Chapters are long term projects that act as mini AIDs with a focus on in-person meetups and local resources.
Chapters can be organized within a college/university and/or within a local region.
Current chapters: Hard Tech Miami (DRI: Channing)
Proposed chapters: Hard Tech Philly (DRI: Mo), Hard Tech LA (DRI: ?)
Here are some things to think about.
First, identify where the gathering spots for local tech people are. Understand where you’ll find startup founders, makers, and industrialists. Make a list. This can be where you source some of your initial members. When starting out, try to find ambitious people who already have a large network of relevant founders in the area. Ask them which of their friends would be interested in joining the community. With two or three people you meet inviting their friends, as long as you keep the bar high, your first event will probably be great. 12 people would be a huge success. Get them into a group chat on Slack or Discord.
It helps to signal the caliber of founders in your group. Quickly explaining projects that are impressive (e.g. making an IoT network that processes more data than YouTube) or listing credentials (ex-SpaceX, Intel, FormLabs, ...) is a great way to attract folks who can really push things forward. Once you have a group in mind, those qualifications can be used to make a launch thread on twitter. Explain what “Hard Tech X” is going to accomplish
Next, reach out to some of them to understand where the best places to start are.
Community Team should create instructions on what a chapter needs to do. This will initially lean heavily on Channing since he created the first and only one.
Informal Local Chapters will likely arise organically in areas with a concentration of AID members such as LA.
Members interested in starting a local chapter should first host 1-2 meetups to gauge the local level of interest.