Meetups in the news: July 2008 Archives

From The Nanaimo Daily News

Group offers chance for mothers to mingle with others in similar situations in Nanaimo

Krista Clarke, Daily News
July 18, 2008

"Behind closed doors, moms can start to feel depressed from the isolation of spending all day talking to themselves and entertaining a baby for hours on end.

For those reasons alone, Melissa Cristobal, 26, started up the Nanaimo Moms Meetup Group to create a close-knit community for mothers and their children."

"There were lots of mothers who wanted a group like this, they just needed someone to start it up," said Cristobal.

Meetup Group, Girls Just Wanna Have Funds recently caught the eye of MSNBC News. The group's Organizer, Ginger is also our Meetup Organizer of the Week. Well done ladies!

video courtesy of MSNBC News

We've had lots of mentions in the press the past week or so. Here are a few goodies. When you have a moment check out what Organizers are up to everywhere!

---

From the SnoValley Star
A Motherly Kind of Connection
July 9, 2008
by Laura Geggel

"Martindale, a 2006 transplant from Sequim, said she was excited when she saw children playing all over the Ridge, but she found it difficult to actually meet families. 'No one seemed to talk to each other,' Martindale said. Martindale posted SnoValley Moms - which now has 167 members - on Meetup.com this past winter."

---

From The Gaston Gazette
Moms Original Purpose
July 2, 2008
by Bernie Petit

"'OH MY GOSH!!!' one poster recently wrote on the message board for Mom's Original Purpose, a local stay-at-home moms group. 'JOSEPH PEED IN THE POTTY TODAY!!! YEAH!!! FIRST TIME!'"

---

From The Sacramento Bee
Gather and Go 
July 3, 2008
by Leigh Grogan

"Meetup groups help recreationists get outdoors in a social setting"

Ladies Who Launch Meetup, brought to southeastern Pennsylvania by Incubator Leader Megan L. Reese, takes typical networking a step further through its Incubator Workshop. Unlike typical business card exchanges, the Incubator is a program that focuses on what each individual woman needs in order to move forward with her business.

"According to the Center for Women's Business Research, since 2004 women have been launching businesses at nearly three times the rate of men," Reese says. "Ladies Who Launch is the first brand to acknowledge that women launch differently than men. We start our businesses for lifestyle reasons and grow them more organically. The Incubator is based on this concept."

Beth Strange, owner of Your Image Works in Oxford, is one of the businesswomen hosting the event. She participated in the first Incubator Workshop in April.

"Through Ladies Who Launch, I've been able to grow my business in ways I never could if I hadn't been part of the Incubator," Strange says. "I'm now part of a local group of amazing women with a unique perspective on launching, as well as an online community of over 50,000 women.

Read More...

Bay Area's creativity extends to more than chips and software. Stephanie Lam, Local artist and Organizer of two local meet-up groups: The San Jose Pug Meetup, the French Bulldog Meetup  combines her passion for animals with her passion for art. "I've always had a passion for drawing animals from a very young age," Lam says. When she took some art classes while studying English at Santa Clara University, her creative spirit was reawakened. And then she adopted a pug she named Harley three years ago. "She became my constant muse," Lam says. "I did several paintings of her and discovered how much I missed" making art. "I realized I wanted art to be a focal point in my life again, something I really devoted myself to."
Read more...

The popular Web site company's radical experiment is putting employees in charge

CEO Heiferman (foreground) has let workers become their own bosses Chris Mueller/Redux

by Heather Green

The management revolt at Meetup Inc. broke into the open last February. Douglas Atkin, a senior manager, yanked CEO Scott Heiferman into a conference room and showed him a list scrawled on a whiteboard. In bright red letters were all the things Atkin felt were wrong at the New York startup, including "We Aren't a Creative Company" and "I Hate the Org Chart." Atkin pressed his boss to change course. "We need to blow this up and start all over again,"
he said.

Meetup is a company built on organization. Through its Web site, people can set up local groups for everything from sharing organic gardening tips online to marshaling volunteers for political campaigns. But as the company grew to 52 employees and 5 million members, Meetup's own organization buckled. It was failing at the very thing that was supposed to be its expertise.

What followed Atkin's confrontation was a management experiment that shook the company. Heiferman replaced the old org chart with a highly unusual management strategy in which workers set priorities and pick their own projects. Inspired by the people who use its service, Meetup loosened the reins and dispersed power. For some workers, it felt like chaos, and they fled. Others thrived.

The process is still under way, but the results so far are largely positive. Morale is up, and the company is cranking out products. On June 10, Meetup plans to unveil a slew of features, including a site redesign, a new payment system, and a method for translating Meetup into other languages. "We got more done in six weeks than in six months last year," says Heiferman, who expects the projects to boost revenues tenfold, to $100 million, by 2010.

Meetup's approach isn't for everyone. But for managers, especially those responsible for younger workers with attitudes and expectations so different from those of earlier generations, the experiment holds lessons: Giving up control can lead to better results. Your workers may have better ideas than you. Gary Hamel, who wrote The Future of Management, predicts more companies will adopt flexible organizations to accommodate Internet Age workers and profit from their skills. "With information so broadly shared now, the sources of influence and power are eroding," he says. Companies already using such approaches include Whole Foods Market (WFMI), and W.L. Gore & Associates, the $2 billion maker of Gore-Tex.

At Meetup, the recent changes were designed to break through layers of bureaucracy that had piled up. Last year, for example, the company established a controversial review board that, along with managers, oversaw what workers could do. Employees talked about being "metrified," or so focused on metrics there was no room for new ideas.

A few months after the review board was established, Atkin cracked. Heiferman listened, sensing he had a problem. For a week in February, Meetup's execs brainstormed alternatives. They considered modest tweaks. But Greg Whalin, head of technology, kept pushing to give workers more control.

WORKING HARDER
On Feb. 21, Heiferman gathered the staff to sketch out the new ground rules. Employees will decide which projects get tackled first. They'll organize themselves into teams to tackle projects. All existing work will be put on hold. One by one, people stood up and volunteered things they wanted to change. The crowd got rowdy, clapping and shouting out their ideas. The execs left and employees spent five hours deciding who would work on what.

Work patterns changed immediately. With more control, many worked harder than ever. Heiferman is shocked at how fast projects have come together. Still, uncertainty remains. Managers worry employees will pick frivolous projects. Some workers are uncomfortable without specific jobs or authority. "People question what their professional growth will be," says product manager Maya Voskoboynikov.

Many companies couldn't operate with workers calling so many of the shots. Consulting and advertising firms have to answer to clients. Size matters, too. As companies grow, experts say most need hierarchy to keep people moving in the same direction. "As someone who has spent his entire life saying 'Liberate people,' I believe you need systems," says Tom Peters, the prominent management consultant.

Heiferman isn't throwing out systems entirely. A strategy group tracks how changes affect revenue and customer growth. And the CEO reserves the right to pull what he calls the "red cord" on projects headed in the wrong direction. He hasn't had to use it. At least not yet.