Starting a Small Club

[ins8bl1]

Ladyhawke and I travel alot for a living. Late one night we talked about perhaps creating a traveling type club. Renting out a conference room and some suites (or maybe a house) in a city we are currently staying.

Has anyone tried this or know of anybody who has?

I guess I would be wondering the legal ramifications or other statutes that may be involved.

[BiloxiCouple]

That's a pretty common thing.

The way you are talking it is a "hotel social". Rent the ballroom or such of a hotel and attendees could get their own rooms.

There are people here who do it or have done and may be able to give you some information concerning it.

Since you would be renting you would have to follow the guidelines of the hotel. The other couple of things I can think of is any possible or partial nudity and alcohol. Those two things when mixed have legal ramifications depending on how it is done. That would be your biggest concerns I believe. The hotel has all the other permits required of a business.

There are clubs/socials/events listed in our club listings that do it that way. Yahoo groups sometimes have these things listed.

[ins8bl1]

So would these be like "Meet and Greets"?

Because that certainly sounds plausible. One of the reasons we are considering this is that most of these events are on weekends, and our jobs are weekend intensive ( I work 35 hours between Sat and Sun). It has been the major stumbling block in finding local clubs and events.

We can't be the only couple with weekend engagements keeping us to busy to enjoy our lifestyle!

[JustAskJulie]

We set up a group on Swing Lifestyle to do dinner meets in our area and we've thought about incorporating mid-week dinners as well as or instead of weekend dinners. It does seem like weekends are the default but I know there are people who would be interested in mid-week meetings as well.

That might be one way to start, start a group on Swing Lifestyle and just point out that you will be scheduling roving mid-week M&Gs across the country as you travel. Plan them ahead as much as you can. You could even just have them in the hotel bar (where you are staying) initially. Then once it looks like you have the response necessary look into reserving a meeting room. Of course, the one downside to having themin the hotel bar is that you have to be a LOT more discreet.

[screaminggood]

As a mom with young children, I beg....make the start times early enough that we can have time to meet, play, etc. and not have to explain to our kids where we go after the bars close down!

[BiloxiCouple]

Originally Posted by screaminggood

As a mom with young children, I beg....make the start times early enough that we can have time to meet, play, etc. and not have to explain to our kids where we go after the bars close down!

What times would be appropriate for your situation? Others may have the same questions.

[ins8bl1]

I don't know about screaminggood,but...

Well basically from tuesday to thursday we are off...ok we are always a little bit off!

I was thinking something that starts around happy hour or right after, so there is time to do things after the get together for those who might want to go somewhere more private. Plus it may allow some that do have regular weekday jobs to come out and participate.

[JustAskJulie]

Originally Posted by ins8bl1

I was thinking something that starts around happy hour or right after, so there is time to do things after the get together for those who might want to go somewhere more private. Plus it may allow some that do have regular weekday jobs to come out and participate.

That is a really good idea.

[screaminggood]

I agree with the "happy hour" idea...it could start at happy hour and ha, I could become dinner?!

So many places, the real stuff doesn't start happening until midnight...which gives us a cinderella feeling....have to hurry to find the charming people before we turn into pumpkins and have to return home to the kids.

[good times]

We have one local club that does the weekday thing, we also had another club, now closed, that did the same thing and actively promoted it on Tuesday nights. In general these weekday club nights are pretty dead. In fact, we will occasionally stop at the local club that is open weeknights for a drink, and it is usually only us and a fews single guys there. I think that people just aren't into getting all fixed up to go out on a work night. I know that we will not play with anyone if we have to work the next day, it just isn't worth it for us.

[fun4Ds]

Good idea. We would be interested at times, meeting for brunch. But we never found anyone els interested except those that spend the night.

What can I say I'm usually peaking at that time of day.

[ins8bl1]

I guess he success would vary depending on the location...some cities seem to have more non-traditional work weeks than others. I know most people I meet in the midwest have weekday jobs with weekends off...while here in Phoenix area, there seems to be more people with more varied schedules.

I really want to do more reseaerch before attempting anything too large, but may look at doing somethinge here in the phoenix area before I leave in April.

[two42lovers]

Doing a meet-up/party along the lines you are talking about would take a lot of long distance networking and word-of-mouth to be successful. Not sure how you would build such a group - if things are constantly moving from city to city, not sure how you'd attract people to attend. Creating an Swing Lifestyle group is a good idea, but most people who join such groups are never heard from nor seen. You would need to create a lot of "buzz" to get people to actually show. Most groups take time to build a following - they start slow and build over time. Constantly moving from location to location would make it a double challenge. (Sounds fun, though! )

[ins8bl1]

Yeah, its the challenge part I am finding attractive right now. We do have 2 locations where we spend half the year...3 months in AZ and about that in NC, its the 6 months in between that are always up in the air.