Recently I received an email letting me know that my subscription to Meetup.com had expired and as a result the Meetup groups for which I was listed as organizer were now listed without an organizer and in danger of being shut down.

This got me thinking; if I had a problem with keeping up with one more subscription then I imagine there were others as well. Digging in even deeper I discovered there were other Meetups not forming simply because of the costs associated with the existing platform. As a result Mautic was fighting for consistency and a unified platform for the community merely due to the tool being used! Our community was limited from growing properly not because of the community but the tool we were using. Quite contrary to the very reason we were using the platform!

This gave me an idea. What if there were a better way? And just like that a new Mautic initiative was undertaken. I reached out to a few of the community who I suspected would be interested in working on building something better and we got to work.

Identifying Our Needs

The first thing we knew we needed was to clearly identify what we needed from a group networking and meeting solution. As it turns out there is not necessarily a long list of requirements that we simply must have in a tool.

Our current groups were semi-organized, gave people a way to join them, share upcoming event details, and in some cases share photos from past meetings. That doesn’t sound like something too difficult to find in a solution. Oh, and there was one more objective that was ranked quite highly on our list. We were intent on finding a solution that held to the same core beliefs and standards that Mautic holds. This meant we wanted an open source solution. Based on the list of our needs we believed this was completely doable.

Aside: I believe strongly in using open source solutions. I do so when the tool is the best at what it does and performs better than other solutions available. In other words, open source is not (and should not) be the sole deciding factor when selecting a tool.

Evaluating The Alternatives

The next task we undertook was to evaluate the various solutions available keeping in mind the list of requirements we wanted to see. The list was surprisingly shorter than anticipated. There was the obvious incumbent that we had used before and we knew the shortcomings associated with that platform. Then there were a variety of hybrid solutions where we could make something work if we cobbled a few different tools together or if we chose to neglect different aspects from our requirements list. That sounds rather problematic especially when our list is rather short and honestly quite simplistic.

Finally, after some thought and much review we settled on something far easier and quicker than we anticipated. With the help of a plugin for our existing website we could extend our current CMS to enable groups. This met the needs we had, increased our community opportunities, and finally much to our delight was an open source solution.

Once the decision was made the process of implementing was undertaken. This solution encouraged us to think about two more questions we hadn’t initially expected. The first question was quite relevant to our current initiative and the second question was far, far more existential.

• What do we call our community meetings?
• What is the main purpose for Mautic.org?

I’ll answer them in reverse order. The second question came about because we recognized that with the integration of groups directly into our website perhaps now was a time to evaluate the purpose and reason for our main website. What purpose does it serve and how does it enable our community to be bigger and better? Our current goal was to identify a way to enable our community meetings and not answer such a large question but there are a few minor steps we could take to better prepare ourselves for the future so when the time came to answer this question we would be prepared and ready.

The first question was one we new we had to answer and wanted to create something that resonated with our community and also hat-tipped to the many other open source projects that had paved the way for our success. And of course, it never hurts to create a name that’s unique and special to our community.

Announcing Mauticamps

I am excited to share that after only a little deliberation we chose to call a community meeting a Mauticamp. These Mauticamps are a way for our community to meet in person at cities around the world on a regular basis. Mauticamps are organized and lead by local volunteers. Our existing Mauticamps are an incredible list of locations literally around the globe. It’s amazing how fast they have grown even in spite of a difficult community platform. I believe that this new open source platform built directly into our website and available to everyone completely free will make our community grow so much faster.

There are many more ideas and suggestions related to our Mauticamps that I want to share. Ways to make them even more successful and ways to empower volunteers to get involved. I can’t wait to share more. If you are a current Mauticamp organizer I would welcome the chance to talk with you, get your ideas about what’s been working and what needs improvement and share some of my initial thoughts for your feedback.

If however you are not yet in a Mauticamp or don’t see a Mauticamp close to you, or focused on a topic you're interested in, then I have a challenge for you. Why not organize one yourself? There are resources available (and more coming as I suggested) to help you create a vibrant local community. You’ll be amazed at how many others may be close by already and interested and what better way to find new friends, learn new things, and grow your business then through the awesome power of Mautic.