The community will plan and host the April Second Saturday event

I think this is a good idea. It doesn’t make sense for all or most of the planning and organizing to be on one person when there are volunteers willing to help.

I’m organizing two groups myself, and learning to delegate tasks for those, so I won’t be able to take on some of the more time intensive tasks. What I can do is promote the event so that we can continue to draw new people in.

I look forward to watching this group grow and evolve.

Might I recommend that the next New Media Cincinnati event (and all following) include a portion of the time dedicated to “business”…ie. running the events and the (for lack of a better word) “club”. Perhaps a “board” should be assembled to ensure that all of the work is never falling in one person's lap… a rotating term of 6-12 months for one person as primary co-ordinator. (There will probably be little need for a “vote” in this matter.)

Although I cannot in good conscience offer to be a part of the board or the planning (I am having difficulty handling current 'volunteer' commitments), I've always thought that the planning calls were a very good idea and a great way to ensue that he whole event went relatively smoothly. However, since the majority of the “club” does not participate in these, I think a 2-3 minute recap at each event and/or in blog form would help people stay more informed.

As for topics of discussion, one thing I've always found very helpful at other usergroup meetings is topics that are peripheral to the primary objective of the group. We all have the basics of SM technology down, but what about diplomacy in communication, topic generation (for bloggers), integration of SMM with other marketing efforts, translating SM relationships to meatspace, etc?

I want to not even have to show up if I want.

So, we need someone to step up to be the Host, someone to do checkins, someone (or a group of people) to lead the discussion.

What I want, and what I feel from community input last week, is for people to step up and say, “I'd like to be the Host.” and “I'd like to lead the discussion about X.”

If we can get to that point, we're more than halfway there. In my opinion.

I disagree with you, Rick. I think, based on the attendance and popularity of the Second Saturday event, that the community wants this to be around. I'm hopeful that people will step up to make this the best it can become.

I absolutely agree with Foxydot. Daniel you need some sort of organization in place before you just turn the whole group loose to figure this out.

Maybe you formally create a group of people to help run this.

I'm going to go ahead and express some frustration here. I've already volunteered at least once (via Buzz, I believe) to help out in some capacity, such as reserving the venue, however I was not told whether or not any responsibility would fall to me, and I have little idea (other than a Twitter hashtag) how to let the community know that I'll perform a given task so that someone else doesn't duplicate the effort.

If this event is going to continue, someone must be named as being the coordinator, even if that is only to delegate responsibilities. Daniel, if you aren't going to be this coordinator, then you need to first appoint someone else to be, not just keep listing off what needs to be done. The community has no official, central channel for communicating about what has and has not been done, which means there MUST be a leader.

Otherwise, set up a signup sheet–a place where people can sign up for tasks and report back the results. No one else can do this–you own newmediacincinnati.com, and that's where it should be done.