Group trip to the Woolly Good Gathering, Edinburgh, Saturday 5 April
Tickets for the Woolly Good Gathering are now on sale. These tickets have sold out in previous years so do buy now if you'd like to come with us and RSVP on Meetup so that we can arrange travel closer to the time.
Moving off Meetup
For the past 6 and a half years, the Stirling Knit 'n' Natter group has been organised on Meetup.com and is how almost all of our members have found us. However, over that time, Meetup has become more expensive and its focus has been shifting more and more from making friends to making money.
As a result, I've decided that we will be moving away from Meetup when our current subscription ends in April. What I don't know yet is where we are going to go and that's where I need your help. I've set out some initial thoughts below but it would be really helpful if you could let me know what you think and, in particular, if you have any other suggestions for how we could organise ourselves that I haven't thought of!
Friars Wynd reminder: at some point, the back door to the hotel from the car park will be locked all day (instead of just at night) but the manager will share the code with me so that we can continue to still use it. I'll share the code when I get it (and when it changes periodically) but, if you have any problems getting in, you can phone the number on the sign by the back door, let them know that you're there for the knitting group and they'll give you the code.
Happy crafting!
Susan
Moving away from Meetup
[This got really long but it's important so please do read it and let me know what you think!]
As I said above, Meetup (as an organisation) has shifted its focus from making friends to making money. I have absolutely no interest in trying to make money from the group and only collect event fees to pay for our Meetup subscription (and our Zoom subscription for online events). Given that, it's becoming harder to justify paying the increased Meetup fees. To put things in context, we were paying around £16 per month for our subscription until last October, when it jumped to around £27. In addition, Meetup charges an extra 57p on every £1 event fee when people sign up to our online events through the site. That is particularly frustrating since I (mostly) only collect the fees to pay Meetup in the first place!
As a result, we're going to move off Meetup when our current subscription ends in April and we need to think about how we're going to organise ourselves as a group after that. I've set out a couple of proposals below but would love to hear what people think and any suggestions for other options. The details are likely to be slightly different for in-person and online so I've set them out separately below.
I really would appreciate any feedback on these suggestions or other alternatives that I should consider. You can reply to this email, email me at susan@yellowgingerdesigns.co.uk or we can talk about it at a meetup.
Some key points
- I'm not proposing to change how/when we meet. We'll keep meeting on Monday evenings (UK time) and alternate in-person and online events.
- Similarly, this newsletter will continue in something close to its current form so you'll always be able to find out what we're up to from it.
- I would like a wide range of new crafters to be able to find us. I'm not looking to make the group much bigger but if we don't get new members from time to time, the group will eventually die.
- I would prefer to minimise costs as far as possible but will still need to cover the cost of our Zoom subscription.
- Not everyone in the group has a smart phone or is comfortable using app-based options so I've only considered options that can be accessed via a web brower (which rules out Spond, Pitchero, WhatsApp, etc.)
- I don't have a lot of spare bandwidth to manage too many sites/apps/social media so want to keep things relatively simple/stick to sites that I already use regularly.
Regardless of what else we decide to do, I plan to set up a Facebook page and a Ravelry group to help new people find us and I will let you know where those are, once I've done that.
In person
This is probably relatively straightforward for our regular Monday meetups. I can list our in-person events for free on Eventbrite and What's on Stirling, as well as Facebook and Ravelry, as mentioned above. Organising trips to yarn festivals will be a bit more complicated but will probably be done through the newsletter and talking to people on a Monday night.
Since there aren't any costs associated with any of these options, I will stop collecting fees for in-person meetups after April.
If we decide that we need to advertise more widely for new members at any point, we can also organise flyers to go in Pembertons, libraries, local Co-ops, etc.
If you've paid me money for in-person events that hasn't been used by April, I can refund it or roll it into an online subscription (see below), if you like.
Online
I will still need to collect fees to cover our online meetups to pay for our Zoom subscription (currently £13 per month), which makes finding a new online home a bit more complicated.
For regular attendees, I can offer "subscriptions", which would enable people to pay quarterly (~£5) or annually (~£20) and attend as many meetups as they like in that period. (We meet online ~26 times a year so this is cheaper than just now, particularly if you usually sign-up through Meetup and pay the additional fees currently.) This would be set up through our newsletter provider and would be on a "will automatically renew but can be cancelled anytime" basis. You'd then be emailed the Zoom link and calendar invites for the relevant dates. I'd also still be happy to accept cash and direct PayPal payments (but it would be much easier for me to manage if most people used the subscription option).
I can also list our online events on Eventbrite with a small fee, which would enable new people to find us and try us out before committing to paying for a longer period. I can "announce" events on Facebook and Ravelry but will direct people to Eventbrite or our subscription options to avoid having to share the Zoom link publicly.
Any money you've paid me directly that hasn't been "used up" by the time that we move off Meetup can be refunded or rolled over into a new online subscription.
What do we lose and are there other alternatives?
With all of these options, we will lose some of our ability to talk to each other as a group, outside of meetups, but I don't actually think that we do very much of this now, even on Meetup.
There are alternatives that would make talking as a group (or to other group members) easier but they all have disadvantages:
- WhatsApp - I know lots of us use it for other things but not everyone can or does. (I could set up a group chat if people are interested but it can't be our main source of communication.)
- Facebook (via a group and/or Messenger) - I absolutely hate trying to keep up with group chats (and anything else!) on Facebook so don't want to use it for this group. I will set up a page so that I can post announcements and to help new people find us but that's it.
- Ravelry - I will set up a group and people are welcome to use it to chat but I am aware that some people have difficulty accessing Ravelry and since it's aimed at knitters and crocheters, it's not ideal for group members who don't do either.
- Discord - this is how lots of group organise these days and (I think) would allow us to meet online for free. However, I don't use it currently and I suspect that's true for most of the group. My sense is also that there's a bit of a learning curve that might discourage people. Let me know if I'm wrong though!
- Slack - I do use Slack but, otherwise, the comments above for Discord apply to Slack too.
- Other alternatives - there are a slew of sites/apps out there that are set up to be alternatives to Meetup (particularly since Meetup started getting so expensive). However, most of them also have relatively high fees compared to the options set out above and many of them are also aimed more at making money. The ones that aren't don't seem to have very many users and would require the whole group to sign up to use a new site.
Other dates for your diary
Events in bold are those that we will definitely be attending as a group and I'll add links to the relevant Meetup events when they're live. Other events are listed for information but let me know if you'd be interested in attending as a group. Similarly, email me at susan@yellowgingerdesigns.co.uk with details of other crafty events or exhibitions in central Scotland and I'll add them to the list.
Our February meetups
Remember to RSVP on Meetup!
- 10, 24 February: Zoom
- 3, 17 February: Friars Wynd, Stirling
