My Meetup Misadventures (Part 6)

Today I can conclude discussion of my third Meetup misadventure by presenting the IBD Meetup organizer’s response to my request/brainstorm about adding an options component to his group (see here for previous discussion).

After not hearing back, two weeks later I followed up by asking whether he got my message. He responded:

     > Yes I did. I will give out your info at our meeting and see if
     > there is any interest. I will not be participating given your
     > restrictions, but someone may have interest and will have your
     > thoughts and info to contact you.

Eight weeks later I followed up by asking if he found anyone interested in “talking about options.” He responded:

     > I gave out the note you sent me on your expectations for an
     > options group and how to contact you through the Meetup.

I responded:

     > Nobody contacted me. I appreciate your efforts, though. If
     > you don’t mind me asking, in your previous message when
     > you said “I will not be participating given your restrictions,”
     > to what were you referring?

He responded:

     > You are very restrictive in how you believe the group should
     > work and didn’t seem open to others ideas. My take on your
     > opening note is you should start your own Meetup group, set
     > it up the way you want it run, find members that agree with
     > how you have it set up and go from there.

As I have suggested with my editorial comments, I feel like I sabotaged that connection with a closed-minded and inflexible tone. It hurt me to blow this because the connection seemed to have good potential but in retrospect I am glad to have had the experience. I certainly learned something: don’t make it sound like a full-time paid job! That won’t fly unless I’m looking to scare people off.

More with regard to Ann Arbor Algos, this post describes another set of reasons why I may have had trouble finding group members in the past.

Next time, story time concludes with one final misadventure.