New in Town Meetup

Where Comedians get a chance to try out their best material. It’s also open mic night, so if anyone wants to get up on stage and talk about anything, feel free to. 👍🏻

Hey all! I've already discussed this with some of the group, but I've been wanting to change the name, as 1. it can be a deterrent to folks who have been in the area a while and believe that this is only for "New" people, and 2. there was another group started that decided they wanted to be extremely similar to our name, and I don't want there to be confusion. But also, the new name is FUN!!! Cuz we can now all Dab when we talk about DABA :D

As of June 1st, 2022, we will have a new name. If you didn't get it from the title, the new name is Dover Area and Beyond Adventures. It's hard to come up with a name that encompasses our area that we play in, so hopefully this gets the point across.

I've set this name change as an event so folks will actually see that it's happening rather than thinking New in Town has disappeared. This is not an actual event, but feel free to RSVP as an acknowledgement if you really want to, cuz I know there will be at least a few who do it anyways :P I would've put it in the "discussions" but that section gets overlooked a lot, as there are rarely notifications from Meetup for it.

****ALSO!****

We're coming up to a lot of ending trial periods in the next few weeks, and the original dues will start again for our long term members in August-ish. Please keep an eye out on your personal membership, as Meetup doesn't seem to send reminders of that. Through the app it's $6, but if you pay Cash, Zelle, Venmo, or Paypal directly to me, it's only $5, as I don't have to give Meetup their cut.

I am in hopes that later this summer I will be able to throw an "Active Member Appreciation Party" with the additional funds from the dues. Depending on where, I still may need to charge a small fee ($5-$10 each) but it will include food and entertainment. Still working on the details. In order to attend this party, you must be a paying member of the group, and have attended at least 1 of the other events in person.

Well, that should be enough babbling for now. Carry on! :D

Ok guys and gals, sorry this is a little bit of a rant, but here's the deal:

I run this Meetup while doing a full time job with overtime and a 45+ minute commute one way. I have a dog I need to take care of, I'm searching for a house, and I try to keep up with my personal friends and family. Being an organizer takes up a lot of my time, it's more than just "Oh hey this looks fun, BAM, posted!". There's background stuff that happens, and planning and coordination. I find fun things to do, contact the venue in advance, make reservations if possible, (and if they don't take reservations, I show up to the event early enough to hold space for our group). Then I put together the event online, with as much detail as possible to prevent any confusion. I keep monitoring who signs up or comments with questions, just to make sure it runs smoothly come the time of the event. I try to do at least 1 event a week, changing up the days and the events for variety, availability, and to make it as much fun as possible and be worth the small fee of $6/yr.

To have people sign up, then drop out last minute, with a bunch of reasons, or just not show up at all, is unfair to me, the group, and the venue. Let's say we're doing trivia, and can have teams of 6. I'll post for 18 people, and we'll have the full 18 sign up, plus 3 more on the Wait-list. On event day, in the morning 2 people drop, so now there's 2 people who pop in from the wait-list to the actual RSVP. Hopefully those 2 people see the notification from Meetup, or come back and check the site to see that they got in. 9 times out of 10, neither will happen, causing them to be a "No Show", leaving 16 people. But wait, now it's an hour before the event, and 1 person is having car troubles, then this other person has to stay late at work, and a third has been feeling sick all day, so there's 3 more gone, popping the final person from the Wait-list in, with less than an hours notice, so they probably won't know about it, or be able to make it. So we're now down to 12 people. I'm sitting at the restaurant holding 3 tables, watching the RSVP go down and down, now I have an extra table, in a full restaurant, looking like an ass, holding it for no reason. Sucks for me, sucks for the group, sucks for those that were on the wait list with little notice that now may get a "No Show" mark, sucks for the restaurant that now has pissy patrons who could've had that table earlier. Not fair at all.

I understand that last minute things do happen, but the amount of things that occur to multiple people so close to the event is getting out of hand, and it is stressing me out. THIS IS STRESSFUL for me. It's no longer as fun as it was, and no, I can't just be carefree and hippie-dippie rainbows about it, because then it would be disorganized chaos, and less fun for those who show up. (Example, we go to trivia, but I didn't make reservations, and I show up 15 minutes before trivia starts, but the restaurant is packed, so there's only 1 table for 6 people, but the group has 12 signed up. Well, good luck to the last 6 that show up, right?).

STARTING JUNE 1st!
I already have the "No Show" 3 strikes and you're out rule, but now I'm implementing the "Last Minute" rule.

If you drop out within the last 3 hours prior to an event, it will be tracked! 3 marks in a row, you're kicked out. 5 times with in 6 months, you're kicked out.

I'm done babysitting, sending people messages to check up and make sure they see that they've been moved off the wait list, or checking if they're on their way because the event is about to start, and they're the only ones that haven't shown up. You're all adults, you can keep track of it yourselves.

If anyone would like to take a crack at this and be the organizer, I'm willing to take the back seat for a short period to see if you can do better, that way I can stress less. If there's any volunteers, we can discuss details.

If this new rule does nothing and this group continues being more stress to me than fun, then I will abandon it and leave it to whoever steps up when I back out. I don't want this to happen, I know how much a group like this means to people who want to get out and makes friends, and I don't want it to die, but it's not worth my mental health to keep it going. I've made so many great friends through this group, and I want others to be able to continue making these connections, so please if everyone could just do their share of just keeping their RSVP up to date as much as possible and reading the event details so you know what the deal is, everything will be hunky-dory again!

Please RSVP to this event and comment "Done" so I know you have read and acknowledged this.

Thank you for taking the time to read, I'm sorry it's harsh, but it needs to be said.

Grab some food and come hang with us at Henry Law Park in downtown Dover! Make your own, or get some take out from one of the many fabulous restaurants in the area. I'll bring a blanket to spread out and share, but feel free to bring a chair or towel for yourself.

If the weather isn't looking good, the date will change. I will update it as soon as I can. I'll hopefully be able to tell by the Sunday before if we need to change it.