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Meetup Organization

Several years ago, I realized that my parents were aging and couldn't be my hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing partners on more challenging trips anymore so I started looking for places to find outdoor partners.  I found nwhikers.net and met some women from there who are still my outdoor friends.  I was always the organizer, and I kept finding that people wouldn't read the email about the trip or delete it, and I was fielding so many questions constantly that it interfered with work and family life.  Someone told my about meetup.  I was resistant at first because I had to pay to have a group there, but eventually, it just made more sense to have a site where I could type up all the info, post pictures, and direct people to go back and read it before asking questions about details already outlined.  I had my own group for several years and led 1-2 outings per week.  It became a bit much as co-organizers weren't doing anything.  It was hard to get any monetary contributions either so I switched to becoming an assistant organizer for several groups but again have my own group for yoga retreats.

Between organizing for several groups including a couple of dance ones, I have organized 600 meetup outings.  These consist of day hikes or snowshoe outings, multi-night backpacking trips, and weekends based at my beach house which include the need to organize food and sleeping arrangements. Back when meetup had organizer ratings, I had highly positive reviews.