Thank you, Coral and Tom. I'd also like us to:

1. stop characterizing regional meetings as DIY, as if we have outsourced
the organizing of the national meeting somehow without doing it ourselves.
Many people worked hard to put the 2016 meeting (and all the others) on,
and they don't deserve to have their efforts minimized this way.

2. stop acting like the people participating in this on-list discussion
aren't aware of the list archives and/or wiki.

3. resist the temptation toward facile technology and/or publishing
metaphors, especially ones that seem to ignore the vigorous discussion of
economies of centralization & decentralization (including more than one
call for more regional meetings, if I remember correctly) that happened at
C4L16.

4. recognize that there are numerous good-faith reasons people are
interested in national meetings, not least of which is to provide the
context for the TEI-style meetings that Eric mentions.

On Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 11:38 AM, Tom Johnson <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Eric,
>
> I appreciate that you're trying to make a call to action, but this latest
> email is stunningly condescending.
>
> As I'm sure you must know, people in this community do hold regional
> meetings. These meetings take substantial effort to arrange. The wiki is
> full of documentation, advice, and lessons learned the hard way by the many
> people who have done this work over the years.
>
> The result has been a vibrant community which has had an important
> influence on technology practice in libraries and played a key role in
> establishing the careers of some of the most talented people working in
> this field. I can't see why you would want to erase that in favor of a
> 12-step guide to holding a meetup that you dashed together for an email.
>
> We can debate the merits of holding a national conference, but let's not
> begin that debate by pretending that the regional meetups are so easy to
> hold that they just happen like magic. They don't, and they never have.
>
> - Tom
>
> On Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 12:50 AM, Eric Lease Morgan <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > On Jun 9, 2016, at 7:55 PM, Coral Sheldon-Hess <[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > One note about what we're discussing: when we talk about just doing the
> > > regional events (and I mean beyond 2017, which will be a special case
> if
> > a
> > > host city can't step in), we need to realize that we have a lot of
> > members
> > > who aren't in a Code4Lib region.
> > >
> > > You might think I'm talking about Alaska, because that's where I lived
> > when
> > > I first came to a Code4Lib conference. And that's certainly one place,
> > > along with Hawaii, that would be left out.
> > >
> > > But even living in Pittsburgh, I'm not in a Code4Lib region, that I can
> > > tell. Pittsburgh isn't in the midwest, and we also aren't part of the
> > > tri-state region that Philly's in. I'm employed (part-time/remote) in
> the
> > > DC/MD region, so if I can afford the drive and hotel, that's probably
> the
> > > one I'd pick right now. I guess?
> > >
> > > So, even landlocked in the continental US, it's possible not to have a
> > > region.
> > >
> > > More importantly, though: my understanding is that our international
> > > members are fairly spread out -- maybe Code4Lib Japan being an
> exception?
> > > -- so, even ignoring weird cases like Pittsburgh, we stand to lose some
> > > really fantastic contributors to our community if we drop to
> > regional-only.
> > >
> > > Just something else to consider.
> > > - Coral
> >
> >
> > Interesting. Consider searching one or more of the existing Code4Lib
> > mailing list archives for things Pittsburg:
> >
> >   * [log in to unmask]" target="_blank">https:[log in to unmask]
> >   * http://serials.infomotions.com/code4lib/
> >   * https://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=CODE4LIB
> >
> > I’d be willing to be you can identify six or seven Code4Lib’ers in the
> > results. You could then suggest a “meet-up”, a get together over lunch,
> or
> > to have them visit you in your space or a near-by public library. Even if
> > there are only three of you, then things will get started, and it will
> grow
> > from there. I promise. —Eric Morgan
> >
>