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Based on our First HVTech workshop brainstorming on October 6th, we came up with the following:

Purpose (answering the question, "Why is this work important to you and the larger community?") We expressed purposes that included making local technical work and knowledge visible, shared, and part of our everyday life.  People also expressed sentiment about including more people and providing opportunities for creators, professionals, and wannabes (students career changers, etc.).  Other interests include being more engaged with others, avoiding isolation and doing more networking.

We then progressed into discussing Principles (answering the question, "What rules must we absolutely obey to succeed in achieving our purpose?").  Respondents mentioned maintaining integrity, approachability and accessibility, inclusivity, and having a clear direction and regularity of meetings and other activities.  We discussed a lot about social interaction being done in a responsible, empathetic, and supportive manner as a cornerstone of our community.
When we looked at Participants (answering the question "Who can contribute to achieving our purpose and must be included?"), people discussed including people local to areas in which we meet, students, educators, creators, professionals, businesses that hire and sponsor, non-profits, and adjacent similar communities.

Our discussion then led to Structure (answering the question, "How must we organize (both macro- and micro-structures) and distribute control to achieve our purpose?") where we expressed that we need to be structured with curated meetings and organized in way that is inviting and interesting to encourage more participation.  Suggestions also included creating programs around verticals and specialty domains.

Lastly we discussed Practices (answering the question, "What are we going to do? What will we offer to our users/clients and how will we do it?") which included responses such as making sure we have good speakers, as well as educational, internship, and employment opportunities.  We could introduce mentorships and instruction in specific technologies as well.  It became very clear that we need to have a regular schedule of meetups, both in person (preferred) and online (if needed).

Full workshop video recording

Miro Board for Purpose-Principles-Structures brainstorming

TRIZ

Our next meeting will include an exercise called TRIZ where we will practice creative destruction.  we will look at what must we STOP DOING to make progress on our deepest purposes.  Creative destruction rouses opportunities for renewal as local action and innovation.  This is a pretty fun exercise resulting in a lot of hilarity as well as useful insights.  Join us!