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Long Islanders share interests at Meetup.com

BY ANNE MACHALINSKI | anne.machalinski@newsday.com

March 12, 2008

Ever since she was in high school, Adrienne Brand, a 36-year-old production artist from Mineola, has carried her camera everywhere. On a recent Sunday afternoon, camera in tow, she held court at Mo' Joe, a coffee shop, as eight others - cameras at the ready - listened attentively and peppered her with questions before setting off to shoot the community's annual St. Patrick's Day parade.

And so goes a regular meeting of the Long Island Photography Meetup, a group Brand organized online a few years ago as a means of socializing with other Long Islanders who shared her passion for taking pictures. She found like-minded shutterbugs with the help of Meetup.com, a Web site that specializes in uniting people with niche interests who live near one another. Although there are plenty of Internet-based groups that trade tips, share advice and seek camaraderie in online forums, the point of Meetup's groups is, frankly, to meet up in person.

"You can have a hobby and say you're going to do it, but you never do," says Christine Coleman, 40, one of the photography Meetup's newest members. "It takes having a little structure to make it a priority."

Coleman, a corporate travel agent who lives in Flushing, was happy to stumble upon the group's Web site last month. "I was so excited because this is exactly what I was looking for," she says.

According to its Web site, Meetup has more than 2.5 million members today across 55 countries worldwide; it was launched in 2002. Each local Meetup has its own Web site, which keeps members up to date on details of in-person get-togethers. Organizers pay $72 for every six months of the site's services, a cost typically shared among the group's members.

Besides photography, the largest hobby group on Long Island, there are 230 others covering interests that range from scrapbooking to fitness to Italian language and karaoke, with new groups forming literally every day.

The Rock Climbing, Hiking and Biking Meetup, with 147 members, is one of the larger groups on Long Island. The group gets together every Wednesday evening at Island Rock, an indoor climbing venue in Plainview.

Among the devotees: Karen Thomas, a public relations executive from Huntington who tried scaling the wall for the first time less than a month ago. Though she "felt crazy" attending her first Meetup without knowing anyone in the group (or how she felt about heights), she says it's been a positive experience.

"You're dealing with the unknown, and that's good," says Thomas, 40, who's also attended gatherings for local groups dedicated to small dogs and signed up for membership in roller-skating and dining-out clubs, among others, in the six months she's been browsing Meetup.com. "You have to be willing to lose your cool."

The Girls Night Out Meetup is a platonic group of 20-some women in their 20s and 30s who meet almost every week for Bikram yoga, happy hours and cultural outings to Manhattan. Although the first get-together in December came with "nerve-racking" awkwardness, the group's 29-year-old Rockville Centre-based organizer, who declined to be named for this story citing privacy concerns, says its members have since grown comfortable with one another.

Seeking to round out his career as a personal trainer, Huntington resident Christian Lombardo formed the Long Island Kettlebell Club last fall as a means of introducing more people to the Russian exercise, which involves swinging a cast-iron weight with a handle for a high-intensity, total body workout. Six months later, Lombardo's Meetup group has 44 members and gets together for a class outdoors, rain or shine, on the third Saturday of every month. Lombardo, 35, charges $20 to attend, and some members have taken to the routine enough to hire him for one-on-one sessions.

Says Lombardo, "It's been a great experience for everyone."

Want to start a Meetup group? Here's a list of tips from Meetup.com:

Before organizing a new group, do a site search to make sure a similar Meetup doesn't already exist.

Customize your group's online listing with a catchy name and an appealing photo.

Plot out the basic details of your first meeting: When will you meet? Where? What will you do?

It will take time for your Meetup to get into full swing. Lots of successful organizers have bad meetings from time to time. Stay positive and stick with it.

Looking for more members? Add additional topics to your Meetup for more exposure.

Include icebreakers in your first meeting - play trivia or other party games to get to know your new group.

Encourage members to create profiles so they can learn about one another online before meeting in person.

Send a personal introduction by e-mail to tell members about yourself. Why did you decide to organize the group?