Not Following the Crowd

Our future events are here WordPress website
Prospective Members: read on...
Please click “Request to Join” both this group (NFC), as well as Fusion for Get-Aways and, perhaps, our third group, Canasta.
Once you “Request to Join”, you will normally be added to the Meetup membership list within 24 hours and you will see the word “pending” underneath your name when you look at the list of all the members. You can pay the subs as soon as you like but “Pending” members are only left there for about one week then their account is closed.
Most people stay as a pending member until they rsvp an event usually in the first couple of days of joining. Then they need to contribute to the fees we pay Meetup to use their software.

The charge is £3 per person for all the groups (not each) for 365 days membership from your date of joining so make sure you have “Requested to Join” both NFC and Fusion.
Please pay NFC bank account £3.00 membership: Lyn D Pettman Nationwide Sort Code 07-02-46 Account Number 27733150

Singles and couples of any age welcome (18+).

NFC (Not Following the Crowd) offers a wide range of events—days out, gardens, museums, walks (3 – 5 miles), bimbles (½ – 2 miles flat), local theatre productions, visiting speakers, live on big screen (opera, ballet and theatre) Shakespeare live, church & graveyard tours, and items “the crowd” miss. Several of our members are active hosts and publish events including music, cinema, 10-pin bowling, quizzes and even pub crawls and casino ladies' evenings.
We also attend music events for bands on UK tours and engage in sporting activities such as petanque, occasional kayaks, pickle ball and Bat & Trap (we own our own traps), 10-pin bowling and country/coast walking.

Our other group Fusion hosts our long term planning such as boat charters to the Goodwin Sands where we bulk buy tickets very early. Also, and for our established members, Getaways, City breaks and international trips.
This year 2023 we went to Istanbul in March and Ironbridge in May, Portsmouth in June as well as Potters in Essex; in July we stayed at Newcastle for Tall Ships at Hartlepool and later National Trust West Kent, August was the  Eastbourne Air Show and September we stayed in Antwerp for the flower show just over the border at Zundert, Netherlands for Flower Festival.
Previous years:
2022 Bath, Liverpool, Potters Great Yarmouth, Ardgarton Hotel at Loch Long
2021 North-West Peaks with Manchester and Blackpool, Eastbourne & Herstmonceaux, Potters at Great Yarmouth, Portsmouth & Fishbourne, Bristol
2020 Northumbria, Rye, Lisbon
2019 Brighton, Blankenburge Flower festival, Sheppey History Weekend, Isle of Wight, Budapest, Malaga & Gibraltar
2018 Paris & Versailles, EU Parliament, Liverpool for Terracotta Warriors
More general information can be found on our WordPress website here https://notfollowingthecrowd.wordpress.com/nfc-links/

Location:
Our members are concentrated on the coast from Birchington round past Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate to Deal. If you live outside this area the travel connections to attend some events can be difficult though the direct trains from Faversham, Whitstable, Herne Bay, & Deal stations are good.

Small print:
Photographs: All members need to have and maintain a recognizable, recent photograph of themselves before being accepted as a full member so we can find each other at public events and identify on Zoom

Active Members: We are seeking to have an active membership who have the opportunity to meet regularly on a local basis. We don’t wish to attract members who are unlikely to attend and appear to joining without the interest of meeting new people; so if you are in a dozen or more meetings you will not normally be approved as a new or renewing member. (Meetups associated with professional work not counted particularly the IT Groups.)
We use a proper web page (rather than the App) to see the dates supplied by Meetup of when members last looked at the website and when members attended events.  https://www.meetup.com/nfc-eastkent/members/ Sort by last visited. Do check your own IT system (phone, ipad etc is registering your activity)
Inactive members: If the Meetup website shows you have not looked for three months we shall enquire if you wish to remain as a member. If you don’t attend an event for 6 months you must expect your membership to be closed. If you are new prospective member and unpaid you will have the membership closed after one reminder.

Canasta on-line runs on Zoom and we restrict this to UK only.

Plus Ones: we don’t do plus one’s. All people coming to events need to pay for a membership and display a recent photo.

Visitors: We no longer do visitor’s passes as Meetup have changed their rules regarding “Release” see paragraph 6 of Meetup’s Terms of Service.
Getaways: New members need to establish themselves in the Group before they can come away on holidays so we don’t end up away with strangers. More on our Wordpress website.

Find us on Meetup:
NFC (Not Following the Crowd) https://www.meetup.com/NFC-EastKent/
Fusion https://www.meetup.com/FUSION-Ramsgate/
Canasta https://www.meetup.com/nfc-canasta-east-kent/
Find us on Wordpress: https://notfollowingthecrowd.wordpress.com/.