Hello all, we are interested in putting together a meetup in October in the Pensacola, Florida, USA, area.
How do we go about doing this? Does THS have a standard procedure for organizing a Meetup, and must it be sanctioned by THS?
Are Meetups only for sitters? Only for HOs? Or are they a combined event?
Your input is welcome. Thank you.
How wonderful! What you’re doing by mentioning here on the forum is the best way to get the meetup organized. Meetups are for anyone in the THS community, even friends of THS who may not yet be members but are curious about what it’s all about.
I am tagging @Vanessa_A for when she is next online to see if she might know of any sitters or pet parents in the area. Please keep us updated here on the forum and feel free to share photos of the meetup too.
Kelly & the forum team
HI @KenandMary1998
When I made the decision to create a meetup in London, it was just that a decision.
I picked a date and place and posted it here on the forum asking for anyone who was interested to RSVP me. It was open to anyone who was interested. Since it was posted on this forum, it was for THS members in this community. Homeowners, sitters and anyone who was considering membership and wanted to meet us.
I also encouraged THS admins to join if they could and felt inclined.
There are no rules here if you are the organizer.
So the real question is, would you like to host a meetup? where and when and who would you like to invite?
Post it here when you’re ready. Pensacola is a beautiful place!
all the best!
Hello @KenandMary1998 and wonderful that you are planning to organize a meetup in Florida! Meetups have been something we have encouraged since the forum began as we know how many wonderful friendships are made around the world when pet sitters and travellers come together! My partner Ian and I have spent almost a decade full-time travelling and have always tried to connect with others when out on the road or house sitting, generally using social media to help facilitate this. The forum is a natural progression of that with the added advantage that we all have the same things in common along with pets at the heart of all that we are!
So no, there is no standard procedure. As @Amparo mentions (and demonstrated wonderfully in her recent facilitation of the first of the large meetups organized through the forum), there is no standard procedure and no sanctioning required by THS. Just the will to bring like-minds together, the ability to reach out to members in your area (if as Kelly says we can help with that we will). Staying engaged and promoting your meetup in the forum (take inspiration from the London meetup threads) will help tremendously and of course, finding a venue (dog friendly pubs, bars, restaurants work well) to host your get-together is key.
As our meetups grow in number, I think we’ll see some organized by members, sitters and owners, and even those wanting to know more about pet sitting, travel and digital nomad lifestyles, and others organized and hosted by TrustedHousesitters. It’s certainly something we’d like to encourage and help with.
You can post on the USA meetup thread that Amparo linked to but once you have some interest and if it looks like being more than just a few, certainly start a new meetup post as both Amparo and @Samox24 did for the recent London events. And I’m sure both of them will give you tips if you need any!
We look forward to seeing how this meetup unfolds!
Hello @Amparo and @Vanessa_A Thank you for your responses. We are thinking about trying to get a meetup together, not sure it will happen yet. Still gathering information.
But… The link that you sent in your reply, “About Member Meetups and How to arrange a get-together” does not work. It goes to a page that says “Oops! That page doesn’t exist or is private.”
Hi @KenandMary1998 … try it now. We used to have the meetups in a separate category and these were the guidelines for creating a meetup which closed automatically when we closed that section to merge with travel and events. I’ve just reopened the topic and tweaked it to make it a little more general. Thanks for spotting !
Perfect! That did the trick. I will take a look.
Thank you!
Hi @KenandMary1998. My husband and I will be in the Destin area Oct 17-23. If the dates you’re considering line up with ours, we’d love to meet with you 
Hello @Karen_E,
So nice of you to mention this! The Wednesday or Thursday of that week look possible for a midday meetup, so if we do end up organizing this, we’ll post it on the “Meetups and Events” thread.
I’ve taken a look at several dog-friendly restaurants in Pensacola with outdoor seating, so this might work. If other HOs and sitters want to meetup earlier in October, we can do that, too. So there might be two meetups, who knows!? 
You probaby already know this, but Destin is an hour east of Pensacola, more so depending on traffic. We’ve been visiting Pensacola for the past 20+ years and are very familiar with the Panhandle and its traffic challenges (especially for towns along the coast, as Destin is). But who knows, if you’re west of Destin, that would shorten the drive.
We’ll stay in touch!
@KenandMary1998 yes, I’m aware there’s a bit of a drive between the two, but we will be on the west side of Destin and are willing to drive a bit for a meetup. I’ll be watching for your post.
@Karen_E We posted an update about a Pensacola MeetUp. Created a new thread just today (September 29), and wanted you to know this in case you’re still interested.
Hi @KenandMary1998 I will be in Pensacola during this time and would love to meet you and others, let us know when you have more details.
@savoryandrose Oops, the updated information will not be posted here but on THIS thread entitled “MeetUp in Pensacola – October 21 or 22”. See it here:
https://forum.trustedhousesitters.com/t/meetup-in-pensacola-fl-usa-october-21-or-22/23347
Good catch @KenandMary1998. I’ve now closed this conversation, and, since you were kind enough to include the link above, anyone who comes here will know to go there.