Most places I have worked have had a chapter meeting. The name varied, but the idea was the same: a standing forum for improvement.

What is a chapter? A chapter is a group of people who do the same kind of work and meet regularly to learn, teach, share, align, and grow. It works in any field, not just software, and you do not need a particular operating model to do it (glares at the over-discussed Spotify model).

My first was a Friday afternoon session, "Beers and Ideas", started by @jethrocarr at an early role of mine. Later, as an iOS developer at a bank, our iOS chapter spanned two app teams and discussed shared concerns such as component libraries, feature flags, and adoption of new iOS features. Today I help run a group of about fifteen backend developers focused on learning and growth. It’s a team that works together by default, but a dedicated forum for sharing is still valuable.

This post is about what I’ve found makes these meetings actually work.

Culture

A successful chapter grows out of healthy culture. If you have that already, great. If you don’t, you build it brick by brick, and the chapter both shapes and benefits from that culture. Aim for continuous learning and continuous sharing. Celebrate craftsmanship, deep curiosity, and passion for the craft. In my opinion, leading by example is essential for this.

Why this works: Culture sets default behaviours. When sharing and curiosity are normal, good patterns spread without policing.

Leading By Example

If you want this to work, model it. Run the first few sessions yourself. Share your own talks. Keep doing it. People follow behaviour, not policy.

Bring a short talk or demo yourself.
Ask good questions; give credit publicly.
Write quick summaries so others can see the bar.

Why this works: People copy behaviour before they follow policy; visible modelling lowers the barrier and sets the bar.

No Homework, High Energy

In my opinion, this works best when people stop what they are working on, turn up for an interesting conversation, and then wander back to BAU. No pre-reading, no homework. The chair runs the first few sessions and always has a talk ready so there is momentum from day one. Recordings, minutes, a roster, and uploaded slides keep the value for anyone who could not make it.

Forum: Meeting + Channel

Chapters work best with two touchpoints:

A regular meeting for longer-form discussion and decisions.
An always‑on channel (Slack/Teams) for links to blog posts, videos, and other resources, threads, and quick questions.

Cadence: aim for every 2 to 4 weeks; we settled on 3. Consistency beats frequency. Start fortnightly, listen to feedback, and adjust. Use a recurring invite to keep the rhythm; if there is no confirmed talk 48 hours out, cancel or postpone with no guilt.

Rotating chair: rotate hosting so everyone feels the joy and the pain. No homework: just turn up. The chair keeps energy high by bringing a talk if needed.

Chair responsibilities:

Send the invite, build the agenda, and have a backup talk ready.
Recruit speakers (yes, bug/nag people kindly).
Introduce, keep time, and close.
Record the session and publish notes.
Capture minutes (AI transcript + summary is fine).

To get it off the ground, chair the first 2 to 3 sessions yourself, and say you’re doing that on purpose. Also: always have a backup talk ready so a last‑minute cancellation doesn’t sink the session. If you’ve clicked into this post, you probably already enjoy sharing, so this bit shouldn’t be a struggle.

Time zones: you can’t please everyone every time. Rotate times occasionally and make sure recordings and notes are easy to find.

Why this works: A steady cadence creates habit; pairing it with an always‑on channel keeps momentum between sessions; rotating chairs distributes ownership and grows facilitators.

Talks: Format And Duration

Typical pattern: hour-long sessions with three 20-minute talks. This keeps energy high and spreads time across a few voices.

Variations: talks from 5 to 60 minutes work. Use what fits the topic and the speaker. In my opinion, the goal is to lower the bar to participation, so short, rough talks are welcome.

This is a good forum for first presentations by interns or new grads.

Why this works: shorter talks reduce pressure, increase participation, and create more chances for people to share.

Scope

Large scope by design, not just work related. Anything that might interest the group is fair game. Start wide to build momentum, then narrow once you have a healthy pipeline of talks. It doesn’t have to be strictly “work”. In our chapter we’ve enjoyed sessions on the HDMI spec, 3D printing, home automation, and a home‑built karaoke machine. Not exactly Node on AWS, but perfect for a curious, technical crowd.

Why this works: Early breadth attracts speakers and curiosity; once momentum exists, narrowing avoids fatigue and creates depth.

Record (And Keep)

Record your sessions and don’t let platforms auto‑delete them. Keep lightweight minutes so the library is useful later.

At minimum, capture:

Session number and date
Speaker(s) and talk title
Links to slides/code/notes
Recording link

Store them somewhere obvious (our nerdy team uses S3 + a CLI tool). Over time this becomes onboarding gold. New engineers watch a few key sessions in week one.

Distributed teams benefit too: recordings and minutes make the chapter inclusive when people can’t attend live. You can also pre‑record a talk and play it in the session if the speaker is asleep in another time zone. PowerPoint and others make this trivial now.

Keep a roster of upcoming chairs/speakers so everyone sees what’s next.

Why this works: A searchable archive compounds: it saves repeated explanations, helps new joiners, and includes those who can’t make the time.

Growing

Once the core is healthy, invite adjacent teams, other departments, or partner groups. You may find similar chapters in other time zones or subsidiaries, trade talks, share recordings, and swap chairs occasionally. Cross‑pollination keeps things fresh without losing your identity.

Why this works: Cross‑pollination avoids local maxima, spreads standards faster, and creates allies for bigger changes.

So those are my tips for a good chapter. In the end it’s about building and sustaining culture. One of my favourite sounds at work is someone saying, half‑joking, “oh mate, that’s a chapter talk!”, because it means the habit has stuck.