:

Another thought: allow members to sign up to act as greeter for the
weekly party. Each week, we try to always have one greeter signed up,
and their job is simply to definitely attend the weekly party and say
hi to people when they show up. Just a simple "Hello! Are you here for
the Sudo Room party?" would be sufficient. You'd just need to promise
to be present and greeting whoever arrives from say 7pm to 9pm.

Completely agree with this one. That has been the most important factor in running successful recurring meetups in my experience. There needs to be a single person responsible for (a) consistently showing up (or finding a replacement, or as a last resort canceling the meetup and making sure everyone gets notified); and (b) welcoming new people and introducing them to the project (or making sure someone else gets tasked with doing so).

If they also spend 10-15 minutes before the meeting thinking about what to work on during the meeting, that'd be nice too. But consistently showing up and greeting new folks are more important, IMHO.

Patrik