Barry had mentioned the Seattle Meetup, which I am the organizer of. Although I would love to take the credit of such a robust and successful group, I just took over a couple of months ago, and was handed a great track record already : )

The previous organizers had built a great community already and we just continue to grow. Our total membership is almost 700, but as Barry mentioned from his experience, we typically get between 80 and a 100+ signing up, but always have less who actually attend.

I think the success of our group has been the flavor of it. We know that we will get from the very beginner to the seasoned developer showing up. So we try to choose our main presentations to appeal to all, but that can be a challenge sometimes. As a result, part of the meet up in spent in breakout groups: beginners, devsigners/advanced users, and developers. That has worked really well and each group does their own thing. And then of course we have time for networking as well.

As far as covering costs, we are very lucky to have a venue, called TechStars which gives us the space at no cost. The space is good sized, and even with the limited amount of chairs, people are adaptable and make it work. We also provide pizza and beverages at each meet up as well through a sponsorship. As Barry said his company has done this for a couple of months and they find the value in it. When I took over, the previous organizer and I had a discussion on this. He was adamant about not charging, and I felt the same way. We felt the WordPress community is open and traditionally meet ups have been free. So we wanted to keep it this way.

I have loved being part of the group before becoming the organizer, and love it even more. I drive 1.5 to 2 hours to get there, and since I live by the ferry on an island, I also need to stay the night in a hotel. But it's so worth it for me. The connections and friendships I have made has been invaluable.