Hi everyone. I wanted to email you and talk to you about an issue we are discussing as organizers. We are trying to come up with a solution to deal with members RSVPing yes and then failing to attend events. Of course there are times when an emergency comes up and you will have to cancel. But, the vast majority of these occurrences are not emergency related.

I don?t want to blame anyone. This is an issue that runs throughout Meetup and other similar sites and I hear that other groups have much bigger issue with this than we do. It is something that has become a part of the online social networking culture. But, for our groups, we would like to try to eliminate it because it has real consequences.

It makes it much harder to plan events. Generally it means we have to guess how many people will show up. If we guess wrong, there is always a risk that people will be disappointed or we will be left holding the bag. It is also quite embarrassing for the host when she/he reserves for 20 and 12 show up. (as happened at pattaya) Or worse. (As happened at the public house). Or even for the opposite. The huge turnout for Vietnam meant we had to think on the fly and divide the group. Some people complained about not meeting everyone who came. It makes things very difficult.

It also makes it much harder for us to form relationships with the places we meet. Restaurants hate when I cannot tell them a firm number. (For good reason, they don?t want to reserve empty seats). If I can say I am coming with 20 or 12 or 8, they will bend over backwards for us. If I say 8-15 and 6 -10 show up, they get frustrated with us. There is one provider that does not want to take reservations from us anymore because of this.

The other risk is organizer burnout. This frustrates the heck out of a lot of organizers. Some kick no shows out of their group. Some stop caring and it shows in their events. Some quit. I don?t want myself or any of the other assistants in our groups to do this.

So, after much consideration, we have decided that we will charge a fee for almost every event. (Excluding volunteer events or charity events that we post for members. We truly hope you would not bag out on those.) We will try to make it worth your money. (If you go to an event and you think it was not worth your money, call or email me). Maybe it means putting that money towards appetizers or something like that. But, we want to know more clearly who is coming and who is not.

We will see how this goes. If anyone has a better or more creative way of solving this I am certainly open to hearing about it.

I look forward to many more adventures in the future with you.

Carl Ewald

I am brand new to the group but I think Carl's proposal is very reasonable.