Philo the Unshorn commented:
Urm, this is never gonna work. Unless you end up with, oh, say 20 people in the same city, a Meetup is an impractical way to gather a group. TheRightChristians.org, bless their overly ambitious hearts, thought a blog with a couple hundred readers a day could launch like-minded Meetups, but even in the two cities where they had the most interest, they couldn’t reach the critical mass – it’s something like 8 – to trigger the automatic scheduling function. The UU Meetups have never even come close, but then we have actual churches for people’s meetin’ needs.
Let me clarify. I want people to sign up because there needs to be a recognizable, geographically-identified group of Universalist Christians, not because there will be monthly meetings. Few of the non-political Meetups actually meet: even in as densely populated an area as Washington I’ve found myself the only one to show up to a meet two or three times in two or three categories. This is why I spoke against the UUCF getting to hopped up on the idea.
But, in time, with some cultivation and patience, the map will begin to get filled in. At least a bit. And without churches, Universalist Christians have all that more reason to actually try and meet. A virtual theological-group is hardly one at all.
But if I had to depend on a technology and a protocol, and had less patience (and more time) I’d reprise the listmeet. Pre-WWW, the dominant Internet connection was the mailing list, and members would sometimes, well, meet up. Sometimes it can be as simple as “let’s all grab lunch at GA” to long road trip with people coming from several states. A meal is almost alway a part, but the program is pretty light. Think of it as a reunion for people who know one another but may not have met yet.
The Ship of Fools are the best kepers of this custom through their crew meets; these are arranged on the All Saints board. I suppose the closest UU parallel is the accidental blogmeets that have cropped up in the neighborhood of Boston.