What has worked for your autumn meetups?

What made no difference for us: more emails. We went from two reminders to five and registrations did not move. What did was asking each of the eight people on our chapter committee to invite three people personally. That alone accounted for 17 of the 44 who came in September. It is tedious and it works.

Our chapter covers a large area, so travel is the barrier. We now hold the autumn event in a different part of the region each year. Attendance among members outside the centre roughly doubled, though the total rose only slightly, from 40 to 47. I would call it a fairness gain more than a growth one.

We turned the autumn meetup into a working session on merit budgets, since that is what everyone is doing in October anyway. People bring their planning number and we collect them anonymously on the day. Sixty-two came last year, our highest ever.

Do you take a deposit? One in five of our registrations failed to turn up until we charged ten dollars.