Feat: Launch monthly member drop-in clinics (EU and US timezones)

[RCheesley]

Parent: #67

Summary

One of the most tangible membership benefits we can offer is direct access to people who really know the specs. The idea behind the member clinics is:

Once a month, members can bring their OpenAPI, Arazzo or Overlay questions to a small group session and get help from spec experts.

I've proposed a format that I think would work and a way to organise the bookings, so what would be great is if in the next quarter we could look to launch a three‑month pilot - one session per month in an EU‑friendly timezone and one in a US‑friendly timezone (or alternate timezones each month if it proves difficult to have enough folks to support two in a month).

The format is intentionally lightweight so that we can start quickly, learn, and adjust.

Goals

• Give member organisations a clear 'this is why it’s worth being a member' experience
• Create a direct feedback loop between spec users and spec maintainers
• Generate stories and quotes we can reuse in social, email and events
• Keep the operational load small enough that it’s sustainable

Proposed format (MVP)

• 1 clinic per month in an EU timezone, and 1 clinic per month in a US timezone (or alternate each month if it's not feasible to do two in a month)
• 60 minutes per session (feels like the right duration, but maybe longer would be better? Not sure what we could expect from attendees in terms of availability)
• 2–3 experts per session (ideally covering OpenAPI, Arazzo and Overlay between them) so that it's roughly a 1:2 expert:member ratio
• Maximum 6 member attendees per session so everyone gets quality time with the experts
• Hosted on Zoom (or similar) with a simple booking system (e.g. cal.com with seats to book) which asks them to give an overview of what they'd like to focus on in the sessions, so the experts have a heads up of what to expect

Rough suggested flow for each session

1. MC welcomes everyone, reminds them of the format and introduces experts
2. Quick round of 'what did you come to work on today?'
3. Split into breakout rooms if needed, or stay together and work through questions if there's a lot of similarity
4. Reconvene for 5–10 minutes at the end to share key outcomes
5. MC or note‑taker captures 2–3 anonymised highlights for newsletter/LinkedIn features

Tasks

1. Confirm people and time slots

• Identify 2–3 experts who can cover OpenAPI, Arazzo and Overlay for EU clinics
• Identify 2–3 experts for US clinics (can overlap with EU if timezones allow)
• Agree a regular time slot for EU session (for example 'first Tuesday 15:00 CET') and US session (for example 'first Thursday 10:00 PT')
• Nominate an MC/facilitator for each timezone

2. Set up booking and logistics

• Create a cal.com (or similar) calendar with:
  • EU and US slots
  • Capacity limited to 6 attendees per session via seat booking

Example booking system with my availability: https://cal.com/rcheesley/openapi-member-clinics?overlayCalendar=true

• Create a simple registration form on the calendar which they complete after selecting a slot with fields for:
  • Name of attendee, organisation, email
  • 'What would you like help with?' field
• Set up Zoom (or equivalent) recurring meetings for both time slots (cal.com lets you integrate directly and creates the links automagically)
• Make sure privacy policy language is in place on the booking form as appropriate

3. Announce clinics to community and members

I have drafted some copy to send to members, and to promote the clinics / remind that they're coming up etc.

• Post a call for clinic experts in Slack / outreach channels or invite folks 121:

Suggested content:

Hi folks, in the coming months we’re planning to start our monthly drop-in clinics for our members, where they will have the chance to bring any problems or issues they’re facing when working with our specs and have the opportunity to get feedback from experts at OpenAPI. Members are the folks who financially contribute to help keep the OpenAPI Initiative moving forward, and this is one of the perks that we can offer them to benefit from that financial commitment.

We’re planning to run one session a month in EU timezones, and one a month in PST timezones.

Ideally we’d like 2-3 people who could commit to supporting these clinics, answering questions and helping our members to make better use of our specs.

If you’d like to offer to help, please let me know and we’ll work on setting a day/time that works for everyone in each timezone.

• Send an email announcement to member contacts

Key points to include:

• New perk for corporate members
• One EU and one US session per month
• Bring OpenAPI/Arazzo/Overlay questions
• Capacity of 6 per session so everyone gets time with experts
• Link to the booking calendar

Suggested email content:

Hi there,

I’m writing to let you know that next month we’re introducing a new perk for our corporate members, in the form of Members Clinics.

These are drop-in clinics which you or your teams can join on a monthly basis, bringing your OpenAPI, Arazzo or Overlay related questions. We’ll have experts on hand from the OpenAPI Initiative to help unblock your developers, advise on best practice, or simply help you figure out how to deal with a technical challenge you’re facing.

We’ll be hosting one session per month in EU timezones, and one in PST timezones. You can choose to attend one, or both - there’s no limit to how many you and your team can attend. We have a maximum capacity of six attendees at any session to ensure that you’re able to get quality time with our experts, so be sure to book up quickly if you’re hoping to attend.

You’ll need to register to attend in advance, and if you’ve got specific challenges you’d like help with, it’d be appreciated if you could outline them in the joining form so that our experts can be briefed.

These sessions are open only to our corporate members, and we hope that you’ll find it a valuable return on your investment.

Here’s where you can find the dates and times for the drop in clinics in the next quarter:

<<insert cal link showing date/times with signup options>>

If you have any questions, please reach out to us at <>.

All the best,

The OpenAPI Initiative Outreach Team

• Add a short 'Member clinics' section to the membership benefits page (or link to a dedicated clinics page once it exists) listing the upcoming dates for the clinics.
• Post on social media about the members clinics

Suggested content (note: Recent topics is made up, as are the quotes - provided to give an idea of what could be included.)

Peek behind the curtain - what are monthly member clinics?

Once a month, OpenAPI Initiative members join drop-in sessions with specification experts in two timezones (Central Europe and Pacific).

These are open discussions where members bring their real implementation questions, discuss edge cases, and get direct answers from the people building the specs. Not your boring presentations - practical opportunities for you to bring your challenges and get answers.

Recent topics have included validation patterns for complex nested objects, handling versioning in workflow orchestration, and preparing APIs for agentic systems.

Last month, a member asked about implementing Overlay specifications for financial services compliance.

Within the session, not only did they get answers to their questions, but they also connected with two other members solving similar challenges and walked away with a clear implementation path.

'The monthly clinics have saved our team probably 40 hours this year,'

shared an engineering director from a member company.

'One answered question can unblock days of development time.'

This is one of the ways OpenAPI Initiative members get practical support for their API work - no more digging through GitHub issues hoping someone hit your exact use case.

Next clinic: [DATE] at [TIME] - Members can join at any time, no preparation needed.

Want to learn more about membership? https://openapis.org/membership-benefits

#OpenAPI #APIs #DeveloperProductivity 


4. Run the first sessions

For each month in the pilot:

• Send pre‑event reminder email to registered attendees

Suggested copy (could be automated with a workflow however the free hosted tier only allows you to use the default text):

Hi {ATTENDEE},

We’ve got you signed up to attend the Member’s Clinic:

{EVENT_DATE_ddd, MMM D, YYYY HH:mm} - {EVENT_END_TIME} ({TIMEZONE})

We’re looking forward to seeing you there.

As a reminder, here's the meeting link:

{MEETING_URL}

Be sure to bring any questions you’re stuck with - we’ll have team members here to help.

In the event of technical difficulties joining the call, please drop us an email at <>.

See you there!

The OpenAPI Initiative Outreach Team

• Run the session following the agreed format
• Capture brief notes:
  • Themes of questions
  • Any particularly good outcomes or 'aha' moments
• Send post‑event feedback form (very short – how helpful, what to improve, optional testimonial)

Suggested copy (could be automated with a workflow however the free hosted tier only allows you to use the default text):

Hi {ATTENDEE},

It was great to have you join us at the Member’s Clinic - we hope that you found it helpful and got some answers to your questions.

Would you mind taking a moment to fill out <> and let us know how you found the member’s clinic? It’s a new perk we’re offering to members, and we’re keen to learn how people find it. Your feedback will help us to further develop and improve these sessions.

Thanks for your time,

All the best,

The OpenAPI Initiative Outreach Team

5. Reflect and decide how to continue

After three months:

• Summarise:
  • Number of clinics held
  • Total attendees
  • Rough list of topics covered
  • Any quotes or stories we can reuse
• Decide:
  • Do we keep the same format or adjust?
  • Do we have enough experts to sustain this?
  • Do we need to cap demand or add more slots?

Open questions

• Would there be someone who would be interested in being the owner for clinics?
• Which specs and SIGs should we prioritise for expert coverage in the first few sessions?
• Do we want to start with one timezone and add the second once we’ve tried it once, or go for both from the start?

[lornajane]

I LOVE this idea and would be happy to support, in EU timezone especially