Aug. 21, San Mateo

Okay, I'm getting progressively worse at remembering to post event announcements here. I'm delegating this task to SpiffyTickler, so you'll likely see announcements from him in the future.

Anyway, our next party is coming up fast, this Saturday, August 21, chez catstoes in San Mateo. RSVP to [email protected] to get details on where and when to meet. Also e-mail me if you want event announcements delivered straight to your inbox, as soon as we set the dates! No more finding out too late on the TMF! And more time hanging out with your new favorite group of people.

Hope to see you soon!

I was coming here to post this and didn't realize you had already. Good job! =)

LindyHopper said:

Okay, I'm getting progressively worse at remembering to post event announcements here. I'm delegating this task to SpiffyTickler, so you'll likely see announcements from him in the future.

Anyway, our next party is coming up fast, this Saturday, August 21, chez catstoes in San Mateo. RSVP to [email protected] to get details on where and when to meet. Also e-mail me if you want event announcements delivered straight to your inbox, as soon as we set the dates! No more finding out too late on the TMF! And more time hanging out with your new favorite group of people.

Hope to see you soon!

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This was an awesome event thanks to all who came and were involved in it. The memory of tickling and chocolate covered bacon will remain in people's minds for some time to come (I made the ccb).

Also it is amazing that 1/3 of the guests to this event are or were not from the TMF, but through networking on other sites and events.

If you want to know "how do I get people to my event" especially from outside the TMF here is the secret...

"Talk to people like a human being and not a desperate predator and they will come." Be nice, be polite, be a cool person. Then one of the people you contact may be uber social with mad contact skills and the beat will go on and soon you will have a plethora of cool people you never met before.

Then you achieve closer gender balance.

Then you have more and more fun because you have new people to play with, talk to, geek out with, etc.

Gatherings are about being social first and the play just naturally happens. This is why I really have come to enjoy our gatherings. This is why they are going strongly and have momentum behind them.

I made one connection to someone from Fetlife and suddenly after good experiences with good people she has "spread the gospel" and we have more new people. With hosts like Lindyhopper and Catstoes making people welcome and putting out a positive environment with welcoming energy things have been strong.

I have talked about "days of old" where we had really good energy and a flow of new and cool people. That momentum is easy to lose and hard to rebuild. Lindyhopper and Icycle have had a rough time of bringing that back and have hit potholes and flat tires on the journey, but they were persistent. It has not been easy. I fully admit there were times when I didn't think this was going to be like it was before. I am happily proven wrong and am glad that things are back to the level of awesome from the "old days."

This is not to say that gatherings in the past year have been terrible by any stretch. I am simply stating that things have only gotten better and refined.

Thanks again for a wonderful time. For those of you who sit in the shadows and wonder "should I go." GET OUT OF THE SHADOW and frickin' join the revolution of awesomeness.

Thanks to everyone for a wonderful party! Thanks especially to Catstoes for making time and space for us, and for feeding us all those carbs.

Personally, I had a wonderful time 'leeing and my 'lering last night! Sometimes, things just come together... like a couple of guys who'd I'd only ever seen 'leeing deciding to switch it up, and being crazy awesome at it!

I agree with Bagel about momentum. I think getting people to gatherings is just naturally like herding cats. They have their own lives, they come and go, and it's probably not about anything you did or didn't do. As a host, your job is just to be there when then come back around, or to welcome them for the first time.

I do want to say something about the "days of old." I think any one person's experiences may fluctuate from one party to the next, or one year to the next, based on their own story and relationships. I can say with specific-feedback certainty that some people would put the peak of awesome at about one year ago. Other people would say two years ago. Still others would refer to some golden age in the past. I don't buy it. Objective measures of awesome are hard to come by.

Though as far as objective measures go... an 8:7 male:female ratio ain't bad. Sometimes, it does just take one person, and Bagel definitely deserves a high-five for bringing Joy into our lives (ha ha, I made a funny!). But seriously, I have never seen such recruiting energy as we've had the privilege of enjoying lately. I guess we must be doing something right!

Our next event should be late Sept. or early Oct. Again, e-mail [email protected] to get the word as soon as it goes out, and not have to wait until I remember to post it here. See you all again soon!

In my personal opinion, I think things have been going gangbusters around here for about as long as I can remember. We have been having monthly gatherings with lots of socializing and camaraderie, as well as plenty of play, for years. There are a few people who make it to nearly every event, a lot more who make it from time to time, and lots and lots who only make it once in a blue moon, and newcomers are always made to feel very welcome. To me, having a community of enough people, both regulars and newcomers, to support a successful monthly event means we've had pretty good momentum for quite a while.

And of course, recently, we've got gender balance as close to 1:1 as I've ever seen (or heard of!) at any event!

Thanks again to everyone who attended (especially Galileo85 who came all the way from SoCal!) and to catstoes for hosting! I can't wait until our next event!

Thanks to Catstoes for hosting and to everyone for participating!
I had a great time, and it was definitely worth the long trip!!
This time I had the experimental proof that when you're more comfortable you are more ticklish and you have more fun And it's all thanks to the relaxed atmosphere we created
I hope to make it for the next event

Galileo85 said:

Thanks to Catstoes for hosting and to everyone for participating!
I had a great time, and it was definitely worth the long trip!!
This time I had the experimental proof that when you're more comfortable you are more ticklish and you have more fun And it's all thanks to the relaxed atmosphere we created
I hope to make it for the next event

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Ha ha, I was wondering about that! I had remembered from whatever years ago that it had been hard to get a reaction out of you. Not so this time!

Thank you for taking the time to come all the way up here! I hope you can make the trip again soon.