Growing Code for Boston

March 04, 2019

This week is looking to be the highest number of RSVPs we’ve ever had at Code for Boston. Instead of the usual 30–40 people we are going to have over seventy people attend our Meetup. This trend started a few weeks ago and I have raised our Meetup cap to compensate for the increased interest. Despite this, we still have a waitlist. After a year of steady attendance it looks like we may quickly hit a new level of participation.

I am not sure why we are growing but I am hopeful that this growth is not accidental. Over the past year we have made a few changes to attempt to improve projects and new member experiences. We made a video to show new members what Code for Boston is like. We changed orientation to have project liaisons pitch their projects at the end of it. We also have refined our project intake process to better find fit for new projects and prepare project proposers to engage the community. This includes sending out an email with information on a project and a Google Form so members that have not attended can express interest.

The thing I like most is that this growth is a reward. It validates the time I spend on Code for Boston and shows people find it to be a worthwhile activity. It also enables us to have a bigger impact. The more people and projects we have, the more good we can do for the greater Boston community, and I think that is amazing.

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This work by Matt Zagaja is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.