The WordPress Foundation hereby declares 2012 to be Year of the Meetup.
Just as we worked last year to remove the financial burden for WordCamp organizers and provide logistical support so they could focus more on their event content and experience, we want to start extending that kind of support to meetup groups as well. We don’t want it to cost anything for someone to run a WordPress meetup, or to attend one – building local communities should be as free as WordPress itself!
Since there are so many more meetups than there are WordCamps, we’re going to start with the cost that is the same for every group: meetup.com organizer dues. We’re setting up an official WordPress account on Meetup.com right now, and over the next couple of weeks will be working with existing meetup group organizers, people who want to start a new meetup group, and the helpful folks at Meetup.com to put this program in place. WordPress meetup groups that choose to have their group become part of the WordPress account will no longer pay organizer dues for that group, as the WordPress Foundation will be footing the bill.
Damn! Money has always been an issue for us, so this seems promising. We’ve been relying on cash donations, sponsorships, and out-of-pocket organizer spending to keep our meetings afloat over the last two years. I’m interested to see how this all pans out for us.
» Check out the full blog post: Year of the Meetup (WordPress News)
