Planning My Next Meetup [hopefully not MIS] Adventure (Part 2)

I previously discussed a potential Meetup model where members with sufficient expertise to present [advanced material] about option trading would have meeting/membership fees waived.

That concept, along with the rest of my thoughts from the last post, have gotten me thinking about trying to organize again. To that end, it might help to review my last attempt and why it was rejected.

I recently contacted the folks from Meetup online. I wrote the following:

     > I’ve had some fits and starts with Meetup in the past so I
     > want to go over my idea and see if it would be appropriate
     > per your community guidelines.
     >
     > I want to network with serious options traders (or those
     > interested to learn who would be serious about committing
     > time to work together) to create a trading team where we
     > consistently study simulated trades.
     >
     > This sort of community is badly needed. Independent traders
     > like myself operate in a very isolated landscape often preyed
     > upon by vendors of various types looking to profit under the
     > guise of trying to help and support us.
     >
     > Independent traders are uncommon (most with investible assets
     > hire professionals to manage their money). Option traders are
     > a fraction of the fraction, which makes them even harder to
     > find. I might have success in a big city like New York or
     > Chicago where the trading exchanges are. In Ann Arbor, Detroit,
     > or Lansing, though, I have found it to be really tough sledding.
     >
     > The group I envision will do most of its work online through
     > something like Yahoo! Groups, Slack, or GoToMeeting. I hope
     > to have daily online activity with trade monitoring and
     > creation. Disciplined, consistent participation establishes
     > accountability necessary to become a good trader.
     >
     > I would like to have a periodic in-person meeting to
     > actually see and shake hands with the people we’ve been
     > working with so regularly. This is where the traditional
     > Meetup comes into play.
     >
     > Initially, I would open the group online. I would then
     > like to interview each member to assess whether they are
     > serious and have something to offer. I want people to
     > either have expertise or time (which will eventually
     > result in expertise) they can commit to studying trades.
     >
     > If I can find 3-10 people then I will create a virtual
     > meeting of some sort to get us started. I would have
     > them pay a small fee (maybe around $50) to cover Meetup
     > expenses and/or anything else (including renting space
     > for periodic physical Meetups down the road).
     >
     > Finally, I would like to focus this on the Ann Arbor,
     > Lansing, and Metro Detroit area. This is bigger than a
     > city: [as discussed above] I feel the need to cast a wider
     > geographic net to have a real chance of finding interested
     > parties. It’s all within a 90-minute driving range, though,
     > which is hopefully not too large for members even at the
     > extremes to make a quarterly or semi-annual
     > face-to-face get-together.
     >
     > Any feedback would be appreciated!

I will continue with their response next time.