Building a group
The creation of a 100 member meetup group is a specific task and understanding how to do this is vital as it is a key stepping stone to the establishment of an in person group. There are a number of key steps to understand.
The first of these is that it is easier to create a group in a large city than a small town. Meetup will alert their local members to the existence of your group. The number of these will determine the number that your group is advertised to. As a result you should consider establishing your group in the centre of the nearest large city to you and not close to your home. The second issue is that when you create you group meetup will give you 15 choices that relate to your group. You need to use all of these and select the most relevant ones. The third issue is that you need to put information about your group to make it look attractive.
The next issue with small and new Meetup groups is that you have to have a 'gestation period' when you allow the group to grow. You may get 30 members immediately but over time more will come. It is very tempting to set up a meetup straight away. The problem with this is that there are unlikely to be enough people to make an event work. It may be that only one or two people come and they will be put off returning. It is better to wait and have a meetup with at least half a dozen people present. One way to get started more easily is to have a Zoom meetup. This makes it easier for people to attend, but ultimately it is difficult to achieve as much from Zoom meetings so the target should be to have an in person meetup.
You can build your meetup by joining Telegram Groups for network state. There are several of these and by joining these and following the chats you will find people who are interested and you can alert them to the existence of your Meetup group and your local group's Telegram group. Gradually you can build your group and start to foster a sense of community.
The Power of Three
Meetup organisers are often unclear as to how many members are required and the number is often overestimated or they believe that they can run things alone. Neither of these are the case. Experience has shown that in order to function as a group three members need to be committed to it. These three form the officers of the group and they have to be committed to its objectives. They should be prepared to commit to attend for a year on a quarterly basis and the events should be set up at a time which is suitable for moving then if necessary. But once the date is set they should not cancel on the day. The group will need to pause and find new officers. Additionally the three officers of the group must know that there will be an end, after a year, to their commitment.
