- Meeting at the same place every time. I'd known for awhile that I should probably do this, but the point's been driven home to me. People are more comfortable coming to "their place" and it's easier for everyone.
- Monthly meetings seem to be what people are willing to handle. Of course, I would encourage impromptu stuff as well, but once-monthly for "official" meetings is reasonable, I think.
- Have some kind of goal for the meetings. So my goal is to amass 10 people, but what are we going to do with the 2-3 that first show up? WoW Exchange has a mission statement and a yearly goal as well.
- Plan the next meeting at the current meeting. When people have a role in deciding what happens, I think they'd be more likely to participate.
- Actually talk about asexual issues. The AVEN meetups have been the only meetings I've ever been to where the thing that brings us together is so rarely discussed. I get tired of talking about asexuality sometimes, but I'm sure that many A-s rarely get the chance to do so, and may relish the opportunity. Which brings us to my next point:
- Every group seems to have structured and unstructured portions. My AVEN meets have been entirely unstructured, and the "chapter" setup might be a little too structured for newbies. If I can find some way to mix a productive activity with socializing, I think we'll be golden.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Our Old Friends
As you may know, I've been frustrated about my AVEN-meetup organizing. Between finding a place, coordinating a time, getting people to come, and figuring out what to do once we're there, it all seems overwhelming. But, I've been to a few group meetings lately that have given me some inspiration and new hope for the SF-meetups project. I wasn't going to these meetings with AVEN in mind (I know! Shocking!), but came away with some insights anyhow. I would consider all of these groups successful. One was fairly new, but got a ton of people to come out, and most importantly, we all seemed to enjoy ourselves. One group met at the ungodly hour of 10am on a Saturday, but still drew people from as far as 60 miles away. The last group had steadily built up a loyal base from many years of operation. Here's what I'm going to try to incorporate:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I must say, I'm impressed. These are great ideas! I know it's probably not as realistic at this point, but it would be awesome if one day we could organize a regional meet-up with guest speakers and "asexy" events! :P
If you ever need a little help with the marketing side of meet-ups, I'd love to help! I work directly with Marketing at work, so I've gotten some awesome ideas from that... :)
Hey, thanks! You're right, it would be awesome to have a convention someday. I'm not really sure how to market meetups-- the extent of my marketing experience at work is operating a Myspace friending bot. I'd love tips!
i wish there was an AVEN meeting in NY
http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com
I know there have been multiple AVEN meetups in NY...not sure who's organizing them now, have you searched Meetup Mart on AVEN?
Yeah, and Boston.
Anon, please do start one! Oh dear, I don't want to give out the impression that doing meetups is a monumental task...I think it's harder for me than most, since I'm pretty much trying to change my entire life at the moment AND plan meetups...
Post a Comment