With the founding of the WP Meetup Frankfurt at the end of 2012, a new chapter in my life has begun. From the first small group meetings to the most recent meetings with dozens of visitors, I haven’t missed a single one of the 62 Meetups. But now it’s time for some changes.
About Meetups
WordPress Meetups are local meetings of users, developers and anyone who is somehow interested in the open source content management system WordPress. For the past five years, as an active member of the local community in Frankfurt, I have organised such a meeting every month.
About our Meetup
Our group was small in the beginning, as was the case with almost all young German Meetups in the past. But animated by an enthusiasm for WordPress and other common interests, soon a hard core was found, which persists with some small changes until today. Over the years we met at different places, at the beginning at a private university in the north of the city, then in a pub in Sachsenhausen, finally some time in the office of Dreimorgen in the Bahnhofviertel and today finally in our office in the Frankfurt east.
So while themes, formats, locations and co-organisers changed, over the years there has been a constant and was – as pathetic as it may sound – me. I had no problem spending time month after month writing invitations and announcing dates, and only after some time did I realize that none of this would happen if I would’t do it. I haven’t missed a single one of those appointments in years. I planned my stays abroad accordingly, and arranged my travels so that I was always on the spot on the second Tuesday of the month to visit my Meetup and in most cases to open it.
The other Meetup
A large part of this time I lived to all abundance 250km further south – in Stuttgart. And because it wasn’t enough to commute to Frankfurt once a month to organize a Meetup there, I gradually inserted myself in the organization of the budding Stuttgart Meetup and was also the main organizer there at some point.
When we had organized our WordCamp in Frankfurt in 2016, I had reached the end of my strength and decided to give up the organization of the Stuttgart group. At that time, a small group of regular Meetup visitors had finally gathered there to take over the scepter. In the following months the meetings in Stuttgart continued without me. Jens and Flo, the two new main organizers, even managed to win more and more visitors for us.
What did I learn from my time-out from the Stuttgart meetup? It can only be good for a format like a WordPress meetup if from time to time an unused brain devotes itself to organizing.
Next Steps
After today’s Meetup, I will completely withdraw from the organization in Frankfurt for at least the next six months. A time out that I look forward to after many years with a laughing and a crying eye. But after this long time I think it is an important step to give up the helm and take some more time for myself and my other projects.
The team in Frankfurt is also much better positioned than Stuttgart was at the end of 2016 – it has a lot more regular visitors who now have the opportunity to step forward from the second row and give something back to the community that gives them so much. I did my part here for the moment.
So long and thanks for all the fish 🐬
For my other projects – including the WP Letter, which will be released for the 200th time next week after a two-week break – this has no consequences by the way – except maybe that a more rested Simon will be waiting for you there.
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