Meetup Holiday RSVP's for Christmas and New Years

[LookAtThisPOst]

Who would've known, but talk about a huge increase in RSVP's for Meetups during these holidays. New faces and even stagnant profiles coming out of their reclusive holes to see if they can find their soul mates or whatever grade of meats they desire.

 

Then after the holidays are over, you never see them again.

 

Had this one woman, didn't see her in a year with our group, all of a sudden just show up. She didn't even RSVP even though she was suppose to.

 

Anyone notice this with their Holiday meetups?

[guest569]

Yes but I think its great. Have a good time

[MsSmurf]

I think the same thing happens with gyms and OLD. People want to make a change in their lives and start to do something about it. Unfortunately most of these people won't stick with it and will quickly disappear as you've experienced.

[Danda]

Found it interesting, and maybe it's just pure coincidence but..

 

Where I live (I'm an admitted CL lurker), throughout Dec 24/25 to the morning of the 26th, the m4w casual encounters posts were less than usual in quantity, and the posts in the men seeking women section (where people are supposed to post for dating/relationships, not just sex) more than doubled.

 

Just interesting how them feels can work.

[shet]

I found this with mine. Everyone else already explained it. No other time of year exerts anything like the pressure on people to feel they should be out and mingling as the Xmas/New Year period - and many people are off work at the time as well. It's a formidable social pressure. The rest of the year may pass by in a haze of work, meals for one, sleep and depression, but they'll grit their teeth and force themselves to try at the end of December.

[HereTodayGoneTomorow]

I found this with mine. Everyone else already explained it. No other time of year exerts anything like the pressure on people to feel they should be out and mingling as the Xmas/New Year period - and many people are off work at the time as well. It's a formidable social pressure. The rest of the year may pass by in a haze of work, meals for one, sleep and depression, but they'll grit their teeth and force themselves to try at the end of December.

 

Or it may be just that they want to be in people's company over the holiday period to enjoy the festive season, especially if they live alone

[MidwestUSA]

'Grade of meats'? Really?

[shet]

Or it may be just that they want to be in people's company over the holiday period to enjoy the festive season, especially if they live alone

 

That's literally what I said.

 

It's not really the point of meetup to pop up once a year to assuage your own guilt for being a shut-in. Nobody knows who you are and it's weird. It's in your own interest, if you're in sufficient dire straits socially to expect being alone at this time of year, to put in at least a few appearances at other times so people know your name and can ask how you've been.

[guest569]

I probably wouldn't go back either if the group was judgemental and superior haha. Who cares, i love being at meetup and seeing newbies, its great. Without them, you dont have meetup, you have the same old regulars and never meet new peopple. If they never show up again, who cares? Send them a line and catch up for coffee.

[LookAtThisPOst]

That's literally what I said.

 

It's not really the point of meetup to pop up once a year to assuage your own guilt for being a shut-in. Nobody knows who you are and it's weird. It's in your own interest, if you're in sufficient dire straits socially to expect being alone at this time of year, to put in at least a few appearances at other times so people know your name and can ask how you've been.

 

"Assuage your own guilt"...I like that phrase! lol

 

I know what you mean. I was talking to this one woman, apparently she'd been a Meetup member of our group for a while now. I never saw her until at one of our holiday events.

 

I asked her if she was new to the group, like most newbies....well, not really newbies if they've been a member from 6 mos to a year, but not actually ever having been to an event, she said "Well, I've been signed up with the group for a while, but never actually been to a Meetup, friend just decided to drag me out of the house...I'm usually a homebody."

 

So she's admittedly a shut-in and doesn't really show much enthusiasm for really sticking around routinely like so many have.

 

Funny how there's over a 1,000 people that are members of Meetup groups, but only the same 20-30 actually attend events regularly. We have organizers that do an annual "purge" of the Meetups for those who haven't attended X amount of months. If they aren't purged, then they are eventually Darwined out of the group.

 

Interestingly our Organizer let some people past the RSVP deadline where a fee was required to pay the overhead for the event. Not sure if they ever paid the fee though.

Edited December 28, 2014 by LookAtThisPOst

[shet]

It's OK to be an infrequent attendee, in fact it's OK to never attend apart from at Xmas if you wish, but nobody's gonna know who you are and you'll feel alienated, which is surely what you joined a site about socialising to avoid. These people stitch themselves up. Shrug.

[aggie382]

Lots of people don't RSVP to party Meetups in my experience. It's not that big a deal, I don't think?

 

'Grade of meats'? Really?

 

I had the same thought!

[guest569]

Not necessarily. My group is really friendly and inclusive. We had a nice dinner and there was dancing and laughing. It was a great night. I dont understand this snobbery towards new or infrequent attendees. I am just happy when people show up.

[LookAtThisPOst]

Not necessarily. My group is really friendly and inclusive. We had a nice dinner and there was dancing and laughing. It was a great night. I dont understand this snobbery towards new or infrequent attendees. I am just happy when people show up.

 

Nothing snobbery about it. It is really a reflection on how they only go to check out the goods and leave. "Oh, no one is here cute enough, so I'm gonna leave and check back next year." It is actually them that are the snobs.

[Diezel]

Eh, it is what it is. I don't let it affect me. I've seen it happen. I've been on Meetup for quite a few years. I have life-long friends from it, but I've also seen people do it once and never again. Those people don't matter to me, other than temporarily inflating the attendees for one particular event.

 

In the end, if it bothers you THAT much, you're doing it wrong.

[LookAtThisPOst]

Eh, it is what it is. I don't let it affect me. I've seen it happen. I've been on Meetup for quite a few years. I have life-long friends from it, but I've also seen people do it once and never again. Those people don't matter to me, other than temporarily inflating the attendees for one particular event.

 

True, they likely think that they are increasing their chances of meeting their Mr/Mrs Right in this fashion.

 

In the end, if it bothers you THAT much, you're doing it wrong.

 

Doing what wrong?

[MissBee]

Who would've known, but talk about a huge increase in RSVP's for Meetups during these holidays. New faces and even stagnant profiles coming out of their reclusive holes to see if they can find their soul mates or whatever grade of meats they desire.

 

Then after the holidays are over, you never see them again.

 

Had this one woman, didn't see her in a year with our group, all of a sudden just show up. She didn't even RSVP even though she was suppose to.

 

Anyone notice this with their Holiday meetups?

 

I don't know much about MeetUp but sometimes I'm a little confused about the purpose and how it works: is one mandated to attend every and all meetup events as though one is an active board member who shouldn't miss a meeting, or is a MeetUp a completely voluntary, fun and casual thing that people can choose to do as it suits them?

 

Sometimes what you criticize the people for, in terms of their participation, seems like it's unacceptable for them to attend as many or as few as they see fit and that there is a right way they should be participating.

 

If I joined a MeetUp, unless I was a leader of the group, I would think I was free to come and go as I desired. I wouldn't care if one woman or some folks only came to some stuff. People have lives and not everyone will want to come to all events for LOTS of reasons. Is it a group about dating? I ask because you talked about soulmates so I wasn't sure if it was a group explicitly for singles and about dating or not. If it is not explicitly a dating or romance focused MeetUp then I wouldn't assume people are there to find soulmates and if it is, maybe they found what they wanted there or elsewhere so stopped coming OR they didn't find anything so stopped....but there are so many reasons why people may or may not participate frequently.

 

I am the co-president of a graduate society and we have monthly happy hours and other events during the year that I am required to attend (if I can't make it then my other co-president or someone else on our E-Board will fill in) but at the happy hours and events we have our regulars who are there monthly and who I know well, then folks sometimes come whom I've never seen before, sometimes people bring friends, or some folks are people I saw one time months ago or last year...I don't care. I welcome all who show and am not under any expectation that they HAVE to come to everything. They have lives and with any group some people will participate more than others. Folks are obligated to their school work whereas our grad society is a social thing and thus not anything they are required to do except when they can and want to....I was assuming meetups were that way as well thus it shouldn't be a big deal if not everyone frequents all events.

Edited December 28, 2014 by MissBee

[LookAtThisPOst]

Well, it depends on the event and depends on the organizer.

 

If the event requires an RSVP where there's a certain amount of seating that the organizer has to make arrangements with the venue "Hey, I need this amount of seating"

 

Then they make it clear that an RSVP is required and just "showing up" willy nilly, esp. without RSVP'ing can irritate organizers.

 

People these days tend to be non-committal. Sometimes they'll RSVP to an event, but are holding out for something better on the same day. If they dump one event and don't' UN-RSVP to attend something else, this is kind of a nail in the coffin for that person. I recall one organizer sending out a mass emailing to quite a few No-Shows giving them a warning.

 

Some even put in their mission statements a 3-strike rule. If you RSVP and become a no-show, you're booted out.

 

There are some casual Meetups where with hiking events where they'll just leave without you if you're not there in a timely fashion, some do give a 30-min. window to arrive.

 

Some organizers are indifferent about it and don't care at all.

 

I recall a woman that RSVP'ed to a dinner that I hosted....we made our orders, then she bailed realizing she had another Meetup scheduled around the same time. She grabbed her to-go container and bailed to attend that Meetup. I mean, if you already sat down, placed your dinner order, you might as well stick it out.

 

I have seen under member profiles that some would be registered with 80 or 90 Meetups. I'm sure they've never been to a good percentage of them even once.

 

 

I don't know much about MeetUp but sometimes I'm a little confused about the purpose and how it works: is one mandated to attend every and all meetup events as though one is an active board member who shouldn't miss a meeting, or is a MeetUp a completely voluntary, fun and casual thing that people can choose to do as it suits them?

 

Sometimes what you criticize the people for, in terms of their participation, seems like it's unacceptable for them to attend as many or as few as they see fit and that there is a right way they should be participating.

 

If I joined a MeetUp, unless I was a leader of the group, I would think I was free to come and go as I desired. I wouldn't care if one woman or some folks only came to some stuff. People have lives and not everyone will want to come to all events for LOTS of reasons. Is it a group about dating? I ask because you talked about soulmates so I wasn't sure if it was a group explicitly for singles and about dating or not. If it is not explicitly a dating or romance focused MeetUp then I wouldn't assume people are there to find soulmates and if it is, maybe they found what they wanted there or elsewhere so stopped coming OR they didn't find anything so stopped....but there are so many reasons why people may or may not participate frequently.

 

I am the co-president of a graduate society and we have monthly happy hours and other events during the year that I am required to attend (if I can't make it then my other co-president or someone else on our E-Board will fill in) but at the happy hours and events we have our regulars who are there monthly and who I know well, then folks sometimes come whom I've never seen before, sometimes people bring friends, or some folks are people I saw one time months ago or last year...I don't care. I welcome all who show and am not under any expectation that they HAVE to come to everything. They have lives and with any group some people will participate more than others. Folks are obligated to their school work whereas our grad society is a social thing and thus not anything they are required to do except when they can and want to....I was assuming meetups were that way as well thus it shouldn't be a big deal if not everyone frequents all events.

Edited December 28, 2014 by LookAtThisPOst

[GemmaUK]

People are mostly off work at the same time as others so have time to go and do other things.

 

 

I shouldn't worry about the RSVP thing as the only person that will impact is them if they get booted out. It has no impact on you.