There are a few decisions that have to be made anytime a new group is created, and I like getting feedback from others. And thankfully, I have a polling system here that allows both upvoting good ideas and downvoting bad ideas. Both are welcome.

The first decision is what the group should be called. One of my main interests is to create a tech meetup group that is centered west of the beltway. It's kind of nice if that can be captured in the name in a nice way. But if we can't find a nice-sounding name with that directly, there are a lot of other options.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each. WOB doesn't mean anything to most people. Maybe that's an advantage because they'll click in to find out (maybe). Loudoun and Reston are a bit specific. People won't assume they can't attend something just because they live in Reston and it says it's for Loudouners. But it does restrict the venues a bit. "Why does the Reston Dev Group meet in Sterling?"

I am very open to additional ideas. If you comment with some, I will add them.

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What meetup platforms should we use

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The next question is where? The availability of some locations becomes a factor. But the results of this poll can make a priority list, where I would just target the most preferred venue that is available.

Libraries' meeting rooms are the easiest to book. Some are easier than others. But if you know any non-library locations that are available, let me know so I can add them to the poll.

I've also done a little population research on how many people live within 15 minutes of each one.

Herndon 382,227
Reston 370,460
Sterling 350,699
Cascades 343,456
Ashburn 301,750
Great Falls 234,839

That might be a relevant factor. But also, it makes sense to be selfish when voting. Some of these are easier to book on a Saturday than others. Sterling, oddly enough, has a consistent availability in one of its rooms every Saturday from 2pm - 5pm. For the other libraries, it's just a matter of booking them early enough, I suppose.

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Now we should talk about when and how often.

What day of the week aligns best with people:

If we meet once a month, what aligns best with people and their other plans:

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The last question is about formatting. I've come up with a few formats I'd like to rotate. But we can do some more often than others or just focus on one. And I have more detailed descriptions below the poll. Those formats are:

For working independently/coding circle, the format is the best for people who are focused on productivity. We just go around the room telling people what we will work on, and then work on it. At the midpoint we give a progress update and if we have any changed goals. Then we leave some time at the end to show what we worked on.

The showcase is best for people who want to show off what they are working on. Kind of a show and tell. Each person gets 5-15 minutes to share their work.

Group collabs are basically exactly what it sounds like. We give an optional theme. Then you split off with other people to make something cool and then show it.

Play testing is where we help someone or a few people who have a nearly publishable product get over the finish line. The goal is to get closer to formal play testing. If you play test someone else's product, it will be fun, and one day it will be your turn.

Dev and Debug / Inverse meetings. These are honestly fun. Many meetups involve finding an expert to talk on a topic to a large crowd. An inverse meeting works the opposite way, and it ends up producing a lot of useful discussion. Here we pick on the folks who are newest at development. We get them to talk about a problem they recently solved, and how they solved it, what was difficult about it, and what they struggled with. Now we have an entire room of experienced people who can give them advice on how to approach the problem better, as an open discussion. It's actually pretty fun. When and if that discussion ends (it might not), we just grab the next victim to get advice from the old hats.

A "modify the code" jam sounds exactly like what it is. Someone volunteers some source code, or we find a known repo, and the friendly competition is who can do something cool to it. An incomplete source code can be better, but an established repo can work too.

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Your feedback is greatly appreciated. And fresh ideas are especially awesome. Hopefully, we can create events that everyone will enjoy, that will fill a gap in coding meetups further west from DC.