To my surprise I had more than 90 people signed up in no time. However, looking into the attendees list, most of them are from all over the world and don’t even live close to my area on this planet. So I think it is fair to say that it is unrealistic that these people will show up at my meeting. What is benefit for these fellow guides to sign-up just for the sake of it, without actually any intention in physically attending my meet-up?
Since there is no way to contact the individual attendees and the localguidesconnect conversation related to my meeting, seems to get little response, I am getting to a point that this is becoming a bit of a time waster for me as a host of this meeting. I might as well cancel the meeting and fly solo and actually contribute to Google Maps.
Cheers!
Jeroen
P.S. the fact that one cannot change their details of the actual listing is a real pain. My ANDROID phone or perhaps the Google site (?) decided to change the times I had selected for my meeting in the form, based on the different time zone. In other words, I was not in the same time-zone at the moment that I planned/ initiated the meeting and without any notification, the time difference between the to zones was substracted from what I intended…
Hi @JeroenM - Thanks for flagging this issue. I haven’t seen this come up yet but it’s definitely something we should look into. We’re already thinking about ways to improve the host ↔ attendee communication so we’re hoping to make some improvements there in the near future. Maybe we can also make it more clear that you should only click “Attend” if you actually plan on being there. I’ll have a think about this and bring it up with the team!
@JeroenM - Can you clarify the time zone issue you had? When you submitted the meet-up, did you select the time that it was taking place in the actual city (not your current location)? Then what happened when you submitted it?
@HelloJess - sorry for the delayed response, I was travelling again
First about the time-zone issue.
I live on Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) which has a one hour time difference from mainland spain. I used my phone when I was on the mainland and decided that I wanted to host a meeting on Tenerife. I was of course planning the meeting for a time that I would be on Tenerife and filled out the form as you would expect it should be filled out. When asked, when does the meeting start, I filled out 11 am, which is of course the time that I wanted the meeting to start at my meeting location. However, after I submitted the form, the time was changed by one hour (10 a.m.) automatically, whithout any warning or options to opt out of this time change. In other words, somewhere in the process it was decided that I was in a different time zone so saying 11 on the mainland would mean 10 am in Tenerife. But sorry, that does not make any sense for a face to face meeting.
With regards to my meeting. What do you suggest I do? I do not like the idea that I do not know who is actually going to show up. My venue has limited capacity and there is not enough to do for more than 5 to 10 people. If more peopel would show up, I would need to enlarge the map-area we are going to target. My details in the current listing are all wrong, which I re-posted in the conversation-thread. But as I understand it, the 90+ people that signed up for my meeting do not necessarely read/ are aware that I made a posting in this thread. I am about to make another post there to ask people to re-confirm they are planning to come, so I am currious if anyone will respond. Without further realistic information on my attendees, I will cancel my meeting on Friday.
Hi @JeroenM - It’s up to you whether you’d like to delete the meet-up or leave it. My hunch is that a large majority of those who’ve registered won’t actually attend as it seems most don’t even live in Tenerife. A lot of the attendees are also Level 1 Local Guides, which means they’re likely new to the program and might not understand that you should only register if you plan on attending the meet-up.
Do you want me to update your meet-up description to add a note about attendance? I can add a sentence at the beginning asking people to confirm their attendance on the Connect post. If that would help, just let me know what text you want me to add.
And thanks for clarifying the time zone issue. I’ll flag this to our developer team.
Thanks for the offer @HelloJess , but I am going to cancel my meeting.
It would be nice if you guys could develop a way to create ones own local group. My main motivation to organize the meet-up, besides helping to improve the map-info, was to meet other local volunteers/ guides.
If the Guides Connect platform would actually allow one to seek out fellow local guides and communicate as a local team online, we could organize meet-ups with our own local “members” and discuss areas, items that need attention. Perhaps your techies could even use a filter, that if someone lives more than let’s say 50 miles from the group’s base, a warning could pop-up which confirms that one is joining a group outside their local area… Of course, this group facility should allow for multiple moderators of the group and members should be allowed to post in the group.
Currently the Local Guides Connect is mostly a online forum application. If you look at this application https://www.zoho.eu/connect/, Google’s Local Guides Connect platform could do a lot more.
Just adding my few pennies
Thanks again and feel free to contact me again. Best wishes, Jero
Hi @JeroenM - Thanks for all of your feedback and your continued enthusiasm with Local Guides. First, I want to mention that we should have that time zone issue fixed soon. Thanks for bringing that to our attention!
Second, have you tried searching for “Tenerife” here on Connect to see who else is talking about it? I can see quite a few posts so it may be interesting to review those and see if you can meet anyone that way. Also, you can start your own online community for Local Guides in Tenerife if you’re interested. Most Local Guides who do this start with a Google+ Community, though some choose to use Facebook. Either works for us. If you (as the moderator) reach Level 3 and your community grows to 50 members you can apply for support from Google.
Last, the meet-up site is brand new so we’re absolutely thinking of ways we can show published meet-ups to Local Guides who are living in those areas. We hope to make quite a lot of improvements to this, so stay tuned!
PS. I went to Tenerife on holiday a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. I’d love to visit again, especially if I know a Local Guide there!
Thanks again @HelloJess . I have joined this regional group, which is a bit of a wide area, but they haven’t made it to their 50 member treshold yet, so any body counts ;-). Also, it would be good to observe this group and give it some time, before I decide to start my own group, although I could see myself fullfilling a role between the local Spanish community and the foreign tourists/guides that visit.
I only learned about Google guides programm a month ago and spent more than 6 months travelling myself a year, so yes, I am very excited! and enthusiastic
Keep up the good work,
Jeroen
P.S. We do have a guest studio and if I happen to be home, you are most welcome to stay and visit.
