Scheduling events when your members live in twelve time zones

One of my promises for this year is that something will be happening on the events calendar every single week. Writing that down was easy. Picking the times has not been. Members here live everywhere from Atlanta to Bishkek to Kuala Lumpur, and any hour I choose is the middle of the night for somebody.

This is the approach I've settled on after a lot of trial and error, mostly error.

Rotate instead of compromising

I used to hunt for the one time that was least bad for everyone. That usually meant early morning in the Americas and late evening in Asia, and it suited almost nobody. Now regular events rotate between two or three slots across the month, so every region gets a comfortable session at least once.

Show every time in the member's own time zone

Let the calendar convert times for each member, and never write "3pm" in a post without saying whose 3pm. A surprising number of missed events last year came down to someone doing the conversion in their head at the end of a long day.

Make the event useful for people who can't come

• Record the talk part, if the speakers agree, and post it in the group within a day.
• Write a short summary of the three things people will most want to know.
• Collect questions in a thread beforehand, so members who are asleep during the session still get answers.

Watch who actually turns up

After a couple of months, look at attendance by region. If one group of members never comes, ask them why before assuming it's the time. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it's the topic.

Which slots work for your community? I'm especially curious how fully global groups deal with the gap over the Pacific.