Meetup frequencies

June 25, 2007 11:43 AM

I started a meetup group 2 weeks ago that really took off, and we did a meetup at a restaurant and 10 turned out. Now I'm wondering when to schedule the next one. Help!

I've never done the meetup thing before, so I'm curious what the typical meetup frequency is, and if Saturdays are always the best day to do them.

I could ask them, true, but I'm loathe to start burdening the others with bureaucratic details like this. I'd rather just take charge. The people know they can always contact me about specific requests. Regarding the meetup group itself, it's a philosophical group with no real agenda. We just talk.

posted by hodyoaten to society & culture (13 comments total)

"I could ask them, true, but I'm loathe to start burdening the others with bureaucratic details like this. I'd rather just take charge."

Not to be snarky, but how is asking us any better than asking them? If you want to take charge, take charge. Schedule another meetup for whenever you like, see how many people show up and what their reaction is, and, if necessary, adjust accordingly.
posted by Zephyrial at 11:47 AM on June 25, 2007

Look, I specifically asked for when the typical meetup frequency is, and if Saturday is always the best day. Why must this be derailed already?
posted by hodyoaten at 11:58 AM on June 25, 2007

I helped start a technology group a while back. We meet once a month. I don't really recall how we made that decision, but in my opinion anything more frequent is overkill.

We do our meetings on Tuesdays, which just seemed to fit our group dynamic. Just seemed easier for most people involved to break away from their home life for a couple of hours after work once a week than on a weekend.
posted by austinetsu at 12:05 PM on June 25, 2007

Zep

Its diffrent because we are not members of her group. She doesn't want them to feel as if they have to put that type of imput into the whole thing.

In my experience the meetups range from once a month to once a week. It depends on the size of the group and if it can continue to "work" if people are unable to make every meeting. IE will they miss out on something important and feel less involved the next time they come or if its more of a fluid meeting where there is no real strung out connection between each event.

If you just had a meeting with 10 people, I would wait 2-3 weeks and have another.

As for the saturday question I think it depends on alot of factors, is this in a big city? Do people have to travel far to reach the location? I find sunday nights to be a good get together time too. Mondays are generally bad however, alot of people have "catch up" to do. Mid week can be good (thursday night) helps people get through the week and have something to look forward too!

Good luck!
posted by crewshell at 12:07 PM on June 25, 2007

Monthly sounds about right. The Meetup.com group I'm a member of (umm, the Chihuahua Meetup group) meets up once a month. And Metafilter meetups in NYC seem to happen about once a month. Schedule them more frequently than once a month, and I think people would be less excited about each one as it comes up.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:09 PM on June 25, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

The most common frequency if it's always the same sort of activity is once a month. There are a fair number of weekly ones, as well, but they're probably best reserved for larger groups where the expectation is not that everyone will attend every week. If you find your monthly events are filling up and not everyone gets a chance to attend, switching to weekly or bi-weekly can help.

Whether Saturday is the best day depends on the length and focus of your group. Many people would prefer not to lose a whole Saturday night to a 1-2 hour meetup, but if 4-6 hours is more typical of your activity, they probably don't have time during the week. If there's no food involved, it's more difficult to have during the week, since people don't tend to have a lot of time to eat and do activities separately on weeknights, whereas on weekends you can schedule for after dinner and still have people stay up semi-late for it.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:07 PM on June 25, 2007

Sorry, hodyoaten, wasn't intending to derail. Just giving my honest reaction to the question. In an effort to redeem myself, I will go ahead and agree with what everyone else has said.
posted by Zephyrial at 1:15 PM on June 25, 2007

No problem... I felt like I was asking a dumb question so I thought I was about to get ganged up on.

I appreciate the comments... I was thinking of a 2 week deal but on preview I may ease up and do 3 weeks to a month.
posted by hodyoaten at 1:27 PM on June 25, 2007

Most of the clubs and organizations that I've ever been involved in (amateur radio, computer-related, political, service, whatever) all seemed to meet monthly.

It always seemed to work pretty well. Every once in a while I've been in on a club that met weekly, and most of the time they seemed to burn people out. (Exceptions were big clubs with large memberships where it's OK and accepted for only a small part of the membership to show up at each meeting.)

So I'd do it again in a month and see how that works out. Maybe at that point, you can bring up the subject of setting a persistent date (e.g., "n-th whateverday of the month") and see what people want to do. Or just go for 3 or so meetings and see if a natural schedule develops.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:51 PM on June 25, 2007

I was thinking of a 2 week deal but on preview I may ease up and do 3 weeks to a month.

3 weeks would be a really odd schedule. The more you can keep the schedule constant, the more people will be able to plan to attend your event.

Every third Thursday is easy to remember and plan around. People could have weekly activities on Wednesdays and not conflict, or they could have monthly activities on the first Thursday and not conflict. But if they have a sort of ranging, variable schedule like approximately every 3 weeks, it makes it much harder for them to make your activity a priority, because it's the one that's always moving around.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:27 PM on June 25, 2007

Are you saying "10 turned up" like that's a bad thing or a good thing? Because getting 10 people to show up is pretty good. Sounds like you're doing a pretty okay job. And Zephyrial's comment was totally on. Everyone, and every group, is different. So some people may want to meet every week, others not so often. It doesn't have to be bureaucratic, just ask them when they want to meet again. If they say "How about 2 weeks from now?" Then just schedule the meetup every two weeks.
posted by Deathalicious at 6:18 PM on June 25, 2007

Am at a loss to understand why you don't want to ask your members. It's very easy to set up a poll and let them vote. Then you'd clearly know what most of your members prefer instead of you trying to guess.

I think how often a group meets largely depends on the topic. I have a group that meets weekly because it's based on something that changes every week. Personally, I might lose interest in a group that only met monthly, plus there's the chance that you have a conflict at that one date/time and then you're away from the group for another month until the next meeting. I think every other week or twice monthly is a happy medium.

As far as the day of the weeks goes, again, I think it depends on the topic and the kinds of members it draws. I've found that certain days of the week are difficult to schedule because people generally use those days for other common recurring activities like church, watching sports, or, watching popular "must see" TV shows like American Idol.

It really would be easiest if you just asked the members.
posted by fuse theorem at 7:02 PM on June 25, 2007

My 2 cents...

I belong to several, and co-organize a couple, Meetup groups. I'll agree with everyone that it really depends on the focus of your group as well as the members. For your second event I would do it one month from the first, after that I would add a poll to the site asking people for input (you can give them the chance to choose several options, and while it doesn't have to influence your calendar, it doesn't hurt to know when people are available). I say you don't have to follow the poll results for a couple reasons (although you'll want to make it clear in the poll that you're just checking your options):
1) Meetup has a particular day each month for most Meetup topics already; if you choose to hold your meetings on that day, they advertise your group with the other "n-related" Meetups.
2) I've found that the group attendance can change dramatically. I've been involved for about a year and a half now & in a couple of the groups I only recognize a few faces from the beginning. I.e. different people will have different available time, unless you want to keep changing the date of your meeting I'd stick with a date and leave it.

Also, a couple groups I am in have monthly events, but occasionally have a mini-Meetup if there is something extra they want to meet for... this depends on the nature of the group (and the organizer/ co-organizers).

Lastly, the biggest problem I've noticed with the date/ time of certain groups is that they conflict with other events in other Meetups. Most of the people I've met through Meetup (i.e. "regulars") belong to more than one group, sometimes they can't attend an event because another group they belong to has already scheduled an event on the same day. I'd suggest looking at your city & checking the dates the popular/ co-related/ interesting groups have their events scheduled... if at all possible try to choose a different day/ time.

Email's in the profile if you have other questions.
Have fun & Good Luck!
posted by Laura in Canada at 5:04 AM on June 26, 2007