by I sent this to the LOPSA-Discuss mailing list, and I thought that it might be nice to put up on my blog here at lopsa.org, too
Your guide to throwing a great SysAdmin Appreciation Day party
Hello! My name is Matt Simmons, and I like to throw parties. Any occasion, really, but SysAdmin Appreciation Day is a better excuse than most. It's not really something you should take super-seriously, but it's a good reason to get members of the community together to hang out, get to know each other, and build relationships. I've always said that we're stronger together than we are apart.
Organizing a sysadmin appreciation day party is actually really easy – maybe the easiest event you've ever organized. It can also be a large blockbuster, but that's something you should work into.
The first time you have one, it's almost definitely good enough just to invite a bunch of sysadmins out for dinner at a local establishment. Send an email to all of the sysadmins you know in the area, and say, "Hey, I'm going to go out to XYZ for SysAdmin Appreciation Day for dinner and drinks. Who wants to meet me there?" No need for registration systems or anything so fancy. Just some friends getting together, and if you've got a mailing list of local sysadmins, invite that too. Ask them to RSVP with you so you have an idea of how many people will be coming, so if it's over 8 or 10, you can let the restaurant know ahead of time.
I can almost promise that some people will want to go. You probably hang out with some of them when it's NOT sysadmin appreciation day, so why not make an effort when it is?
After your first event, you'll probably wind up with a lot more interested people. It's good to start ahead of time the second year, usually the beginning of July or the second half of June. If you had a good turnout the first year, or if your community has grown extensively, then you may need to start earlier by scoping out a good place to have the event which has enough space to hold the number of people you are targeting.
If you're holding the party at a place with rooms that you can use, the place probably has an event coordinator, so call the restaurant (or stop by) and ask to talk to that person. Even if they don't have a specific person who does that, the manager can help you out. Make sure that the evening you want is free (and there's no hard, fast rule that says it MUST be on the last Friday – the point is to get together, not to observe an imaginary, made-up holiday).
Often, the reservations will need you to sign for the room, or guarantee a minimum amount of income. This can be tricky, because if something falls through, you could be liable for whatever the room minimum is. Talk with the manager or event coordinator and see what the options are.
I've often found that getting sponsorship is a good way to guarantee that room minimums can be met (and it has the added benefit that the food and beverages are free for you and the guests)!
Every company that I know of is looking for good IT operations staff right now. If you look at the local Craigslist, Dice, Monster, or StackExchange Careers pages, you'll probably see a few companies that you recognize, and maybe some that you have contacts at. If not, no worries. Go to their website, find their contact information, and call their main number, and when they answer, ask for the marketing department.
A lot of people are afraid to talk to companies' marketing departments – I used to be too! I didn't know what to say, and I didn't know why the company would say yes to giving me money for something like this, and I couldn't see what I was doing as being worthy of someone paying money for. But I was really, really wrong.
Marketing departments exist so that the company can pay money and receive exposure, maybe to potential customers, and maybe to potential employees. They might be interested in both, and I've found that if you can talk to a marketing person at a company, they're usually very interested in what you have to say. Over the years, I've gotten thousands of dollars from companies for SysAdmin Day parties just by asking for it. You can do it too!
It's important to remember, though, that this isn't a money-making exercise for you (at least, it's completely taxable if it is!). I do attempt to avoid dealing with the money as much as possible, so I will frequently get my sponsors in contact with the restaurants to do direct billing. Both the restaurants and the sponsors are generally happier like this.
Sometimes, though, you need to deal with the money. You should probably talk to your tax person to see what the implications are of taking in money and paying it right back out to a restaurant. I'm not qualified to give you tax advice, so make sure you ask someone who is.
When it comes to dealing with the money, I start out with figuring out the room minimum. Say it's $500. If I'm expecting 30 people, and I estimate that the average person will have two drinks, that's $12 per person, or $360 – almost the room minimum. At that point, I've got $140 to play with in terms of ordering appetizers or meals for everyone, so I would go through the catering menu and pick out some trays of food that the restaurant could put out, with the idea that the sponsors paying the $500 minimum would buy everyone two drinks and the food from the trays. Anyone who wants a full meal can order it and pay for it themselves.
You may find you have the opposite problem of what you thought you might – too much money and not enough to do with it. When that happens, order more food, invite more people, or talk to the sponsor(s) and figure out what they want to do with the excess. Maybe your local sysadmin group can have pizza parties with the rest of it.
All in all, I've found running these events very rewarding. It's fun to get together, and see everyone else get together, and know that you had a hand in making it happen.
It's late this year, but there's still time to email your local sysadmin friends and ask them to get together on the last Friday of July and hang out, talk shop, and swap war stories. You may find that it's the beginning of something that lasts.