[Harp-L] Harmonica Meetups - a great way to build a harmonica community!

["Harmonica Jervis" <harmonica@xxxxxxxxx>]

About a year ago I found a website that facilitates communities of all sorts
to organize a monthly meeting. Scheduling, locations etc are handled by the
software, and all it takes is an organizer.

Last year I founded the Amsterdam Harmonica Meetup on this website, and
within one year the number of members grew from 2 to (current) 44. Every
month I schedule a new meeting, and up until now those were a great success.
We even have guest musicians dropping in (guitars, drums, etc). Beginners,
pros, blues, classical, jazz, hiphop, country: everybody's there!

My job as an organizer is really simple and takes about 2 hours and about 8
dollars a month (for the website, and I could ask for the other members'
contribution). Just design a time-line for the evening, make lots of noise,
invite everybody to join the Meetup group and manage the evening. That's
all!

At a certain point the Amsterdam Harmonica Meetup Group was the largest
Harmonica Meetup group in the world - and now we're the only one! Somehow
nobody in Chicago, New York, all other major US cities took on the role as
organizer (which is a prerequisite to have a Meetup Group). Come on guys: is
Amsterdam the world's next harmonica-capital of the world? ;-) (just
joking....)

I see the Meetup-facilities as a great way to build a strong harmonica
community around the world. If you are interested in starting such a group
in your city, have a look at harmonica.meetup.group/21/ and/or email me
off-list. I'd be more than happy to share my experiences and support you in
building a local harmonica community that thrives, is a source of great
social contacts, musical inspiration and loads of fun!

Jervis Groeneveld
www.harmonicainstituut.nl
telefoon (+31)  (0)20 774 8657