How to run a Meet-Up

kool and umm so do u need a permit for a meetup lol haha

Depends on your local laws. In Singapore setting up Global Shuffle Day was a big effort with local officials even getting a credit on the shuffle vid.

It was 17 year old highschool student Jancis and her fantastic SG crew who did all the local work. They did the meetup as part of their final year project...and passed with high scores of course.

http://melbourneshuffleoldskool.blogspot.com/2009/05/global-shuffle-day-2009.html





But in Melbourne just any public place is the go

If you're just expecting half a dozen people, you'd be fine just somewhere at a local mall or public park area. Try not to block doorways and emergency exits etc, if someone in authority asks you to move on, do it.

Just always make it somewhere you feel safe.

For bigger sizes say 10-50 somewhere like a car park or indoor sports area at school is good. Check you can do it 'before' you do it

General Rule: Don't give your local authorities any reason to ban you from shuffling. You're just there to shuffle.

If you're at school, sus out if there's somewhere safe around school you can have a meet-up.

Check with teachers etc. You might be able to access sporting areas outside normal school hours

k well i live in la can u hlp me find out if i need a permit

You need to check online with the local law guys, so the official town hall or county laws website. There'll be a section usually called 'by-laws' or something like that or street activity permits.

Generally the street activity permits are for big crowds that will need some traffic control, like a block party or something. But a meet-up wouldn't need that when starting out.

to get yourself started First pick a site, then find out what laws cover it. IE Is it private property or public space. The laws will be different for each case.

With private property, say like a mall or carpark, usually they'll tell you upfront , no skateboards, no bikes, no dogs no food or what ever.

If it's a public area, like a park or footpath plaza/boardwalk etc, usually there will be a city council/town hall sign somewhere telling you don't walk on the grass, no littering etc and the name of the authority controlling that public space will be somewhere.

Most often it's the local town hall or shop/traders association who control it, cut the grass, do repairs etc.

The main thing they look for in granting a permit is that you aren't going to cause damage or harm.

Seeing as shuffling doesn't cause damage and is a new activity for many areas, you can expect the local authorities to be a bit cautious, but will probably give you a chance.

If all goes well the first time - like no complaints no police etc, then you'll probably be able to keep using the site, Every month or so type of thing.

So it's worth going through the process in the long run, to get yourself somewhere to have meetups.

If your local area doesn't mind 10-20 youths hanging around a street corner or night market etc, then you could probably just do it. But most authorities freak when they see a mob of kids converging on a site, expecting big trouble.

In Melbourne at the main town sq Federation Sq, you don't need permits, but you share the space with who ever else is there, so it could be some tourism promotion with display stands and stuff everywhere, with not much room to shuffle. Usually everyone just moves to somewhere nearby if too crowded.

I was at the first couple of meetups at Fed Sq and the security staff were so impressed with how well behaved a meetup of about 70-80 shufflers were, no noise problems, politely moved on if blocking a doorway etc, that they arranged for the top carpark level to be used for future meetups to give us more room and a smoother surface...for free.

So, often local authorities will actually support you with help like that.

If your town hall has a youth officer or youth department, like not a criminal thing, but a social welfare or social activities dept, then give them a call and let them know what you want to do.

Generally they're happy to support and encourage youths in organising their own activities - plus it means they can keep an eye on you to step in if there's any trouble by people trying to trash your meetup.

Hey Garry, how would I go around about advertisement?

First thing you want to do is attract the 'right' sort of people. Buy right we mean shufflers, you don't want to attract arseholes who just want to ruin everything.

You just want to shuffle, have a good time, meet some new friends and enjoy yourselves.

It's not hard to do, you only tell other shufflers and avoid directly inviting trouble.

So use your online friends, sms locals etc. Build up your own network.

MSO is happy to promote free meetups, for free. So get a meetup thread started and keep it fresh.

Locally you can think of small flyers/posters to hand people when you bump into them. Something to stick on their bedroom wall or ceiling (all oldskool shufflers had flyer walls - many still have them)

They can be card size just done on a home printer and cut to shape, with date and place on it.

But be selective. Don't do flyer drops - that is you just drop a few dozen flyers on a table or bench somewhere. That's a certain way to attract trouble. Make sure you give them to people you feel comfortable with, and instruct others to do the same when they pass them on.

Alright Garry, thanks a bunch man. I'm glad I found out about this site when I did. lol.

Hey no worries.

Your first couple of meetups are the hardest to do. People will often wait to hear what others say before they turn up, which doesn't help. And you've got to talk it up for the next one, knowing only 5 people turned up to the last one, when you were expecting 50.

There's no easy way around it, it's called the 'slog' . Like you're trying to walk through thick sticky mud, every step is a huge effort and you risk falling flat on your face in the mud. Ya just gotta keep going till you get through it.

Hey Garry, I was wondering...

how are we to play the music? Should we just bring a stereo and play it loudly or what?

pretty much

Meetups have a low volume level because its mostly social and people want to chat as well as shuffle.

So they don't have a full on rave soundsystem or non-stop music which you have to scream into people ears over, just to be heard.

Generally shufflers will form circles up to about 20 or so people and shuffle in the middle. With a big meet up say 60 people, you might get 3-4 circles and people just roam between them depending on what interests them.

One circle might be an experienced shuffle one with top shufflers showing their stuff, another might be a tricks circle where shufflers can show off their spins, splits etc.

Another might be for crews who can demonstrate their choreographed routines.

Another might be for beginners and have a couple of more experienced shufflers showing how to do moves.

Another might be just a group shuffle with who ever

So a portable stereo is best, placed in or near the shuffle circle area. Louder than an ipod's speakers, but not a big commercial set up. So like a ghetto blaster/boombox hip-hop guys use is fine. That way you can have a big variety of music all at the same time.

You can also bring your own trax on your ipod/media player and play your favorite trax to when you shuffle.

So it's not like a rave where 1 dj dictates what every one will listen to for an hour, and they might be too fast or slow or hard or whatever.

This way solves the usual noise restrictions and complaints -

It's lots of people, talking, shuffling, watching, just hanging out etc and with different circles it means everybody no matter what level of ability they're at, can have a turn shuffling and if people want to stop and talk or discuss moves etc, they don't have to wait until the DJ stops.

You just do it like you would when you have a few friends over, you all decide what you want to hear, or you can replay a track over and over to see how everybody does their routine to it.

When possible if you're doing a big meet-up outdoors especially over summer and there is already a stage and sound equipment there, then you can include a dance party set with your shuffle and chat circles too. Make it at the end of the meet-up after everybody's there and tried some moves etc.

Meetups are really casual and as stress free as possible. So if everyone wants to have break for half an hour and get some munchies, you just do it. It's fun thing, nothing too strict.

I should add the circles are great when you have a number of different crews there. They can each have their own crew circle for people to see them and meet them as well as the general circles.

hey so garry i held a local meetup strictly 10 people it wen over good and im getting publicity lol

that's great news, will you be able to do more ?

im trying to

It's often a good idea to have a bunch on different locations. You can swap around the meet-ups to experience different locations. So like outdoors in summer and somewhere with a bit of shade if it's too hot. And inside spots for when it's cold or wet etc.

It keeps things fresh. Meet-ups can get into a rut sometimes, doing the same old same old. So a different location, different shuffling surface make a change.

It's good to have a few locations for security as well. If you're getting trouble at one spot, you can quickly change location by txt.

It may be that the site is used by other shufflers or other crews too, and instead of having a confrontation, - a waste of time since you could be shuffling instead, you just go somewhere else.

You can develop code names too. There might be some distictive feature at one meet-up site so you can call it something that's only understood by those who you want to know.

Sometimes you can find a more public site, for when you want to attract new members. You might do a bit more advertising for it, then you still have a more private one for when you need that.

It becomes a real buzz once you start moving around. You can spend 30 minutes in one spot then move on to another, or spend all the time at one location, then do another location next time.

All up to you.

hey garry.i threw a few meets,none really here in naples,but ive been checkin out a few local parks and PUBLIC parking LOTS.lol..and there lookin very good for sum sort of shuffle meet/concert of sorts..down by 5th AV and cambier park theres always shows.theres stages and local spots EVERYWHERE as well as our beach.i heard cambier is abe to be rented as well..and i was wondering if we can have sum sort of"summer event"for kids,adults and shufflers and ravers of all sorts from around the world.it really wouldnt be to hard.we could have a local radiostation cosponser it or something too.promoting is easy when this town is full of tourist attractions and events....lots of potential

Hey bones im gonna be in orlando in a couple of months we should throw a meet when i get there

hey that's worth checking out, especially with summer. If you can be part of some already organised events in parks or the beach, that will take care of a lot of safety and security issues you have holding a formal sort of event, especially with crowds, mainly to stop idiots who want to spoil it.

When nobody knows about you much, you don't get these sorts of problems. When you're out in the public logistics start to become very important and security/crowd control so you can prevent injuries in crush zones. You might expect 50 and 500 turn up, you need to be able to cope with that on the ground.

Something local town hall might organise or traders in an area, some sort of local promotion. The tourist side of things is good too. They can provide the backup and legals, and let you concentrate on the fun.

hey thats sounds like a plan bones

Oh and these are the sorts of projects which GS2 will be interested in. So you can use that in your pitch, we'll get to details later, but that sort of thing has lots of good story elements for a doc, and the local town can feature in a movie as tourist promotion etc

cool bones looks like your going to have some fun bro