I have been running the Tuesday Community Meetings at the BCP for about six months. When I took on the mission I decided to change the format a bit. I have tried to introduce more quality speakers. At that time I decided a void in the schedule, no speaker would be better than some of the speakers who had been allowed to use the podium to promote products and agendas. I also decided to cut the long introductions and have only announcements and the presentation.
I am finding it increasingly difficult to find quality speakers. I am asking for your input on the what you, the community, would like to see. Please look at the poll on the right column below the ads and provide me input on the future of the Tuesday Community Meetings.
For those who think otherwise I have no commercial motivations for doing the meetings. The dollar at the door goes to the BCP, not me or the speakers.
Use the comments area below and the parallel post on BoqueteNing.com for more feedback and ideas.
Thanks
I think you have done an outstanding job! I have enjoyed all the speakers that I have heard. I agree with having quality speakers. I like the way the format is now. Has there been a talk about the history of Boquete? The history of the Ngable (sp) people…their dress…culture? Talk of Volcan, Cerra Punta or
But I will be back. Thanks for Boquete Guide and for the Tuesday Morning meetings!
Bocos. Just ideas. I will be leaving for about 6 weeks.
I have to admit that the weekly expat meetings is one of the things that is responsible for attracting me to that area. I thought the idea of expats getting together weekly was a good idea. To share experiences, make new friends, and have a good time. A speaker is not always needed. When there is one with an interesting subject, great. Everybody should approach these meetings for what they are. An excellent way to socialize. I think it would be a shame not to support this. I plan on attending when we visit.
We did have a meeting on the history of Boquete, we will be doing on on the Ngobe minerals dispute soon. Both great ideas.
Nothing happens when I click on the little crosses. Pero…I have no problem with commericial presentations, as long as they are clearly identified as such. Having a Newbie meeting ONCE a month would be good–a general Q&A and FAQ sort of thing. Meetings are very important to me as they generate traffic for the Market. I think the meetings/market are important informational, social, and community networking events–having them on a regular and frequent basis encourages people to get out and stay connected.
I agree with Elizabeth. The meetings/market are important informational , social, and community networking events. I have no problem with having both quality speakers and those with less talking skills. I am sure I will not want to go to 100% of the meetings as all topics may not interest me. But at least they are available for others that find them helpful to their particular situations.
I would hate to see the meetings paired down in frequency or cut out. Maybe you could provide a suggestion box outside the meeting place and people could suggest topics of interest. Or they might even be willing to talk themselves. For example, the man that talked about being a part in a movie was so entertaining. IIt;s great to see the diversity of talent that comes to live here in Boquete. Such hidden gems.
Keep it up Lee – you are doing a great job. I don’t know where you find the time to do all the things you do.
i would like to see a true meeting regarding organic gardening, not done by anyone selling organic goods. If people have an interest in our buying their produce, they are not going to tell us how to produce that produce. For example, sprays and how to make or find them. Ways to rid ourselves of those terrible leaf cutting ants.
Although I have been here over six months full time. I love the newcomer meeting idea, for those whom have recently moved here.
One big item for me would be how to use local foods at the market in place the the expensive stuff, that we recognize from the states. In other words, help with replacing name brands such as Downey for over ten bucks a bottle, or Philadelphia Cream Cheese. What are the names of local brands that work well? Which plants do well in Caldera, Boquete, etc.? So much to learn, if someone is willing to jump in and run the meeting. It does not have to be perfect, just provide information, with a willingness to help. It could be run as a small town meeting, with several people adding helpful information from their own experiences. Thanks Lee, for all you do. Abby
We did have one meeting on organic gardening recently. We also had on on using local foods but both could use more depth; if we can find speakers.
Hey Lee,
Yes..I hear you.. trust me I do…having been through it all , year after year..yes, its tough, especially the QUALITY speaker part…trying to find 45-50 GOOD, relevant or even interesting speakers per year is quite a job. We expanded into having commercial presentations because so many of those topics were important for people to know about in terms of availablity ( eg alt health options) ,even if I didn’t always agree with the content.
Also, many times you have no idea if the speaker is actually capable of doing the presentation.
People complained about Hershel’s production and speaker scheduling but it’s a very difficult job for just one person. Many people want better and more speakers but few are willing to actually do the footwork of contacting,following up etc.
Anyway, I have appreciated your input, effort and time spent doing this.Many people really value the meetings & want them to continue but I really feel that there has to be more of ‘stepping up’ on the part of the community if they want that to happen.
Dlh.
I am making my move to Boquete the first week in June; however, I attended a Tuesday meeting during a prior visit. I thought it was a very useful and interesting offering to the expat community and it certainly makes Boquete unique among other locations I look forward to attending as many civic offerings as I can once I permanently relocate.
I agree; if there aren’t relevant presentations, then maybe spread the meetings out so there are topics of interest and importance to the community. It would be great if every week there were materials, and speakers that would be of importance to the community; but, if not, then maybe the off-week meeting venue and time could be used as a community social gathering where members of the community could meet new friends and have informal communications of importance, which could lead to items that should be covered in a formal meeting.
Going to play devil’s advocate here and will probably be burned in effigy. But I’ve been in Boquete for 6 years and not attended one expat meeting. Can’t say I needed them, either. Maybe if there were no meetings, or a lot fewer of them, some expats would get out and socialize a bit more with their Panamanian neighbors. That’s the way to learn Spanish and all about how the locals cook, clean, construct and communicate. The Boquete expat community is quite ethnocentric, IMHO. I don’t mean to demean the effort you are expending, Lee. You are to be applauded for your diligence. I just want to support you if you ever felt like hanging it all up. I’ll probably be crucified now….
Charlotte, I do not believe the two are mutually exclusive. I personally agree people should integrate more into the mainstream community but that is not the question posed. The one hour meetings weekly or monthly are not preventing that. The Market has become much more inclusive, we tried some meetings on topics relevant to all in the community and one or two bilingual meetings and I am open to doing more of that.
I personally can offer no suggestions as to what type of speakers I’d like to see. My apologies for getting off topic. Best wishes regarding future speakers and presentations.
Hi, Lee,
Kudos for your diligence.
I agree with others above who see no problem with occasional commercial presentations.
Certainly those that fall into the category of “infomercials” are preferable. Doctor Arosemena, the opthalmologist, for instance, gave a good presentation, but I’m pretty sure it was not without the idea of ending up with an eye surgery client or two. I think that is fine.
Another example is a company in Panama City that buys gold and silver (including scrap) and which sells coins and ingots. They also have a new secure storage facility which some people may be interested in. Their incentive for coming to Boquete would be the hope of gaining some customers, but their information may be of interest to a number of people.
The weekly meeting format is long established, and changing it would break a tradition in addition to making it more difficult to keep up with the schedule. If presentation sources really dry up, a one-meeting-per-month schedule would probably work better than two or three meetings per month. That format works well for the Volcan folks.
I think an occasional “sharing” meeting would be good—a wide-ranging, moderated meeting for discussing where to find various items, information about various kinds of stores and restaurants. information about who has what expertise, good ways to deal with government offices, etc., etc.
Bob G.
We will think more about the topics.
When I worked in Medical & Scientific Affairs in the pharmaceutical industry, we had two types of speaker presentations. One was pure sales where the topic and message was heavily slanted towards providing information that supported the product. The other was what we called a therapeutic presentation which had a broad scope. Instead of a presentation on Lipitor, the presentation was on “the importance of managing lipid profiles as it relates to cardiovascular disease”.
I am sure there are qualified speakers who can share their expertise and not just promote their product or service or give a biased presentation. I would have no objection if the speaker had a display off to the side so that after the meeting I can look at their product or services. Or, at the end of the presentation, a mention of their website, contact info etc. I would also like to know ahead of time if the presentation is associated with a business.
Is it possible to get a fair balanced presentation from a speaker when the topic has a business relationship vs. pure area of interest with no financial gains? Maybe the business speakers submit a brief outline of topics for review? Again, I think that those in business have an expertise to share as long as specific guidelines are known to them.
About the comment re: Ryan going back to the States due to finances and someone mentioning supporting him. We were not at that meeting, but Ryan has a website and a donation icon where you can support his efforts…… was he not allowed to mention this?
I can also see a presentation every two weeks if there are not many speakers available. And maybe some of the popular topics get recycled every few months.
Ok, some topics: snakes and other creatures to be aware of in the area. Deterrent measures and treatments available i.e. snake venom? A monthly meeting for newcomers would be good.
Lee et al, thank you very much for your time and all of your efforts with the weekly meetings.
I have lived here for almost 7 years and the Tuesday Meeting at the Panamonte was my salvation (single woman moving here alone) for both information and socializing. Diane published a “minutes of meetings” pamphlet in the early years….I believe it would be useful to revisit some of those early subjects. There are not as many people coming and building now, but all those talks on things like construction, law, taxes, labor, etc. were very useful. I’d like to hear annually from our mayor, and the governor of Chiriqui, and others in authority who can give us the straight skinny on CURRENT “how to….” in Panama or Chiriqui. I’d like to know when the telephone poles are coming out of the middle of the new road, and what the finishing plans and schedule is for the road….and is there going to be a tunnel drilled to Bocas. Stuff that affects our lives here from those who know.
I agree with Elizabeth, Bob G, Dianne and others that an occasional (maybe first Tuesday of the month or something consistent so we can remember it) “open” meeting where questions/answers can be bounced around between residents. Inviting some “long time” residents might be helpful in providing a little “history” of recent immigration. I am always amazed at a gathering to hear the experiences of others in years before I arrived. Those who established so much of what we take for granted remember how it was before there were so many benefits for ExPats (created by fellow ExPats who arrived before).
I gave a talk once on why I moved from Boquete to Ecuador (and returned to Boquete) and everyone enjoyed it. We have people in our community who are traveling around the world….wouldn’t it be fun to hear some of their adventures (maybe with slides), so we might consider going there too? The two “tours” programs I saw were great….travel is always interesting and hearing experiences would be great.
Finally, at the risk of being one of the many who give suggestions without giving you concrete speakers to go to…..the idea of having someone expert in a subject like organic gardening who is NOT a commercial enterprise is probably not going to happen. You can’t keep the “commercial” aspect out all the time…after all, if you want to know the law you need to hear from a lawyer, and who doesn’t want their business card at the end for more info?
Thanks Lee…for your never-ending work at keeping us in touch, educated and content here in the valley! Your efforts are greatly appreciated in every way. Hershel (who started our first little email distribution list) and Dianne (who has held the Tuesday Meeting together all these years) and what would we do without you (with .ning, Boquete Guide and the meeting work you do)? It would be great if more of us who enjoy the benefits would step forward with specific ideas and do some speaker contact mining. I’ll try to….I promise.
Hi Lee,
My wife and I are returning to Boquete in September to stay six months. I agree with your concern about Tuesday meetings deteriorating into sales pitches by individuals camouflaged as “education”. Thank you for trying to find useful speakers for us.
My suggestion is if not enough quality speakers are available, consider reducing the frequency – - say every other week.
Alternatively, meetings that are truly educational could be identified and promoted as such. Other meetings could be clearly labeled “advertizement”. This would require setting up criteria for distinguishing one from the other and emphasizing to business presenters that their talk cannot basically be a sales pitch unless they are straightforward about it. “Educational” presenters would pledge to not mention a product or service they provide, if any, during their talk. This is done all the time in the healthcare field where free education is provided to the public; the presenter usually casts themselves in a positive light but without making a flagrant sales pitch.
Suggested topics – Local Culture and Natural History: Coffee (SCAP); Rodeo and cowboy; Ngobe; Ancient indigenous – petroglyphs (Boquete is stuffed with them most people don’t know); Some local family history; Birds; Wildlife of area
Emily, the ideas are great, can you find speakers for the topics? I need help doing just that.
Hi
As one contemplating Boquete from afar, not North America, I’m pleasantly surprised at the responses. Looking forward to my first Tuesday in whatever format.
I agree with what Penny Ripple has posted. I am also interested in practical information at the meetings. You have been doing a great but difficult job, but perhaps some of the past speakers could be used again. For sure, they have learned some new things about their subject.
I don’t see why there should be any issue with allowing commercial presentations to fill dead space in the calendar when community service presentations are not available. I am sure that the fees for use of the theater would be welcomed by BCP regardless of source.
But, I do think that two rules should apply to commercial presentations. (1) They should clearly be identified as advertising for the purpose of selling products or services, and (2) the fees for theater rental should be paid by the presenter and attendance should be free to the public.
I can think of a million products and services that would be of great interest to the expat community and I believe that lots of businesses would jump on the chance to market to potential customers.
If you cannot find a good speaker to fill up an hour or so, you could consider having 2 or 3 speakers present on a topic – same topic or same theme. This might work for the infomercials. Or related topics.
As for the same topic – for example – there may be photographers that could do a PowerPoint presentation highlighting their photos – it could be different topics – but a photo presentation – say 15 or 20 minutes each photographer.
By themselves these speakers may only have 15 to 20 minutes of material but a few together would fill up the time.
All very thoughtful responses. There are as many opinions about how the meetings should be run,when, where, why and at what times etc etc as there are people in town. I know, I’ve heard just about all of them.
Notwithstanding the small changes that have ocurred from time to time, we have kept the meeting
(and format) pretty much as it is because that is what works. I remember a couple of years ago floating the idea of cutting the meetings to Bi-monthly and upping the quality and everyone freaked.Similar story recently when a different start time was tried.
The issue of having an open meeting every so often for people to come and discuss day to day issues is a good one and we have tried to do that every couple of months. Time to do that again.
Re Newbies meetings..at the start of every meeting that I run , I ask for questions, comments,etc…and I do it for the specific reason of allowing newcomers to ask a few brief questions.THAT is the time for people who are new in town to take advantage of the fact that there are old-timers there. ASK them what you need to know. A meeting of all new people might not get many answers.
,at least not broad, fact based ones.
Re Commercial stuff – the meetings were started so that we could share what we deemed RELEVANT info for living successfully here in Boquete /Panama. That is pretty broad and sometimes those topics are commercial. If the subject was considered to be relevant ,educational and entertaining ( if you get TWO of those you are lucky) we would pretty much let it go on with the warning that it was not to be a blatant INFOmercial. If something smacks of being an infomercial generally people don’t turn up anyway, so it is somewhat self-regulating. This is a hard one because oftentimes some of these have been amongst the best and most well-attended presentations.I say, let people present ( withing the guidelines) and if they make fools of themselves well..then everyne knows who they are dealing with.
As I see it, and I am sure Lee now sees this too,the main issue is the availability of the speakers and the lone resources of one producer doing the scheduling. I did it with Hershel and then ocassionally Jason would jump in. Having 3 people working on the schedule is much easier and gives greater variety. Each person was mandated to come up with at least one speaker per month.We rarely argued as to content (but not always) and it kept things hopping along.Plus finding one speaker per month is a lot less pressure than finding 4.
I know I have said this about a thousand times ..this a tiny town in a tiny country…finding 50 ( even average) presenters ( including REPEATS) is a real task and takes a great deal of focused energy.
The REAL way to get the meetings up to speed and be what you want them to be is to VOLUNTEER your time to help get speakers.
OK..that’s it from me. See you at the meeting next week.
Dianne H
Having visited Boquete 3 times, and the Tuesday meeting once, and not being ‘part’ of the community (at least not yet)…heres my “take”.
its a great venue for people to get together , (eespecially newbies) learn to know the other ex pats….even as I think the immersing in the culture is best done without other expats…but it can be done both ways….(when i came to Texas I did not seek out other Swedes!)
I think presentations are good , but would agree with that getting 50 good speakers in a year is a big job….and I dont see why you couldnt reduce to every other? the other tuesday meetings should still go on…
neither do I see a “commercial” presentation being bad…you learn from those also.
Just as I have been forced to take Continuing Education in Architecture the last 20 yrs…18 hrs a year to remain in AIA ,and they are ALL provided by someone with ‘interest’ in the products….they dont sell ,just present.
I like the suggestions about information / history of Panama , the Boquete/Chiriqui area, the native peoples…(when it comes to them , maybe there are some local iindians who“d like to educate the immigrants?)
I don’t know anything about the meetings (or other expat doings) as whenever I am in Panama it is to visit with as much family as possible. However, has anyone contacted the schools or universities about presentations? Even if it is just students wanting to do presentations on their studies to practice English skills in their field of interest, it would provide another view into Panama life.
jim and nena
fort worth, tx
Just an idea. If somebody wants to be a “speaker” and hawk their wares or services, have them pay the $1 entrance fee for everybody. That should cut out the less than noble venture seekers.
After living in Boquete and attending meetings since 2004, I am now living in Chiang Mai Thailand. This area has a rather large (20,000+/-) expat population with a very broad representation of all of the countries of the world. There is a group called the Chiang Mai Expats Club that puts on a monthly meeting that is held at a local hotel or restaurant that is capable of sponsoring the events. Agendas include a speaker topic – for those who wish to listen to it – in a separate room, but the main purpose of the meeting is to socialize and get to know other people and exchange ideas. I’m not sure, but this format has probably grown out of trial and error and what works for this particular group.
I know that when in Boquete, I grew weary of the deteriorating quality of the speakers that presented in order to meet the quota of talks. Plus, as we have seen and heard from those responsible, finding coherent speakers that can talk on relevant issues is quite difficult. Maybe Boquete has grown to the point of making monthly meetings a better option. That said, given the large expat population here, only a small fraction attend the meetings, but I think that speaks more to the fact that fewer people that live here do so needing to be around other expats.
Hello Lee,
I sense your frustration in searching for speakers.
Ideas~
NEW MISSION – Keep it simple
In keeping your meetings as simple as possible, keeps You Inspired to continue your great efforts.
Since this is For the Community, you ask the Community to Contribute.
On the day of the Meeting you can make an announcement for vol. to assist in getting speakers or whatever else is needed to continue these great meetings I am reading about.
I read most of the above post, and It sounds like having a Presentor once or twice a month will work.
Get creative, as someone mentioned a ‘sharing meeting’ –
You can have set topics, and who ever shows up to the meeting will do the sharing!
Last one, for those who really want to hear about a topic, have them give you some leads and or work with you in scouting out a Speaker.
As for Commerical vs Education I don’t know if it needs to be so ridgid. But i do think you have enough feedback here to make it eaiser on you.
I will inbox you in regards to speaking about Wellness.
Don’t give up, your supplying a great need!
hugs Lisa