{"id":6709,"date":"2021-07-13T03:02:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-13T07:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/?p=6709"},"modified":"2021-09-10T12:13:59","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T16:13:59","slug":"recording-pick-up-where-you-left-off-irl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/recording-pick-up-where-you-left-off-irl\/","title":{"rendered":"Recording: Pick Up Where You Left Off &#8211; IRL!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Breathe new life into your community after a year of being indoors! In this Meetup Live event, you\u2019ll hear from seasoned organizers who\u2019ve successfully reconvened their groups IRL (in real life) after hitting the pause button. You\u2019ll also hear about the best ways to host in-person events, from venue selection to greeting new members.<br>Watch Alaina Forte organizer of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/Fairfax-Dungeons-Dragons\/\">Fairfax Beginner&#8217;s Dungeons &amp; Dragons<\/a> and Kim Foster organizer of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/Miami-Figure-Drawing-Saturday-Morning-Group\/\">Miami Figure Drawing Saturday Morning Group<\/a> as they share what it\u2019s been like to revive their community, engage group members, and host rockin\u2019 IRL events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pick Up Where You Left Off\u2014IRL!\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8e7q3oAkWWo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-main-takeaways\">Main Takeaways:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>What was it like to restart your Meetup events after a year of hiatus?<ul><li><em>Kim<\/em>: In our group, everybody was thrilled. The energy of the room was amazing. You\u2019re very concentrated when you are drawing but then in between poses and stuff like that, people were just electric, happy. I noticed new people coming in from Meetup, people who joined late in the pandemic. We\u2019re getting younger people and older people, I\u2019m talking 18 to 80 year olds, and everybody is so thrilled to be there.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Any challenges of meeting back in person?<ul><li><em>Alaina<\/em>: It\u2019s been really good so far. I think I anticipated a lot more problems than there were. I thought people were going to be uncomfortable to meet in person, people were going to feel unsafe, but I guess people who would feel unsafe, they wouldn\u2019t come.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>What would you tell organizers who are thinking about meeting back in person?<ul><li><em>Kim<\/em>: Let everybody find their comfort level. If they\u2019ve been vaccinated and they still want to wear a mask, that\u2019s fine. If not, let them. Let everybody come to their own comfort level whether they want to participate now or wait, that\u2019s up to them. But it\u2019s good to get the ball rolling.&nbsp;<\/li><li><em>Alaina<\/em>: Just use all the tools that Meetup gives you. You can add RSVP questions like I\u2019ve done to ask people if they are comfortable following CDC guidelines, you can add notes to your Meetup event, start a discussion on your Meetup and see if people want to meet up. See what the community is feeling.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-top-q-a-questions\">Top Q&amp;A Questions:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Did you get any pushback for requiring only vaccinated individuals to attend your events?<ul><li>Alaina:&nbsp; I didn\u2019t have any pushback so far. I also don\u2019t require much proof of vaccination. I just trust that people are being honest.<\/li><li>Kim: We\u2019ve had a little bit. Some of our members were not happy but we have a sign on the door that we follow CDC guidelines.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>What\u2019s your favorite thing about being a Meetup organizer?<ul><li>Alaina: It\u2019s really building the community and seeing everyone come together and knowing that I helped them do that.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Kim: That\u2019s it exactly. It\u2019s really heartwarming to be in a group that\u2019s fostering friendship and community. It\u2019s rewarding to see people come back over and over and over again.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Alaina: It\u2019s so hard to meet people and make friends as an adult. It\u2019s mostly you go to work, you go home, it\u2019s good to have somewhere else to go.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-excerpt\"><p>Watch a conversation with two Meetup organizers on how they&#8217;re restarting in-person events.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":6715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[208,127,44],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Recording: Pick Up Where You Left Off - IRL! - Meetup Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hear from seasoned organizers who\u2019ve successfully reconvened their groups IRL (in real life) after hitting the pause button. 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