People of the Capital District are finding new ways to meet up, and now there’s a simple website to help them do just that.
Meetup.com, a social networking site, was created to make it easy for people to hang out with others in their area who share common interests. Since its launch in 2001, Meetup.com has 11.1 million members and 340,000 monthly meetups in 45,000 cities. Members can join groups through a common interest like wine, books or music, enter their zip code, and the website helps navigate them in the right direction. Members can start their own groups as well.
Mike Mahar, co-organizer of the Capital District Spanish Language Group on Meetup.com, said he had taken up an interest in studying Spanish a few years ago. Although he had studied it in high school, he said he realized that Spanish was very relevant to this country and wanted to relearn it.
“One day I said, ‘Is there something I want to improve or start new?’ And I said, ‘Hey, Spanish!’ Here’s something I started a long time ago … let’s see how good I can get,” Mahar said.
Not knowing where to begin, Mahar started searching the Internet for Spanish groups online. He finally stumbled upon Meetup.com, something he had never heard of before.
“Meetup.com is awesome. There are so many interest groups you can choose from,” Mahar said. “So many varieties of interest, especially through Albany. These are groups of people meeting in public. [It’s a] great way to make friends.”
Liz Walsh, a newer co-organizer of the Capital District Spanish Language Group, said she had gone to Guatemala with her husband for four months to study Spanish, and when they came home they needed “an avenue to practice Spanish.” They found the already-existing Meetup group.
Through meeting up with the Capital District Spanish Language Group, members can improve their Spanish at any level, as well as become immersed in the culture and Spanish-related activities.
“I have to have the practice. We all would agree that having this Meetup group provides us with the practice to keep up our Spanish,” Walsh said. “Sometimes we splinter off in the group, where more advanced people will chat with each other. We’ve been making an effort to team up advanced people with novices in Spanish.”
Many other Capital District groups are listed on the site. Leslie Effman, who moved to the area in 2008, said she needed to reinvent her social life and make new friends.
“I retired in 2007 after 35 years of teaching, moved to the area to be near my grandchildren, and now what? My sister told me about Meetup and I was hooked,” Effman said
Effman took her own initiative by taking over a “word-lovers” group that was disbanding, she said. In her group, “Scrabble & More,” members meet up to play Scrabble, Boggle, Mah Jongg and more. Effman also has two other groups – “Books, Brunch and Babyboomers (55+),” which she started, and “Capital Region Dining Out & More,” an already established group where the original organizer stepped down from leadership.
“This is an active group sometimes dining out each week or more. We dine out at all sorts of restaurants in the local and surrounding areas,” Effman said.
The Meetup groups have not only expanded her social life but also her experience of the Capital Region. Since she joined, she’s learned new games, tried new restaurants and discovered new books, she said.
“I think Meetup has it all over Facebook for social networking,” Effman said. “Putting people in touch with each other face-to-face is a much richer experience than just ‘friending’ someone online.”
More so, Walsh stressed the importance of the site as a friendly way to hang out with people with similar interests.
“It’s a social media site, not a dating site. People shy away from it because of the name. It’s a gathering of similar interests’ site. It’s really good for people who don’t have a partner to do things with or a friend,” Walsh said.
