Gatherings of forum participants?

[Act2]

From time to time I see various gatherings of forum members mentioned. Is there any place in the forum that lists the gatherings? If there is one in Texas or a neighboring state, I would love to participate. Am in north central TX.

 

[skyking1]

I see the south Florida get togethers.
I would like to do the same in the PNW.

 

[Walt34]

They spontaneously pop up from time to time but to my knowledge there is no central listing of places for meetups.

 

[Dtail]

The only other one I have seen is in Washington D.C.

 

[omni550]

From time to time I see various gatherings of forum members mentioned. Is there any place in the forum that lists the gatherings? If there is one in Texas or a neighboring state, I would love to participate. Am in north central TX.

Act2,

If you're interested in meeting other forum members, I highly recommend creating a thread where you express your interest to meet others for your specific area (North Central TX...or someplace a bit closer to which you are willing to drive (maybe 2-3 hrs?)...or some "central" locaation you're wanting to visit for a day or two).

I first did this in 2017 in SW Florida (https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/any-interest-in-a-sw-fl-e-r-org-get-together-85748.html.) as I 'winter' here and know we have many ER folks who live here and others who are seasonal like myself. We've had 6 meet-ups so far (we skipped 2021 due to Covid) and have had between 6 and 16 people attend. And we've had folks travel 3+ hours to come hang with us. One couple has traveled just for this get-together (twice) and spent the weekend exploring nearby.

I have really enjoyed meeting other like-minded LBYM/FIRE/ER folks. I look forward to our annual get-togethers as everyone has been lovely, and the get-togethers are a lot of fun. It's nice to put faces to forum personas.

It's really not much work...finding a "convenient" place (to most attendees) where we could have a late lunch (so kitchen is not swamped and waitstaff is relaxed about us tying-up the tables for a 2.5-3 hours) that is quiet was the toughest thing, as I'm not that familiar with the Sarasota area (which is more convenient to many of the attendees) because my 'snowbird' home is almost 2-hours away. Forum members who resided nearby were a big help! It turns out that weekends made it easiest for all to attend, as we had some 'still working' folks express an interest in coming, too. And that also lightened the interstate traffic for the folks who drove a ways to attend.

I also have a place in SE Michigan and am considering organizing a similar ER get-together later-on this year (late summer into fall) in Michigan if a first post generates any interest.

Act2, I'd be happy to answer any of your questions and/or offer ideas if you do decide to host a get-together nearby. Or perhaps some similarly-interested Texans might reach out to you?

omni

 

[Montecfo]

DC group has done at least 2 possibly 3 or 4. It is great fun.

 

[Act2]

Thank you for the comments and advice

 

[Stormy Kromer]

I'll go when there is one within 100 miles. Not likely, but I'm in.

 

[Love This Community]

Omni, SE Michigan get together will be great. I live in Illinois and don’t mind the drive if we have few people sign up.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

From time to time I see various gatherings of forum members mentioned. Is there any place in the forum that lists the gatherings? If there is one in Texas or a neighboring state, I would love to participate. Am in north central TX.

I tried setting up a social group (under Communities) for our area, but a regular thread with the location in the title turned out to be more useful.

 

[omni550]

Omni, SE Michigan get together will be great. I live in Illinois and don’t mind the drive if we have few people sign up.

Great! I'll be posting an 'exploratory' SE Michigan (SEMI?) post in a few months. Stay tuned.


omni