Howdy to all! I have been a postcrossing member for a few years now and finally attended my first meetup last year. I saw the Meetup Guidelines and that anyone can start one, so I’m thinking of doing one in West Seattle! My question is if there is anyone in the area that has experience in these? Obviously location and dates are the biggest things to arrange but am I supposed to have other incentives as well? I know at the last one, folks had homemade cards they brought for sale, some snacks, etc. Is it a given that the host provide all these things? Would love a good chat on how to successfully do this so any help is more than welcome. Thank you!
1 Like
If you want to keep it simple, you just find a place to meet at the chosen time and date. No need to do more than sitting down somewhere and chat and write postcards (and maybe buy something to eat/drink). At some meetings I’ve been to, that’s the only thing we’ve done during the meetup. But at other meetups, we’ve spent more time together, visited a museum for instance, in addition to a meal and writing postcards.
Here in Norway, it’s common that those who want meetup postcards pays for the amount of cards they want to cover the printing and shipping.
It’s not given that snacks is provided, but I think it would be fair that the cost is splitted between the participants if you provide something to eat and drink. Same goes if one has to pay a fee to rent a room somewhere, in my opinion. But of course, the host can choose to pay for it themselves. If you want the participants to split the cost between them, please mention that in the thread.
1 Like
There has been meetings in Seattle before, so you surely aren’t the only one.
The ‘hardest’ thing we find often is to find a restaurant where they will allow you to sit, eat, drink chat and write postcards for a couple of hours, espescially in the weekends. Keep it simple this first time and I do hope that other postcrossers in and around Seattle will read your message and are willing to help you. Good luck, I loved Seattle when I was there in 2005.
1 Like
You might consider using your local library. Not sure if the West Seattle library has a decent sized meeting space but most do and can be reserved by the public. This is what I did in Tacoma.
1 Like
Seattle has an amazing library, but I don’t remember if they have space where you can gather. Good luck @Mohawkthibs
1 Like
This is about a meetup in January 2024 in Seattle, you could ask the organizer or some of the guests about local advice, and also of course if they are interested
If you want to do it all on your own, well, public library or any friendly community neighbourhood centre might be a good option. Of course coffeeshops and/or restaurants can be a good place too, though sometimes it’s a challenge to have it close to public transport (or parking for you in car-loving US (clichee)) but still not too crowded and with owners patient enough to let you sit for some hours without a megahuge bill.
As for the rest: special designed meetup cards are an option, as are ‘secret-santa’-like games or lotteries. But as guests bring their passion about cards anyway, it’s also enough to provide the frame (in my experience)
Have fun and joy and success, good luck. And for any other questions and experiences, this here is a good place for it.
to create a meeting what are the does and don’t?
how hard is it
Hello @gguyjersey
I moved your question to here as this is a better place for it.
If you read the 6 last posts before yours you will get a lot of tips.
Hi - I’ve looked up the active members in my hometown - hoping for a meetup. Is there a way to send one note to all these members at once, or do I need to send separate notes to each to see if they are interested? Thanks!
On the main page you can only write to people one by one.
But you could see if some are active here in the forum and then write to them together in a PM.
Thanks. How do I do that (send a pm)?
If you have found a user, then you write him a PM (as you usually do), then select the Add/Remove button and you can then invite further users via the + symbol.
1 Like
Good morning Bille,
I read the questions of Daviscalgirl and your answers. I know how to organize a meetup, but I would like organize monthly “unofficially” meetings (barbeque, cycling tour, cinema, drinking coffee, …), where I live. But in Germany you have strong rules für data protection. I don´t know, if I am allowed to open the “search”-button to look who is PC in the region where I live and contact these PC with a PN. - Do you know?
Thank you very much for your answer and enjoy the weekend.
Happy postcrossing.
Utz
Of course you can search for users who live in your area. This does not violate any data protection laws as you will not find out any real names, e-mail addresses or other non-public information.
When searching, you enter the country, the region/federal state and the city and then find out which users live in this city - i.e. nothing that is not also listed in the respective profiles.
You can sort by the last log-in - because it probably makes no sense to write to users who are now inactive.
1 Like
Thank you for your information. I wanted to be sure, that I don´t make any mistake.
Billie - thanks for your information. The problem is that I don’t know how to send PMs in forum. I only know how to send messages with people who have responded to me previously (I add on to the previous message). I don’t know how to send a new PM not tied to any of the forum sessions. Thanks. Judy
Hi Judy
Just click on someone’s name on the forum; you will see the message button on the right.
Once you start your message, you’ll be able to add people as Bille described.
The message you create will have a subject line that is the same as the thread you started the message from, so you can change that to something more suitable.
1 Like
If you check out the thread How to send Personal Messages (PM's) to others on the forum? you’ll get more information about how to send PM’s, if you need that.
1 Like
Ah ha! Thank you so much!
Are there any upcoming meetups happening in the Virginia, USA area? Also, do you have to have a name stamp in order to attend? Im new and am still trying to figure this out. Thanks in advance for any assistance.