[Steering Committee] Sponsors and increasing attendance

[Jason Lee]

Hearing Biju talk about some of the other Java shops in town has left me
thinking about how we get those developers, managers, etc. informed about
and, hopefully, involved in the JUG.  I talked with Ryan about this a bit
Tuesday night, but I wanted to run this by the rest of the group and get
some input.

First, what I think we should do is try to identify the Java shops in the
city -- at least the "major" ones.  Having done that, we need to find
a...polite way to approach them.  While we would certainly like to increase
our sponsor pool, we also don't want to give the impression that that's all
we're looking for.  Once we identify a contact within each organization, it
should be pretty unoffensive to contact him (or her! :) and tell him about
our JUG.  We might also mention (in passing) that if their organization
finds value in the JUG, we would certainly appreciate sponsorship, etc.  I'm
a little nervous on that part, as I don't want to sound like someone running
for office. :)

Biju mentioned Devon, Famers Insurance (?) and Sonic, and I know that Dobson
and Vitech (?) are also Java shops.  I think I have some contacts (tenuous
though they may be) that can point me in the right direction for Devon,
Dobson, Vitech, and Sonic.  If we can compile a list of these shops and
their contacts, we could either dump them on the one responsible for
sponsors (Ryan ;) or split them up amongst ourselves.  How does that sound?

On the sponsorship front, I have a semi-long story.  I applied for the JSF
2.0 Expert Group recently.  One of the co-chairs asked me if I could
re-apply as a representative of my JUG.  The problem with that is the cost
associated is $2,000 per year, which we obviously don't have.  The question,
though, started me thinking along the lines of funds.  What's the general
sentiment in filing the paperwork to make the JUG a 501(c)(3)?  That would
allow corporations to make donations should they like to do so, and,
hopefully give us the ability to bring in speakers, etc.  (Note that I
applied to the EG as representing myself, which is "free" so I'm not asking
this to find a way to fund that membership. ;) The downside is the paperwork
involved in filing with the IRS, taking contributions, preparing receipts,
managing the bank account, etc.  I know we've discussed this at one point
and decide against it.  Is that still the prevailing sentiment?

Ruminate on that a bit and let me know. I'll go ahead and reach out to my
contacts and see if I can track down the Important People in some of these
organizations.

Thanks! :)

-- 
Jason Lee, SCJP
Software Architect -- Objectstream, Inc.
JSF RI Dev Team
http://blogs.steeplesoft.com
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