Guide to organising meetups

Girona Buddies is self-organising. That means anyone can plan an event or meetup. Creating your own meetup means you get to do what you enjoy with other people who like it too. 😊

To help with organising meetups, we've made this short guide.

Step 1: Gauge Interest

Before planning an event, it’s a good idea to see if others are interested.

Post a simple message (or a poll) in the group, like:

Hey! Would anyone be up for meeting to practise German this Saturday?

Wait a few hours — sometimes it takes a while for people to respond. If no one replies, it might just mean there's no interest right now, and that’s okay!

Step 2: Deciding the date and time

Polls are a good way to determine interest and figure out the best date and time that works for everyone.

Step 3: Create a WhatsApp event (optional)

In WhatsApp you can create events like this:

Anyone can make WhatsApp events, not only admins!

How to make a WhatsApp event on iPhones (on Android, you have to tap the paperclip icon):

The advantage of a WhatsApp event is people can RSVP to it. Also the event will show up in the Girona Buddies community calendar.

Alternatively, you can simply make a message with all the event details in it (You can put asterisks to make text in bold, *like this*)

Event summary

Step 4: Promote the event

There are lots of ways to promote meetups.

Upcoming meetups noticeboard

The upcoming meetups noticeboard is a special subgroup that only admins can post to. The idea is that organisers share events there, so everyone can quickly see what’s coming up.

For consistency, write events like this:

English Conversation Meetup
📆 *Thursday 4 September*
🕣 7–9 PM
📍 PdePa Claret (Rda. Sant Antoni Maria Claret 45, 17002 Girona)
👉 Join @⁨💬 English learners and speakers in Girona⁩

(The date is in bold to help people to scan events quickly).

You can also share your meetup in the General Chat subgroup.

Meetup.com

Girona Buddies has a Meetup.com organizer subscription, which means we can post events there. See our page at https://www.meetup.com/gironabuddies

Posting events to Meetup.com makes events visible outside Girona Buddies and helps attract new people. It works best for recurring events, because Google search picks them up (e.g. google “Girona English conversation meetup” and Girona Buddies is one of the first results).

Ask Paul or Laura for access.

Facebook

We have a Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/gironabuddiesfacebook, but we don't have many members there.

Instead, create an Event at the Girona Costa Brava Expats International group, which has over 5,000 members. The creators of the group seem to like Girona Buddies and actually encourage us to post our events there. To create an event there, go t ois https://www.facebook.com/groups/286323985534315/events, and click "Create Event". Or alternatively, simply go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/286323985534315 and make a post about your event.

Girona Agenda

Our events and meetups can appear in the city's official agenda (l'Agenda). It helps if the event is at a centre civic, but it doesn't have to be.

Ask Paul to send the Agenda an email from the Girona Buddies email account.

Banc del Temps Dimoni

Girona has a time bank called the Banc del Temps. It has a website where people can post offers and requests. You could post your meetup as an offer, thereby promoting it.

Girona Buddies also has its own account at the Banc del Temps.

WePlan

WePlan is a free app similar to Meetup.com. We don't know much about it yet, but it might be worth trying.

After the event

After your event, please share a photo in the subgroup or even the General chat! It encourages others to join next time.

Ask permission before taking photos or posting them somewhere. Before you take the photo, you could ask "Is it ok if I take a photo to share in the group?"

Where to hold events

Cafés are often the best place for casual meetups:

• Everyone has somewhere to sit
• Drinks are available
• It’s a public space, so people feel safe and free to leave whenever

Centre Civic Barri Vell

We can use rooms at the Centre Civic Barri Vell for free. The rooms are big, quiet, and private. Currently only Paul knows the person to book rooms, so let him know if you want to book a room there. Weekday evenings tend to be already booked, but Friday evenings and Saturdays are usually free.

Currently we can only hold free events there, but if Girona Buddies becomes an official organisation (hopefully soon), we can hold donation and paid events there.

• 
  Dance studio
• 
  Ground floor room
• 
  Room on the top floor

Centre Civic Santa Eugenia

Centre Civic Santa Eugenia

Centre Civic Santa Eugenia also let us their rooms for free. (Paul is the only person with the contact, so let him know if you want to use a room there.)

Admins

Each subgroup has admins. Admins can help by:

• Adding event info to the group description. The only thing new people can see is the group description (new people in the chat can’t see any previous posts), so adding event info to the description lets them see important event details.
• Adding the date and title of your next meetup into the name of the group. This helps people quickly see what's happening. For example: Running in Girona [2nd March] 5 km run in Salt
• Pinning event info messages to the top of the chat

Tips

• In the days before the event, post gentle reminders to remind people. This also helps new people (because new people in the chat can’t see any previous posts).
• If only a few people show up at first, that’s totally normal when starting out. Don’t be discouraged. If your event provides value to people, they will join over time. Keep going!
• Once you have a time, day, and location, try to keep it the same each time. This way people don't have to learn a new time time or location each time.
• When announcing the meetup each week, it helps to post a photo of the previous week's meetup so people can see what it was like.
• Making regular events (weekly, monthly) is more work but in the long term, it's actually easier because people already know when and where to meet each time. Once you have a strong regular event going, it's easier to run than several one-off events.