Chattanooga Meetup connects people who share common interests
The continuous growth of Chattanooga is omitting a magnetic wave that is pulling people in from all over the world. With so many newcomers migrating to the area, there are a lot of people in metro Chattanooga that are looking to meet new people. Unfortunately, meeting likeminded people in a new city is not always an easy task.
It can be unsettling for a person to venture out to explore new areas on a solo mission, and many various deterring factors often simply keep people at home; they would rather just skip whatever it is that they want to do so that they don’t have to do it alone.
For those out there looking to make some friends or activity buddies, help is on the way. The Meetup web site and app is thriving in Chattanooga, and plays host to an extraordinarily wide variety of groups and participants, making meeting new people while in transition slightly less intimidating due to its endless potential to help make noteworthy connections.
Meetup is a site that hosts a multitude of groups that are geared to connecting people with similar interests. To alleviate any potential misconception, Meetup is not a dating site. Although there are singles groups inside of the site, its overall intention is linking people through group activities. There is a great appeal about the site that is daily drawing people to utilize its services.
There are Meetup groups available for people of all walks of life, and the groups widely vary in size. Where groups like “Loved and Lost” host 125 members, some of the groups boast much larger numbers, such as the Chattanooga Hiking Group which hosts nearly 4,000 members.
The logistics are rather basic. It is free to sign up and join groups, and once a member signs up, they can browse the endless groups available and choose the ones that spark their interests. Anybody can start a Meetup group about anything that they want for a very small monthly fee. Some of the groups ask the members to pitch in to cover the fees, but it is seemingly rare. Typically, the creator of the group knows they will just have to absorb the nominal monthly fee while operating a functioning group.
Once a Meetup member joins a group, they will get notifications about that individual group through email. The notifications tell the members about upcoming events, and gives them the opportunity to RSVP for the specific ones that match their availability. Realistically a member could join groups and have a Meetup activity every day of the week.
To give an idea of the diversity of the groups, some of the most active and popular groups are the Chattanooga Socialites, Tennessee Wild Meetup, Outdoor Club South Chattanooga, Adult Sports Recreational League, Boomers Together, New to Chattanooga, the Sunset Club, The Personal Self Improvement Meetup group, Brews Chattanooga 5k Beer Running Club, Chattanooga Writers Guild, Nooga Networking, Chattanooga Photographers, and the Anything Goes Social Singles Meetup Group. This is just a small list of the many groups available.
Where some of the larger cities probably have a pretty solid Meetup group member base, not every city may get the same results that Chattanooga gets, people tend to show up for the Chattanooga meetup groups. It is a true spectacle to witness some of the groups in action. The paddle boarding group takes over the Tennessee River, and onlookers from around the city can watch them unite and interact. On any given Wednesday, the Running for Brews group all come together to run a distance over the bridge and downtown, then meet at the Brewhaus to partake in beer drinking; they look like a small mob.
Meetups help people do more of what they love to do by discovering and creating communities based around the ideas and activities that matter to them. Meetups are formed around a common interest, goal, or cause, and they are made up of regular face to face gatherings. Meetups help people do what they love, find others, make friends, get involved in local communities, learn, teach, and share, unite to make a difference, and be a part of something that is taking over both locally and globally.
After being in Chattanooga for roughly a year now, when I initially moved here, it was a little difficult to meet people that shared similar interests as me. I would venture out and do activities, but often times I found myself doing things alone. More times than not I would go out by myself to concerts, hiking trails, eating at some of Chattanooga’s fine eating establishments; it got to the point where I was ready to meet some new people.
I am rather adventurous, and do not always mind doing things alone, but occasionally it is nice to have someone to do things with. After a random interaction with a local group that meets at the Hunter Museum once a month, I discovered that Meetup groups were a thing, and thriving as a whole. I would start attending Meetup groups, and was very active in the Meetup community for several months. I met a lot of great people, some that I consider close friends, and I will continue to attend Meetup groups in attempt to gain new connections.
While not every group will lead to a connection, keep in mind that there are endless opportunities. Some of the groups are based strictly off meeting new people and mingling, while others revolve around hobbies, careers, networking, and dating. There will be times that people attend Meetups and do not gain one connection, other times they will go and be surrounded by a roomful of likeminded people, the only way to know is to show up and participate.
It may seem a bit intimidating to attend some of the larger groups that meet in public, walking up to a group of people to ask if they are part of a Meetup group can be a slight deterrent for some people to follow through.
There have been times that I went home due to nervousness and uncertainty about location and if that in fact was the group or not; I merely did not want to walk up to a group of strangers to ask if they were with the Meetup group. My advice to the groups that meet in crowded, public spaces is to stand out more. Make your Meetup location more certain, so that people are not looking around wondering if that is the group or not.
After attending countless Meetups, I have learned a lot about going through the process. It is better to start with the smaller groups as an ice breaker. Starting out going to a Meetup with a group that has fifty people attending seems like a great time until your surrounded by fifty strangers, it can be a little overwhelming.
Starting small is a good way to get used to the newness of meeting strangers, it helps build the confidence to locate and interact with the groups. The uncomfortable feeling will diminish with each Meetup group attended. Eventually it will get to the point where it will not be weird at all to walk up to people and say “Hey, are you guys with the Meetup group”?
The only other advice that I have for some of the groups that have been together for a while is to be careful to not become a clique. People that are new to a city are looking to make individual connections, and groups that have known each other for a long time develop a bond, and sometimes can unintentionally make newcomers feel unwelcome.
There was a biking event that I attended earlier this year, and not one person talked to me because they were all talking together as the big group of friends that they were. Nobody was rude, they just were not welcoming. Watching the clique interact was fun and all, but it made developing new connections difficult. People are already being adventurous by meeting up with strangers, keep in mind that if groups want to grow they need to focus on the newcomers as well as the friends they have made during their time as a group.
Chattanooga’s thriving Meetup scene is only going to continue to grow. As more people learn about its capabilities and benefits, they will continue creating diverse groups to attract people. Some of the many groups with thousands of participants all started with somebody making the decision to start a group about something that they enjoy doing, and wanted others to take part of too. It is almost certain that turnout ratios toppling the thousands was unexpected by the people that started the groups.
It just goes to show how one act can have a ripple effect. Not only does the group creator get to enhance their life by doing activities with other people, but they also get to hold onto the feeling that they are making a difference. Think how many connections are made daily in a group that has three thousand people.
Whoever out there is bored, lonely, or just wanting friends; Meetup has some activities and friends that is only just a click away.