My Meetup Misadventures (Part 6)
Posted by Mark on November 2, 2018 at 07:35 | Last modified: September 29, 2018 05:07Today 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.