Founded 2008  *  Welcoming all races  *  300+ Members,
mostly Orange & LA-County Asians in their 20s & 30s

For SoCal surrounding OC, we're a social group for friendly local adults (esp. young adults) both Asian & Asian-involved/curious:

1. Per our name, we're about making & being friends —the most core of all human relationships (even the core of best romance).
2. We're for adults of all ages especially adults looking and/or thinking 20s & 30s (young adult & college student events/discussions/activities: parties, dating, romance, dancing, music, clubbing, networking, starting & building one's own life & career, etc); friendly professional people of all sorts are welcome!
3. Per our name, our members & activities are mostly Asian (about 82%),
   where "Asian" means:
   
   1. "Asian people", Asian ethnicity, Asian culture, & Asian language
   2. both Asian in skin & Asian in spirit,
   3. both Asian foreign-born & Asian US-born (Asian-American),
   4. the American meaning of "Asian" geographically (click for map):
      though there are actually 6 Asia-continent territories, really:
      just East Asia & Southeast Asia (aka Far East aka Oriental),
      especially "mainstream" "Asian" (China and just west & south of it) marked below by "*":
      1. East Asia (Mongolian, Chinese/Macau-an/Hmong/Taiwanese/Okinawan*, Korean*, Japanese*Mongolian) and,
      2. Southeast Asia (
         1. same land-mass (Burmese, west-Malaysian/Singaporean*, Laos/Thai/Laotian*, Vietnamese*, Cambodian) &
         2. across ocean (east-Malaysian/Brunei, Indonesian/Timor-Leste , Filipino)
4. And per our logo, we're also 1 of the few Asian groups (at least based in OC) truly welcoming non-Asians,
   indeed (per the "friend" in our name) one of our key goals is to happily mix Asians and non-Asians together, or as one might say, those with Asian skin with those with Asian spirit :-)
5. Our members & events are in mostly Orange County else neighboring counties (Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County, & San Diego County).

But why is an Asian group being run by some quirky white guy called “Destiny”??

1. Well first it's not just me: I'm just a part:
   1. Our founders are Vietnamese from right here in Orange County. Back in 2008, they came up with our great name “Asianfriendster” (I changed only to “AsianFriendster”) and our great slogan “Make New Friends with Asian” (I changed to “SoCal's Make New Friends with Asians”), and hosted many great social events, and recruited 232 fine local people, mostly Asians in their 20s & 30s but also a few of other races including me.
   2. Our leadership teamis me plus 3 Asians, including a REBOS Marketing Director (Rebos Entertainment puts on big Asian club parties in S.Cal (like the annual Tokyo Style party where about 2000 came); you'll see local REBOS events listed in our events (examples 1,2,3) –and if you like VIP treatment, while I can't promise for sure, being a member in AsianFriendster can have benefits ;-). Plus
   3. You could be an Event Organizer, too! –let me know: post a greet on my profile to be an AsianFriendster Event Organizer.
2. Okay, fine, but how did some white guy get the lead? Well kind of by accident:
   1. A historic woe:  Right about the time I joined (in 2009, a year after the group started, after increasing fun & success which is what got even me to join), our founders then started holding events nobody wanted, and members stopped RSVPing, so eventually the founders & everyone abandoned the group. So in 2010 May, seeing the group was just 1 hour from being totally deleted by Meetup, curious I clicked “Become the Organizer” (just to see what that would cost, still not really imagining my doing it with me being a white guy) but Meetup.com then said “Okay, you're now the Head Organizer” (oops!); so I stepped up, said “Well, okay, I'll do my best”, got involved, footed the bill, and have since been working my butt off to resuscitate our group back to life.
   2. But that's not all to the story: it's also due to some genetic luck. As you may ask, Why me, a "whitie"? -What was a "whitie" doing an Asian group in the first place?! Well see my profile! While some Asians are called (indeed teased for being) "bananas" (yellow on the outside but white on the inside), I was born an "egg" (white on the outside but yellow on the inside) –and NOT by my choice, probably like being gay, probably by genetic mutation. Jeeze, I'd even like my own kids to be Asian!  And I've got my mother cooking Pho! –now how else can you explain that?!
   3. So, like I said, just think of me as white-on-the-outside but yellow-on-the-inside ;-) Plus just someone who just won't let a good thing die, yes, even if he's not even Asian-skin and the only one to speak-up.

New to Meetup.com? Welcome to Meetup, too! – the most-powerful major website to find & host in-person groups. If you want, simply use your Facebook to login. Meetup provides you 79K in-person local groups: all topics, worldwide, & mostly for free!  Moreover, like a Better Business Bureau member...

We're a proud follower & endorser of
Universal Rules & Guidelines for Meetup.com L2PG1L!
–a free eBook which includes a great intro to Meetup

Yes, we're big (269+ members) but your voice counts big-time here —and we need it! So don't let our size fool you to into thinking that you can keep quiet and just-lurking is okay —No! Not at all. You need to RSVP with constructive comments & speak-up here!

1. Our founding organizers came up with great name and were always open to non-Asians, however (as mentioned) they began hosting events which eventually totally burnt out our first 232 members (see details in our About page). So –unless you can figure out a way to wake up our first 232 members– you would better to think of this as a group of 37 members! (=269-232). So...
2. If this group is to be a success for you (and for everyone), we all are really depending on you to speak up!
   1. Come to events; RSVP with constructive comments even if you're not coming!
   2. Suggest an activity; volunteer to host an activity
   3. say (in your RSVP comment & elsewhere) constructively how much you like it (& why) or why you don't like it.
   4. Also, right now, on your group profile's Edit email settings please turn on “Email me when this Meetup Group's message board is updated” (it's unfortunately off by default); that when someone (or you) posts Discussion Board talk, everyone will be alerted.

So what sort of activities do we do? Well have a browse of our site (below and menu "Meetups" above) and RSVP!! :-)  And if you don't see exactly what you want, use the Ideas panel to suggest what you want. Welcome! And see you soon!

Yours, -DestinyArchitect,Head Organizer since 2010.05