Social media - Meetup.com - a personal experience

[Redtail]

Following on from a number of related threads, I thought I'd share how Meetup.com has worked for our bushwalking group.
[The site to which I am referring is http://www.meetup.com, not the Meet Up tool on this website.]

Overall, it's working really well.

Ages - seems to be from mid-50's down. I'm in my late 40's myself, and there's more in their mid-40's/late-30's, and a few in their 20's. I suspect it's due to the nature of the medium. It's those people who are online, or tech savvy, that find us.

Numbers - Last count, we were at 85 members. Of that, there's about 35 who've actually been on a walk last season.
On any given walk, we usually have about 12-15 people. Meetup allows limits to be set, and it also manages an automatic waiting list which is brilliant. e.g. if someone pulls out, the next in the queue gets an email to let them know they're in.

Signing on, we wanted to be very specific about who we'd like to walk with. Meetup allows you to list themes for your group. They're keywords to help with searching, and they give the prospective member a feel for what you're about. Obviously we listed 'bushwalking' and 'hiking', and we added 'Natural History' and a few others to give us the "flavour" we wanted.
We set our membership application to be approved by the organiser. (You can just let people sign up without this.) We also ask the question "There are a number of bushwalking groups in Perth, what in particular attracted you to this one?". This is designed to encourage members to read our themes and our intro, so they know what they're in for. It doesn't always work, by the way.

Events - are date and location based. Locations can be tricky as meetup tries to be specific about addresses. It doesn't easily lend itself to descriptions such as "turn left on Flynn Rd, then take the first track on the right and look for the clearing about 500m in". We manage by putting full directions and map links in the details.

Editing - the editor can be a bit clunky, especially formatting and adding web links. A little bit of HTML knowledge helps.

Repeating and copying events works well. It's an easy way to setup your own "template". Event templates themselves aren't a feature of meetup.

RSVPing - limits can be set for each event. Also the number of guests any one attendee can bring, and the time in which RSVP's can be made, e.g. 2 weeks before, up until 2 days before. This has helped reduce "booking hogs" who sign up for everything months in advance, holding out places for other (and new) members, and then don't turn up! Not that we've had many of those.

Reports - for any event, an attendee list can be printed. And name tags, if that's your thing. You can also get a list of who's shown up, who hasn't, and so on. Can export to Excel [which is handy for an MS Office guru like me.]
We prefer an active group, so I'm going to make an email list within meetup of all of those who have never attended, and send a message of encouragement. If we find there's members on that list for over 12 months, then a cull may be in order.

Security - so far, so good. Non-members can't email, or see photos, or RSVP to an event, as you'd expect. The level of access can be set by the organiser.

Communication - easily taken care of by Meetup. New events are announced (emailed), reminders are automatic, and personal email addresses remain secure. If members want to contact each other, they can do so via the site, and they can choose whether to show their personal email address with each message as it's sent. Reminders are set to 1 week and 1 day prior. The reminder dates are not customisable, but the message is.

Comments and feedback - are there for each event. We encourage members to use this to organise carpooling and the like. Feedback also helps prospective members get a feel for the group.

Organisers - can be whole of group, or just for an event.

Suggested events - can be done by any member, with or without organiser approval. We chose the organiser approval.

Forum - there is one, but we don't use it.

Cost - it's not free to be a 'host', i.e. set up your own meetup group. From memory, it's about $40 a quarter? But, to me, that's cheap enough for what you get. And you can charge your members per event to cover those costs. We choose not to, for now.

We've been on Meetup since April 2011, which is just the one season for us. For me, it's working well. It has its quirks, and things I'd like to see changed, but it's made my life easier, and I get to spend more time doing what I like doing - bushwalking!

PS - you'll find us herehttp://www.meetup.com/redtail-bushwalkers/. If you're heading to Perth, say g'day.

[Bush Walker]

Very useful background Redtail. Keep us up to date on progress when the season reopens.

[tomh]

Meetup certainly seems to be a simple low-cost way of bringing together and organising a group of bushwalkers and their events.

Judging by a quick search and look, most Australian Meetup bushwalking or hiking groups appear to have few events and 'Organizers' but large numbers of members.

Every bushwalking/hiking event I looked at would fit in the 'easy' grade category and perhaps this is just as well as the legal liability of the Organiser may one day be tested in court and even US-based Meetup warn: 'If an Organizer is using the Meetup platform for groups or events that involve high-risk or unique activities, an Organizer should consider a release or waiver that specifically addresses those activities.' I am advised however by more local legal minds that, depending on the circumstances, releases or waivers may have limited use in a court case and do not automatically prevail.

Established clubs of course have known for many years about the legal ramifications of leading a group through the bush and as a result (usually) Incorporate through State legislation and purchase liability insurance, all to help protect themselves from the possible consequences of the actions of others and legal liability.

One solution however would be for clubs to remain Incorporated, operating under the same rules, retain their insurance etc, but also establish themselves as a Meetup group and use the convenience of Meetup to automate event organisation and facilitate event signups (as per Redtail's initial email). Sydney Bushwalkers have done this for new member events only so far but small to medium sized clubs could use it for all their events.

[Redtail]

... most Australian Meetup bushwalking or hiking groups appear to have few events and 'Organizers' but large numbers of members.

Yes, we've noticed that with ours. We seem to get a lot of new requests on weekend evenings. I'm of the opinion (which is pure speculation) that there's a lot of people out there looking for something interesting to do. But the reality of turning up and walking for a day is a whole other thing.

Every bushwalking/hiking event I looked at would fit in the 'easy' grade category and perhaps this is just as well as the legal liability of the Organiser may one day be tested in court and even US-based Meetup warn: 'If an Organizer is using the Meetup platform for groups or events that involve high-risk or unique activities, an Organizer should consider a release or waiver that specifically addresses those activities.' I am advised however by more local legal minds that, depending on the circumstances, releases or waivers may have limited use in a court case and do not automatically prevail.

Established clubs of course have known for many years about the legal ramifications of leading a group through the bush and as a result (usually) Incorporate through State legislation and purchase liability insurance, all to help protect themselves from the possible consequences of the actions of others and legal liability.

One solution however would be for clubs to remain Incorporated, operating under the same rules, retain their insurance etc, but also establish themselves as a Meetup group and use the convenience of Meetup to automate event organisation and facilitate event signups (as per Redtail's initial email). Sydney Bushwalkers have done this for new member events only so far but small to medium sized clubs could use it for all their events.

I agree with the situation with waivers. One can't contract around legislation e.g. if the activity is deemed to be "club like", and there's a certain level expectation, then the organiser is at risk.
To be insured, means incorporating, which means fees and memberships and education and training and risk assessments and ... so it goes.
This is something I'm watching closely. If it gets too hard, I'll probably pack it in and go walk by myself.