Your drift is appreciated - I'm splitting the topic to add / answer some thoughts on meeting organisation

Choices of date, time, location, venue ... agenda, speakers, facilities ... frequency, publicity, pricing ... for meetings, all need to be made. The old journalist's adage that a story should address "who, what, when, where, why" is worth using as a checklist. 

I am involved in core (committee, officer) group decisions on meetings for a number of organisations - Melksham Transport User Group, West Wiltshire Rail User Group, TravelWatch SouthWest and indeed for our Coffee Shop too. All are very different and I can't think of any which are obvious and ideal for everyone.

Your target audience is typically a mixture of people.  There are those who will make the meeting no matter when and where it is help - they will prioritise attendance.  Then there are those who will make it if they can - ranging from usual attendees to occasional ones.  And finally there is the potential audience who do not attend and you want to attract and perhaps promote into more frequent attendees, and/or advocates, ambassadors, contributors to the campaign.

"Why" should be the first questioning line - "why are we holding a meeting" ... "what outcome do we want" ... "how does this tie in with other elements / goals? As I wrote to someone the other day "there is little point in having another meeting to [discuss the situation] - we need real outcomes"; that's not always the case - a meeting / event can be organised purely for the pleasure of the moment, but is rarely the sole and only objective.

Thank you, infoman, for your question.  It's both an FAQ question and an IAQ one - Frequently asked question, but infrequently addressed one.  Many organisation run to a meeting routine; a stability of how meetings are scheduled and run makes huge sense for organisers, venues and (most important) regular attendees.  But at the same time, that can leave the organisation and group of people meeting in a groove or rut which is neither revisited nor refreshed to the detriment of purpose or future.

You mention TravelWatch SouthWest.  The objective of the general meeting is networking - to help inform and motivate passenger and specialist groups, campaigners, industry specialists, politicians and local and central government officials of what's going on and what's upcoming with a view to helping them in their roles.  And although it has been twice a year, in Taunton, daytime Friday for many years, that timing has been considered, reconsidered, analysed many times - and so far re-confirmed.  Please do not presume that will always be the case.  Any change to a pattern comes at a cost in terms of lost audience; but may help in attracting an updated audience - a bird in hand being often worth two in the bush.

In contrast, the West Wiltshire Rail User Group meetings are held in the evenings. They were switched what is, now, a few years back from rotating around four of the five towns of the area into a single venue, though still of an evening. We have even addressed the question of the definition of our area - West Wilts District Council was abolished on 1st April 2009, after all.  Do we add ... Frome? Freshford? Pewsey? Chippenham? to our remit?  Do we remove Melksham and concentrate on the main line that London forgot from Bristol to Southampton and beyond, and its intermediate stations?   The change of a single venue provides a consistency for our members, ease of our own admin / liaison, and a locations that's near to a station and with services quite convenient for our current and target audience; it removes an element of group ownership in the other towns.

I cannot / can no longer speak for decisions on meeting I sometimes attend for Railfuture, TransWilts CRP, Melksham Town Council, Melksham Historic Association, Melksham Environment Group (partially - I have some input), BRTA. I do know that there's always balances to be made.

Addressing next Saturday's Railfuture meeting in Yatton, I simply don't know if the time, date and venue is planned to make a point of how difficult it can be during engineering works and with lack of wheelchair access, or whether these elements of challenge were not key considered factors in placing the meeting in time and place. In my view, it is right to have such a meeting - a physical one covering quite a wide patch - during the day, allowing attendees to travel in the light, make other associated stops along the way to and from, and not be concerned about driving or otherwise being around in the dark and perhaps on the last train or last bus home.



Adding to note - yes, a poll would be an idea - but, rather a survey with linked questions so that we could tell how multiple answers related to each other.  Forum software limitations do not provide the tool; I do have limesurvey (down)loaded but need to have time to set it up or to have someone do so - and that's time I don't have.

"Thankfully TWSW meetings are day events" - does that mean (I hope so) that you're coming along - networking wise I would love to meet you in person.

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