MKE

Meetup.com recently decided they needed to make some money - this makes sense as they have a staff and offer a worthwhile service - an easy way to locate and network with local folks with shared interests. However, they decided to remedy their financial troubles by charging meetup organizers for each meetup. The fee is $19.00 a month or something like that but, for folks who have been with meetup for a while, they are extending a deal - $9.00 a month for the rest of the year. Organizers are encouraged to pass this expense along to their group and, in fact, are able to make money on their meetup if the so choose. In addition to use of the meetup website, organizers get a whole bunch of really cool stuff for paying up - table tents and professionally printed meetup cards and the like.

So, my book group decided that this whole scheme is a bad idea. What about targeted marketing for Pete's sake? Why not charge a meetup.com membership fee instead of passing off the work to the organizer? Should small groups like mine (3 -6 people per meetup and 9 members total), pay the same fee as a large group that really uses meetup resources for networking (e.g. Democracy for America)?

We decided to move off meetup.com and, while I was creating a home on blogger for the group, I came across this blog. I am curious about Mike. Did he ever manage to get through "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?" Did he decide to call it quits with the films there or did he go on to pirate "Prisoner of Azkaban?" Did he come up with that Q*bert template himself and, if not, can blogger bring it back?

That is all.