Are JUGs worth it?

Several Joomla User Groups (JUG) have reports of around a hundred people attending, joomladays might have 3-400 people attend. So why in some cases do JUGs only have 4 or 5 attend their meetings and 100 at a national event?

How do you make a JUG successful, is it food? beer? or dancing penguins and a late night disco?

Several JUGs have on an average membership of 40 people, but few ever turn up. Here is an example of trying to get one JUG off the ground. (this is not a JUG I have attended!)

The first meeting was highly publicised across Joomla and twitter. It attracted loads of responses, the room was booked, about 12 people turned up. Apparently they enjoyed themselves and were looking forward to the next event.
 

At the next event around 20 people turned up. All Joomla users again, but only 8 were of the ones that turned up the time before.
 

Due to circumstances, the next meeting was 3 months later, but this time with star billing of some serious professional Joomla people.
 

Despite the assurances and confirmations of around 20 people, only 7 turned up. Yes for those that turned up, it was enjoyable, informative and new connections were made. But is there a point in the next meeting?
 

How do you or would you go about making your JUG successful? can you share your tips?

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Source: http://community.joomla.org  

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