An e-mail sent to the Meetup.com folks...
Just got another e-mail as the Ithaca LiveJournal Meetup organizer, offering me another two weeks to start paying $9/month, and for the introductory $9/month to last an extra year. Herewith my reply.
I just don't feel there is any way I'll be able to generate the funds you're talking about, even with a little more time, and even with the "low, low introductory price" lasting longer. Going from free to over a hundred bucks a year is a staggering blow to a fun -- but not critical -- service.
I suppose in a Seattle or New York where some active Meetup groups might have 100-200 members, you could pretty easily convince a bunch of people to chip in a buck or two a year. But in Ithaca, where mine is probably the most active Meetup group (LiveJournal, though you'd know better than I would), and we tend to get 3-6 people per Meetup, you're asking for a huge sum of money.
I wouldn't blink at paying $9 a year to keep using Meetup as a group organizer. But remember that you've only fairly recently asked people to take on organizer roles. I did so because it seemed like we'd get more people together if someone were actively taking a promotional role. (We do.) That doesn't mean that I want to pony up the bucks, though, and be realistic, that's what you're asking me to do. Even if a bunch of people agreed to help fund this, would the money actually show up on a regular basis? Or if I asked people for money up front, why should they trust me to send it in instead of spend it?
We're one of the lucky groups. LiveJournal itself will make it easy for us to keep a monthly local LiveJournal gathering going, and I know how to create mailing lists, so I can keep doing this without Meetup.com. A couple of the other Ithaca-area groups have already had their organizers abandon the group, knowing there's no point. (You've even sent me e-mails asking if I want to become the group organizer, which strikes me as particularly cheeky.)
I honestly think this will be the end of Meetup.com as a great grassroots organization getting people together casually. IF it survives, I have to imagine it will be a much smaller entity, with only a handful of interest groups remaining active in each of a handful of large metropolitan areas, touching FAR fewer people, and that's just sad.
I just don't feel there is any way I'll be able to generate the funds you're talking about, even with a little more time, and even with the "low, low introductory price" lasting longer. Going from free to over a hundred bucks a year is a staggering blow to a fun -- but not critical -- service.
I suppose in a Seattle or New York where some active Meetup groups might have 100-200 members, you could pretty easily convince a bunch of people to chip in a buck or two a year. But in Ithaca, where mine is probably the most active Meetup group (LiveJournal, though you'd know better than I would), and we tend to get 3-6 people per Meetup, you're asking for a huge sum of money.
I wouldn't blink at paying $9 a year to keep using Meetup as a group organizer. But remember that you've only fairly recently asked people to take on organizer roles. I did so because it seemed like we'd get more people together if someone were actively taking a promotional role. (We do.) That doesn't mean that I want to pony up the bucks, though, and be realistic, that's what you're asking me to do. Even if a bunch of people agreed to help fund this, would the money actually show up on a regular basis? Or if I asked people for money up front, why should they trust me to send it in instead of spend it?
We're one of the lucky groups. LiveJournal itself will make it easy for us to keep a monthly local LiveJournal gathering going, and I know how to create mailing lists, so I can keep doing this without Meetup.com. A couple of the other Ithaca-area groups have already had their organizers abandon the group, knowing there's no point. (You've even sent me e-mails asking if I want to become the group organizer, which strikes me as particularly cheeky.)
I honestly think this will be the end of Meetup.com as a great grassroots organization getting people together casually. IF it survives, I have to imagine it will be a much smaller entity, with only a handful of interest groups remaining active in each of a handful of large metropolitan areas, touching FAR fewer people, and that's just sad.
