I wonder if it would be a good idea to have a section of the forum called “Member Meet - ups”?
AT the moment there are quite few members using the same forum thread to suggest meet ups in different places and for different dates. It is becoming quite a long thread and it would be easy to overlook some of the individual comments.
Having a dedicated section of the forum means there could be a thread for each potential meet up, with dates and location in the title. It would be easy to see who will be where and when. Threads could be closed down a certain time period after the meet up dates.
Yes! I agree. It would be another way to set THS apart from the other services, being that THS has such a large membership. I would definitely take advantage of that feature.
Yes! I would love to meet up with other house-sitters. Especially if I’m in a city where I don’t know anyone, it’s sometimes nice to have company. Occasionally in my travels I randomly run into another sitter, and it’s always enjoyable.
It may still be too early as travel/sitting hasn’t normalized from covid, but it might be interesting to have a place where people can post what area they’ll be in when to see if others are around to meet up?
Something like an “I’ll be in the Andalucia area of Spain for all of March and would be interested in meeting people for wine, tapas, exploring, etc.” type listing.
some of us have started to this impromptu but I think the thread gets lost. I actually had my first meet up last week and it was fabulous.
I do try to keep an update on the “Who’s on a sit now and how’s it going topic”.
I suppose we could start a fresh topic? Happy to do it or just make this IT!
Yeah, I think it would get lost in general discussion which is why I thought having a forum category specifically for that might be helpful. I’m not sure what their criteria is for starting a new “channel” on the forum. But having people you know who are interested in meeting all in one place with some kind of subject format that makes them easy to sort through (ex: general location and dates) would be nice.
Hi and thanks for showing your interest in this, as other members have too. I’ve moved your thread here so that it keeps all the meetup interest in one place for the moment. It is something we have on the list for consideration and we do plan to think about how this can be best operated in the forum environment. We are still a young forum, so we are concentrating on the house sitting, travel and pets topics and growing those categories, and making sure these are at the fore of the topics to support the majority of members as we grow the community.
Meetups tend to occur more for the full-time community. We’ve done many over the years and loved meeting with other travelers and house sitters both between and on sits, and love the sense of community it builds for those of us nomadic, but also others traveling in retirement or longer term.
It’s definitely something on the agenda along with more local TrustedHousesitters events as travel gets underway again. So please, watch this space and in the meantime do use this thread and the direct message option for this purpose.
Amparo and I had a great meetup last week in Minnesota. Good conversation, good food!
The way we found each other was in this forum, but something more organized would be great. But I’ll post my next 2 sits dates now
Nov 9-16 Houston, Texas - I’m sitting in the Montrose area.
Nov 16-26 Palos Verdes Peninsula in LA county, CA.
Such a great topic for discussion. I reached out to a member that I noticed lived in the next town over. We are planning to meet next week for a chat. My hope is to learn as much as possible about the world of THS. It will be so nice to meet a like minded animal lover.
Hi there fellow sitters. Matt and I will be enjoying life in The Villages, Florida through 8 December. Let’s meet for a chat / picnic / stroll.
Bella aka Cheri
If any sitters visiting Vancouver, B.C. for sure let me know - I’d be delighted to meet up and show you around my hometown. Is there any sitters on here from New York? We’re going there in October, not on a sit but a personal vacation. I won’t be house sitting but going on a cruise. If anyone has a recommendation for a good hotel prior to going on a cruise I would love to hear!
I’ve a string of UK sits starting Dec 1. Anyone want to meet-up?
Where I’ll be
Evening of Dec 1 - London
Dec 2-7 - Runcorn, near Liverpool
Dec 9-13 - Bexhill on Sea
Dec 13-16 - London
Dec 17-27 - Kingussie in the Scottish Highlands
Dec 28-Jan 4 - West Bergholt, Colchester
I’ve had one enjoyable meet-up in the Minneapolis area with Amparo and would like to do more.
tom
Dude Sir! Those look fabulous. Enjoy and yes meetups are great. Hope to see you out there again somewhere near a furry animal soon.
I will be in the UK April- October with a short hop to Spain/Portugal and France in the middle.
hi Tom
that sure is a lot of travelling in such a short space of time between end of sit and beginning of next especially going from London to Kingussie I’m thinking you must have flown London to Inverness as its a 9hr drive. I’m cat sitting in Balvicar about 16 miles north west of from Oban bit far for meeting up. I do hope you enjoy the scenery.
