Stick to Your Guns
A Best of the Summit Post

A lot of great advice appears in private forums. In an effort to get some of it more exposure, I am reprinting selected wonderful posts to the Organizers's Forum. Here's one originally written by Chris C of THOG.

I think that this one is especially helpful for new Organizers as they get started planning events!

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Once you have planned an event (ie picked a venue, set a time and ironed out the details) STICK TO YOUR GUNS. My experience as an organizer is that as your group gets large, quite a few members will try and get you to change details to accommodate their schedule. Examples include "Can you start the event earlier? I can't get off work that early", "9PM is too late for me."

The best advice I can offer a new organizer is DON'T CHANGE A THING! when it comes to events! It is tempting to try and be accommodating to everyone, but that is impossible to do. If turnout is not what you expected, it is not because you failed to accommodate those that wanted a change.

An example in our hiking group:

A few weeks ago, we had a hike scheduled for 2:30PM. A total of 12 RSVPed "Yes." Because of the potential for inclement weather, we received 6 e-mails requesting the event be held earlier. We ended up changing the hike to 1PM. All 6 members who had requested the change found another reason to bail out. Worse, there were 2 members who now could NOT attend because of the time change, and were somewhat upset about it! Everyone who attended the event said they would have gone whether at 2:30PM or 1PM! Moral of the story: attendance may have been much better if the original plans had been implemented!


Did you find this advice useful? Please post your experiences/feedback below...


Any kudos or credit for this post should go to Chris C, not Hmm. Reprinted from the Summit with permission from the original author.

I like this post!

For one outdoor Meetup, I nearly cancelled the event because it was supposed to rain. It was summer at least, and one member told me "dogs need exercise, don't cancel". So, I didn't. Turned out to be one of our largest turnouts ever! And, it only drizzled a bit, so it wasn't so bad for the owners - the dogs could have cared less!

Bonnie & Susi

This is the best post I have read in some time! The advice given is so true!
Thanks Hilary for posting on behalf of Chris.

-Mary

Totally holds too true. If someone is really dedicated to come to an event, they make exceptions. If not, they usually find another excuse. Something that I have found helpful though, is telling someone that if they are dissappointed because they can't go, to go ahead and send me a day/time/place, and I'll post it just for them.....It's very funny, because it sends them a message in the end. I had one member that constantly wanted playgroups at 11 am. I told her that if she wanted to have one scheduled to just email me the day and place. And so she did. NOT ONE PERSON CAME! She then relized that there was a reasons why I planned them for the day/time I do. She still didn't come to those events, but she stopped complaining, LOL!

Thanks, Hmm! This is awesome!

Lucette

Meetup Customer Service

I agree. I run a poker meetup group and I cringe whenever I see an Assistant Organizer (we have 20!) post options to be discussed during or prior to the meetup. Posting options such as "let's try playing for $10, unless everyone else wants to play for more", or "lets play a tournament, unless everyobody wants to play something different" is a death sentence for a meetup.

Meetups need leaders and hosts should choose the details and stick to them, even if it means cancelling an unpopular meetup and rescheduling with different details later.

Sometimes deep into a poker game we even get several members who will want to change the game or stakes. I always say "I want people who sign up for our meetups to be able to trust that the description of the game is accurate and won't change halfway through the game". This position has always been respected.

I use the polls to make decisions about popular options ahead of time, then choose all the details myself and stick to it.

We have had over 220 great meetups!

Organizer Eric

I love it! Course I do this already. When I have a member email or call me wanting to change our already set plans I give them other options.... Show up a little late, we'll still be there.... Sorry the other parents need it at that time/place because ____....

I think my most common email is people that are about to be removed for not showing up... They always try to say something about "having (2 kids, various ages, etc) is hard, I can't get it out...." and I reply with I completely understand, I think the average number of children in our group is 2... etc. I want to validate them and I DO understand - but I also believe that 2 months is PLENTY of time to come out considering how many events we have. We've had a few scary-fake profile problems and so I'm not willing to accomodate one stranger and let them stick around beyond our "rules" when I don't know who they are.

I'm the same way with parenting so I think it just carries over to the group. I'm VERY consistant... Once I say it - that's it. :) Course that's helped because my son will ask for a toy/money ONCE and not ask again because he knows it's not going to change.... I do foster care and the foster kids don't know me that well yet and they ask many times - OY frustrating....

Anyway - my point - I think it's just a personality type that is able to put down the firm rules and not budge and there are others that very much accomodate people (not saying that's wrong AT ALL.)

And for the record - since someone might think it based on my post - When someone is "kicked out" they can come back for 2 weeks... also - if they can't make an event I make myself available to meet with them for coffee or something whenever THEY want.

We also very seldom allow "maybe" RSVP's for the same reason. We want people to know for sure how many members will attend.

As for no-shows in my group? Two no-shows and they are removed from the group permanently. We have very little problem with no-shows.

I really like this post...

A lot of great advice appears in private forums. In an effort to get some of it more exposure, I am reprinting selected wonderful posts to the Organizers's Forum. Here's one originally written by Chris C of THOG.

I think that this one is especially helpful for new Organizers as they get started planning events!

---

Once you have planned an event (ie picked a venue, set a time and ironed out the details) STICK TO YOUR GUNS. My experience as an organizer is that as your group gets large, quite a few members will try and get you to change details to accommodate their schedule. Examples include "Can you start the event earlier? I can't get off work that early", "9PM is too late for me."

The best advice I can offer a new organizer is DON'T CHANGE A THING! when it comes to events! It is tempting to try and be accommodating to everyone, but that is impossible to do. If turnout is not what you expected, it is not because you failed to accommodate those that wanted a change.

An example in our hiking group:

A few weeks ago, we had a hike scheduled for 2:30PM. A total of 12 RSVPed "Yes." Because of the potential for inclement weather, we received 6 e-mails requesting the event be held earlier. We ended up changing the hike to 1PM. All 6 members who had requested the change found another reason to bail out. Worse, there were 2 members who now could NOT attend because of the time change, and were somewhat upset about it! Everyone who attended the event said they would have gone whether at 2:30PM or 1PM! Moral of the story: attendance may have been much better if the original plans had been implemented!


Did you find this advice useful? Please post your experiences/feedback below...


Any kudos or credit for this post should go to Chris C, not Hmm. Reprinted from the Summit with permission from the original author.

Thanks for the great advice, Chirs, as well as the tried-and-true story to go along with it!