meetup - anyone use this?

[chiver78]

just looking for general feedback, I know it's going to be area-specific. have you been successful in finding things to do and new people to meet?

I've posted about my move over the winter, to an area that I'm quite familiar with its geography from having spent childhood summers here, but don't know as well as an adult past what/who I've been introduced to by my now-roommate BFF. I joke that he's the unofficial Mayor of Cape Cod b/c he seems to know pretty much everybody everywhere we go, but I'd like to find friends and things to do that don't involve him. I RSVP'd to a volleyball game on the beach, one town away, in a week or so. that's awesome, I miss my Monday night vball games from my old place.

like I said, just curious to see what experiences anyone else has had. thanks in advance

[Deleted]

Our homeschool group uses meetup. We are an active group. I've had less success with just joining existing groups, but that may be because they are set for adults and I've tried to look for things the kids might be interested in?

Most groups I've looked at are not nearly as active as our group... Not sure how often most schedule meet ups?

[chiver78]

I joined 5 groups tonight, some have more meetups than others. the one with the volleyball game is a "Hike, Bike & Social Club" so they have a lot of stuff on their calendar.

I don't have kids, so those groups aren't on my radar. I joined a pet walking group, a professionals, 35+ singles, and a couple sporty/outdoorsy/fun ones. meh, the site is free. I figured it was worth a shot.

[justme]

I've gone to some. My best friend in town I met at a meetup. Also met my most recent ex at one. Though I haven't been to one in well over a year. I mostly stopped because each group had a core group that always showed up and they weren't people I wanted to hang with all the time.

[Deleted]

None of the groups you joined charge dues? We charge 6$ a year...

[chiver78]

May 6, 2015 20:47:26 GMT -5 justme said:

I've gone to some. My best friend in town I met at a meetup. Also met my most recent ex at one. Though I haven't been to one in well over a year. I mostly stopped because each group had a core group that always showed up and they weren't people I wanted to hang with all the time.

that's one of my worries....



oped, no. not yet, at least. all of the groups have a "help out the group and donate" button on the page, but I didn't have to agree to pay any dues in order to join. if I'm asked when I show up for the first meetup, I'll politely decline and head home. if I enjoy myself enough to want to donate, that's entirely different.

[Deleted]

Sounds good. You get two weeks free on ours. I set up automatic dues because it's just so much easier. Meetup does charge the person organizing the group... at active level it's 14.99 a month.

Our group has 80+ member families.

[chiver78]

$14.99 per group, or per member of said group? those are entirely different totals....

[Deleted]

Per group. Actually I think I could have 2 groups for that? I only have one...

14.99 a month, so around $180 a year. If they aren't as active it can be less I think. They never gave me that option when they changed structure last year, we are very active.

[msventoux]

I've been curious about this as well.  I've looked and there's not really any I'm interested in locally.  There's some larger groups in the next city, and I've been debating if it's worth joining and making the drive once or twice a week. 

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

Is it only for young singles or is there a variety of ages/marital statuses/etc.?

[chiver78]

it looks like there's something for everyone, really. when you first register, there's a little questionnaire for the site to populate a list of groups that you'd probably be interested in. my auto-list, the ones I passed over were largely for location of the group's "home base" - if I wasn't driving in to Boston for stuff like this from where I lived before, I'm sure not driving in now.

GRG - there were a few specific <your local region> groups I passed over for location, definitely take a look!

[Deleted]

Big variety. Moms groups. Professionals groups. Food lovers. Drum circles. Tabletop gamers. Spiritual groups. Hiking. Social groups. Probably depends on the area, how many are close.

Lol... Food came out good the first time... Fixed that one...

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

The kids are starting to leave the nest, so my ready-made social group will shrink very soon.  Time to make new friends where the conversations don't always revolve around the kids or our town.  

[justme]

May 6, 2015 20:56:19 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

May 6, 2015 20:47:26 GMT -5 justme said:

I've gone to some. My best friend in town I met at a meetup. Also met my most recent ex at one. Though I haven't been to one in well over a year. I mostly stopped because each group had a core group that always showed up and they weren't people I wanted to hang with all the time.

that's one of my worries....



oped, no. not yet, at least. all of the groups have a "help out the group and donate" button on the page, but I didn't have to agree to pay any dues in order to join. if I'm asked when I show up for the first meetup, I'll politely decline and head home. if I enjoy myself enough to want to donate, that's entirely different.

I am someone who has a couple close friends vs a swath of friends. So always hanging with people I like well enough but don't connect with can be draining or just easily slip down my priority level. Also I started to slow down on my meetups after meeting bff, probably because we started doing a lot of things together.

I'm probably going to get back into them soon because I need to add to my friend list again.

[whoisjohngalt]

Meetup has done well for me.

In MD, I found a great knitting group.

Here, I found a homeschooling group and many "playdates" groups.

[chiver78]

mandatory events, Sroo? that sounds like way too much work!

[Deleted]

Yes, I don't get mandatory adult events. 

Given that we post where our children will be, we do require meeting new members within a reasonable time, or at least talking with them... But I don't understand why adults need those kinds of rules? Well at least ongoing. 

Sroo that list is just out there... I wonder if the group is still active..

[whoisjohngalt]

I've seen meetup like that - it's not as bad as it sounds, they just want to make sure that members are truly active and become part of the group.

Unlike me, I use one of the groups I am in just to get info on local events, it's been 2 yrs and I haven't gone to a single meet up

[justme]

I've known a couple that have strict no show policies. Mostly because at least around me you're lucky if half the people that say they're going to show show. If you're doing something that needs a set amount of people it can be a big pain. If you limit the number of people that can go to an event you get a better turnout though.

[Deleted]

Again since we have kids, cancelations are common. Crap just happens. About the only limit I impose is that if you aren't coming to book club you need to let me know before names go in the bowling computers... Once they do you pay if you are there or not.

[justme]

None of the ones I'm in are for kids so they don't have to deal with that.

I do stay away from the ones with minimum requirements. Crap happens some months and some you just have crappy events.

[Deleted]

Ok. I looked it up. They said 'prices in your area'... So not sure if it's the same everywhere. They said 9.99 a month for 50 members or less, 14.99 for unlimited. So if some people were trying to stay under a limit, I guess I could see only keeping active members, especially of they didn't charge dues.