What do you have to do to start a club

[pdnewbie]

What do you have to do to start a club in your area? I haven't the faintest clue.

[Gordon]

What sort of club do you want to start?

I presume a personal development club as opposed to my personal favourite...a strip club?

G

[pdnewbie]

I wanted to start a personal development club, or some social club, where people help each other out based on their strengths and weaknesses, kind of like a mentor/mentee relationship but on a level playing field.

[Javen]

Interesting topic...

I'd quite like to do something similar - except I am happy to lead the group if needed.

If anyone has tips or suggestions, then I'd love to hear from you.

J

[Holistic Star]

It's not a personal development group, but I started a reading group 8 years ago that is still going today. I think you may find a few help parallels in approach, although the subject matter is different.

First of all I asked all my firends and colleagues if they wanted to join. They all said no!

So I advertised in book shops and the local library. I put that I wanted to start a group and was looking for enthusastic book lovers and the date of the first meeting which was about three months ahead.

No-one rang for 2 months and I was feeling a bit disheartened and about to take the posters down, and then within 1 week I had 5 phonecalls enquirying about the group. Yeah!

I took everyone's name and contact number and said I would get back to them when we had enough people. I also arranged the first meeting in a quiet pub so we could all have the chance to check each other out in a neutral, public venue. (we now take turns to meet in each other's houses). The other thing I did when they phoned which I have found out since was very reassuring was to ask lots of questions about what they wanted to get out of the group, what their past experience was and also what I was hoping to get out of the group. It reassured people that I was genuine which is really important.

I made sure I had clarified what I wanted to get out of the group myself first and I had 4 objectives which I shared at the first meeting. (They were: read books I wouldn't have otherwise read; meet people I wouldn't have otherwise met; have fun and get more out of my reading) I also didn't want to set myself up as an expert, but to create a space where we could share our thoughts.

I found it useful to have contact with everyone by email once a month between sessions useful aswell to remind people of the date and next books.

It also works better if you set a very small (say 30 min) amount of homework between sessions to get the sessions focused.

I hope that helps you think through the process.

Things to consider are:

what do you want to get out of it?
what is your ideal group member?
where does your ideal group member hang out? where will they see your advertising?
how often will you meet?
where will you meet?
will you charge a fee for attendance, if so how much?
is there a room hire cost? will you share this between people? what happens if people don't show?
do you want to run each session, or do you want others to lead some sessions?
what topics will you cover? are there any topics that are off-limits?
in a year's time, what would you have liked to achieved with the group?


Starting is definitely possible, the thing that is important is to is maintain that energy so the group grows and develops and continues. Definitely possible and lots of fun. I learned a lot about leading people (I was the youngest in the group at 24 and the age range went up to 60). I had to learn how to give direction and clarity and keep the group focused. Definitely a very positive experience, I'm sure it would translate well into a personal development group. You could even start by choosing a personal development book and focusing on a different chaper each month for the first few months until the group develops a life of its own

Hope that helps x

[Jennihul]

Meetup: World's largest community of local Meetups, clubs and groups!


Jennifer