[mikeruiz]

Can that role be automated? Some sort of community vote on a text proposal from the system, along with rsvp, reminders, etc? people may have more skin in the game if they voted on a time/place.

Automate place and tine selection: under eight in the community? Beer hall with 4+ stars that don’t need reservations. 1:1? Coffee shop. Etc. send over some date time location tuples, hold a vote, maybe do a runoff, whatever.

I know that if I got a flash meetup invite to a coffee shop along with instructions on how to meet people (to the left of the door at 10am sharp) I might actually make time. Worst case I drink coffee, which I was planning on doing anyway.

Basically: take the initiative?

[spike021]

You can but I think people like the human element that "someone" has put this whole thing together.

At my events for that club, I don't lead anything at the event. I basically make sure people aren't causing any trouble or littering (none of this ever happens but it's just my assumed responsibility).

But I'll notice people asking around to know who set things up. Usually they find me and thank me because they enjoyed meeting other people and learning from each other.

Again, very human kind of thing I think.

[maccard]

That’s been my experience too. I have a friend who is very involved in a large (250+ people every week, same time same place) - she has a group of volunteers and a rota, who help and set everything up. Her job is mostly keeping those volunteers happy and dealing with the occasional troublemaker (usually in the form of someone forcing themselves into the volunteer role and trying to “make things better” without understanding why things are the way they are.