A FEW THOUGHTS ON MEETUP AFTER ONE YEAR
It's one year ago today since I first signed up and at the time of writing this I have attended 17 meetups with varying degrees of "success". The following is a summery of my first years meetup experience.
1) It's made a big difference to my social life.
Before joining I spent 90% of my weekend nights sitting in the same 3 or 4 village pubs, wishing that this was the night someone wanted to go out and do something different. Now I have a calendar full of events often having to choose between multiple events on the same day.
2) If you life outside a big city be prepared to travel.
The nearest meetup to date from my home was around 10 miles and required a change of buses. I constantly have to use infrequent night buses where possible to get home from Leicester, Derby and Nottingham to keep the costs down.
3) You need to attend at least a dozen meetups across different groups and different types of events to get a proper feel of it.
There is a big variation between the quality of the groups and the types of people who attend them.
4) 40 seems to be a common cut off age point.
Many groups are 20s and 30s or 40 and over. So if you are close to that age (I'm 42) you often find yourself the oldest in one group (which isn't so much of a problem for me) or the youngest in another.
5) 20 is plenty.
Once a meetup goes above 20 people it becomes increasing harder to actually meet people. Often people who know each other will have already formed their own little circles and it's harder to break in.
6) A lot of people you meet you won't see again.
1) It's made a big difference to my social life.
Before joining I spent 90% of my weekend nights sitting in the same 3 or 4 village pubs, wishing that this was the night someone wanted to go out and do something different. Now I have a calendar full of events often having to choose between multiple events on the same day.
2) If you life outside a big city be prepared to travel.
The nearest meetup to date from my home was around 10 miles and required a change of buses. I constantly have to use infrequent night buses where possible to get home from Leicester, Derby and Nottingham to keep the costs down.
3) You need to attend at least a dozen meetups across different groups and different types of events to get a proper feel of it.
There is a big variation between the quality of the groups and the types of people who attend them.
4) 40 seems to be a common cut off age point.
Many groups are 20s and 30s or 40 and over. So if you are close to that age (I'm 42) you often find yourself the oldest in one group (which isn't so much of a problem for me) or the youngest in another.
5) 20 is plenty.
Once a meetup goes above 20 people it becomes increasing harder to actually meet people. Often people who know each other will have already formed their own little circles and it's harder to break in.
6) A lot of people you meet you won't see again.
Being a member of 15 groups spread out over a very wide area I have only met about 20 - 30 people more than 3 times. It's nothing unusual to get on well with someone and not see them again for 6 months. I have still only have a handful of regular "meetup friends."
7) A lot of meetup groups you join won't last.
The level of organization between groups varies massively. Some groups like Derby Socials have multiple organizers with loads of different types of event. Others start up and have event organizers that quickly loose interest, or only have an event once a month, or only have events Wednesday evening when I'm working etc
8) Don't rely on one meetup group
I got suddenly removed from a group apparently because the organizer decided to change the age policy. I was new to meetup at the time and had only been with that group. Nothing I could do other than join other groups.
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