Announcing Meetup Alliance!

Hi Everyone,

Warning: Here comes a long post, but I wanted to share a whole lot of info about something new that we're launching.

We're happy and proud to announce the launch of a "preview" version of a new service from Meetup.

In fact, the service has its own new website. It's called the Meetup Alliance Platform (www.meetupalliance.com). We hope it will help your Meetup team up with other local groups to do even more great things.

The Meetup Alliance Platform is a free service that will enable anyone to organize a coalition of local groups (we call it a "Meetup Alliance"). Over the years, we've seen many Meetups create Alliances to exchange ideas, share support, get sponsors, grow bigger, and make it easier to run a better Meetup. We've spoken with many Organizers who have tried to do this. We know it is rewarding, but we also know that it can be a real challenge. The Meetup Alliance Platform will make it a lot easier to create an Alliance of local groups.

Like Meetups, each Alliance has an Organizer. Organizers of Meetups and local groups on other platforms can apply to join any of the Alliances.

We're launching the service with about 50 Charter Alliances (see FAQ below for more details). If you want to request an invitation to start an Alliance for the next wave of launch, email us at support@meetupalliance.com. The service will come out of preview mode early next year. At that point, anyone will be able to start an Alliance.

The Charter Alliances are getting up and running now. It may look like a house with no furniture for the first few weeks. But we're really excited about where this could go.

If you want to learn how it works, click here.

I am sure you've got many questions and comments. Just wanted to kick off with a few likely questions.

Is this just for political or cause-oriented Meetups?
Nope. It is for all kinds of Meetups. In our experience, all groups can benefit by sharing knowledge, feeling a part of something bigger and creating leverage. We've seen Mom's Organizers share ideas to help each other run better playgroups, language Meetups spread geographically by creating sub-groups in other locations, dog Meeutps work together to score deals from pet shops. We know how amazing Organizers are and can only imagine what you'll do with this new service.

How is this different from the worldwide topic pages at Meetup.com?
It's similar but different in two key ways.

1) Alliances are like topics but they have Organizers. Just as Meetups flourish because they have Organizers, Alliances will also do amazing things.

2) Unlike topics, there can be many Alliances related to similar topics. For example: there will probably be many different kinds of Moms Alliances or Entrepreneur Alliances, etc. Some will be global others will be regional. Some will be for very specific kinds of moms groups others will be more general. Some will be focused on exchanging ideas, others may focus on getting sponsors or working together to accomplish something. We don't know all the different ways Alliances may spring up to use our service. But we believe in self-organization. And we are confident that Alliance Organizers and local groups that participate know what will best suit their needs.

How is this different from an Organizer Meetup at Meetup.com?
It's also similar. Organizer groups do a great job of bringing Organizers together locally to exchange ideas. They're great for information sharing between organizers, but often the groups are not that similar. Sometimes Organizer Meetups even stretch the current software to form psuedo-Alliances. But it is hard to know what is happening in other groups in these pseudo-Alliances. The goal of this service is to make that easier...help Organizers support Organizers and become a part of something bigger. If an Organizer Group is getting the job done for you, there is no need to switch. We think it does different things, so we hope you give it a shot.

Who are the Charter Alliance Organizers?
Charter Alliances are started by Organizers or Organizations we've identified that were trying to network groups together on their own. They were people who have been asking for something like this for a while now and/or were trying to create Alliances on their own. They generously gave us a lot of feedback as we developed the product and are helping test the first wave. If we missed you in this wave, email us at support@meetupalliance.com, and we will make sure to give a you heads up for the next wave of Alliances.

Why can't I start an Alliance right now?
Since it is a brand new site, having a preview mode with a limited number of Alliances is a precaution to make sure everything is working as it should.

How will this affect my Meetup Group?
It won't unless you want it to. If it sounds like something you're interested in, you can apply to join any of the current Alliances. When we launch publicly early next year, you'll be able to start your own. If you participate in an Alliance, it may help you get new ideas for running your Meetup.

How will this affect the members of my Meetup Group?
It won't. Only one person per group participates in an Alliance. That means that Organizers can benefit from the Alliance and bring what they learn back to their groups.

Organizers from other Internet services can apply to join into Alliances?! Are you crazy?
Not really. We're confident that Meetup is the best way to start and run a real local group. By welcoming groups using other services, we help Meetups become stronger, and give those groups an opportunity to see a few of the many reasons why they should use Meetup instead.

I'm sure you have more questions. Check out the Alliance FAQ.

Let us know if you've got questions we've missed. We'll try to give additional background here.

Of course we'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. This is Release 1.0 and will only get better.

We hope it helps you do more great things.

- Andres

P.S. You can also check a 3 minute video with big idea behind this new service here: http://youtube.com/wa... .

Ah ... I'd like it to be easier to hold joint events with other meetups. But, I don't see the value in joining an alliance. I simply don't get this.

Andres,
I like the vision going forward of a collaborative model here.

A few questions;

So is the platform basically a directory where we can email organizers of XYZ alliance and say, "hey, would you like to joint venture with us for ABC event?"

Second, are we able to register for an ID on this platform yet?

Third, are the alliances approved by locality? For example, the "Nightlife" and "Singles" category is very popular within Meetup. So would an alliance group like Nightlife be approved? Or would it have to be more specific like "Washington DC area Nightlife" ?

There are tradeoffs to both situations. The first would be too broad where you'd have states from all over joining and it gets cluttered for people to find an appropriate alliance for their locality.

Thanks,
Dean

This is a Great networking idea! My particular interests would be alliances for children's activities, women's groups and Interfaith Groups, and Pagan Groups. Good job!
Looking forward to networking with you!
Light and Love,
Astarte

I can see how the alliance would be advantageous for a national political campaign. I have a local Mike Huckabee group and it would be interesting to communicate with other groups (I have). I would like to know where they are having success and/or most effective in bring in members.

My concern, would be time. My group takes a good part of my free time - would the alliance take even more? Or, could I just read suggestions at my convenience?

Hi Dean,

You raise a some good questions...

1) Alliances can be for like-minded local groups in one area (Moms Meetups in Portland) or for like-minded local groups around the world (World Wide Alliance of Small Business Meetups). So you could team up with other groups in your town on something... or team up with other local groups around the world.

2) You can get involved now by applying to join one of the existing Alliances. You register as part of that process. Once we come out of "preview mode", anyone can start an Alliance.

Andres

I've been itching to jump right on top of whatever this was since I heard about it weeks ago. Now it's finally here and... I am totally flummoxed.

I tried to jump on in and create a Meetup Alliance in my state for my subject of interest, which happens to be Ron Paul for Prez. There were already 4 other such alliances elsewhere in the country, so clearly it is possible to do this. However, I can't seem to get the system to email me my confirmation, or whatever it's called, to allow me to be registered. I sent an email about this to the support email address at least 24 hours ago and have received nothing so far. Yes I did check my spam filter.

I'm the organizer of the Salem, OR Ron Paul meetup. Now I see that one of my group members has created or joined a local RP alliance, which puts us "on the map", but my request to do this a day or 2 ago apparently did not succeed. Argh!

Perhaps none of this matters now that somebody has created a local alliance, but if I had that experience, likely others will too. I hope my muddled tale of exasperation helps clear up something for somebody, sometime. :-/

Jamie,

The Meetup Alliance is still in the testing stage.
From their site

"Meetup Alliance is currently in private preview mode. During this time Starting an Alliance will be by invitation only. You can request an invitation, or check back early next year when we launch to the public."

There is a link to request a new alliance or you can join an existing one, but you can't just strat one by yourself yet.
Once the site goes live you will be able to do that.

There is a national Ron Paul alliance already established http://www.meetupalli...

Steve

Hi Jamie!
Karina here from Meetup HQ. I'm a little confused. Can you send me links to the 4 Ron Paul Alliances because I've only seen one so far.

You'll probably want to talk to the group member who added your group to find out what happened.

Thanks!
Karina