Nice to see you!

Well, no doubt you already have met Meetup, the online portal for setting up specialized groups on a more or less ad hoc basis.  Ethical Society of Austin has its own Meetup group with 170 participants.  This is new technology for me, so I was initially rather slow to participate.  Eventually, I realized that ESOA uses Meetup to get an initial heads up on the number of participants to expect for a meeting and figured I needed to get with the program.

After signing up, I began to receive weekly reminders that meetings were planned--and did I plan to attend?  The setup made it very easy to respond yes or no and even to change my reply when plans changed.  I'm all for easy.

And then I saw that the meetings would show up on my online calendar with a reminder on my cellphone.  Not long ago, this would have annoyed me and perhaps alarmed me.  Too invasive--or some such.  Having seen how the system is working to support participation, when our lives and schedules are so packed with distractions, I'm all for all the support I can get.

One thing that did surprise me about Meetup--a technological method for supporting social interaction by means very different from how we did this "in the olden days"--is the very homey "Good to see you" button that pops up after a meeting has passed.  I have been a very enthusiastic clicker of that button as I have gotten to know more people in ESOA.  Meetup has moved, in my mental ordering of my world, from a somewhat cold and practical way to connect to something much, well, warmer, more conducive to reaching out to others with that simple, yet meaningful, greeting.  I'm all for reaching out.

This past week was so busy that I didn't have a chance to respond to the query about attendance, so I wasn't on the list of people who were planning to attend.  That also meant that I didn't get a list of people who did attend with a nice-to-see-you button.  How sad!  I really miss that chance to affirm how positive this week's meeting was for me and how--really!--glad I was to see folks there.

So this is my solution:  Nice to see you all there today!

And this is my resolution:  Gotta be sure to RSVP for the next meeting.  I certainly can't complain that I won't get the chance.