Wausau Daily Herald (Wausau, WI)

Meetup.com brings people together
Those who share common interests, from Wicca to politics, can find others

By Amy Kimmes
Sunday, March 6, 2005

As night began to settle over downtown Wausau, more than a dozen men and women, many of them strangers, clutched hands and stood in a circle in a brightly lit back room of a downtown shop.

A brown, dresser-like cabinet served as an altar. A woman lit a candle and set flame to a bundle of sage. She slowly waved the smoldering herb in front of her as she spoke about eliminating negative energy and prayed to the gods and goddesses of the moon, the earth, the water, forest and mountains.

This Wiccan ritual was unique not so much for its content but for the way these people had found each other, through an increasingly popular Web site called meetup.com that launched in 2002.

The site, which links people with common interests, boasts nearly 1.5 million members worldwide and more than 185,000 groups. There are Meetup groups for hot rodders, newly single people, people who disdain big-media, scrapbookers, stay-at-home moms, dachshund owners, political junkies and Elvis fans. In all, more than 5,000 interest areas are represented.

Meetup group members say meetup.com is a great way to find like-minded people.

"Until meetup.com, I knew more Wiccans outside of Wisconsin than in Wisconsin," said Constance Trittin, 49, of Wausau, who belongs to several groups that post on meetup.com. "Yet, when I went to the library to get books on the subject, they'd all be checked out. So I knew others were out there. I just didn't know where."
Trittin runs Enchanted Doorway, the downtown Wausau shop where the witches held their new-moon ritual.

The people behind meet up.com say they started the Web site to help people with similar interests meet each other, but another goal was to create a more civic-minded society.

"We're trying to revitalize community in America," Meetup's vice president of communications, Myles Weissleder, said in a telephone interview from his New York City office.

Weissleder said they took their cue from a book called "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community." The book tracks the decline in American civic participation during the past few decades, from widespread involvement in out-of-home activities, such as Kiwanis and bowling, to nearly no such involvement.

"We want to reverse that situation," he said.

Although it was the 2004 presidential campaign that put meetup.com on the map, nonpolitical groups make up most of Meetup's active members today.

"People flocked to our site to support their favorite candidate," Weissleder said. "But we didn't build it as a political tool."
And some groups evolve with time. Stevens Point Democracy for America originally formed through meetup.com in the summer of 2003 to support Howard Dean's presidential campaign, until Dean dropped out of the race.

"From that point, our group changed its focus and helped support candidates all over the country, and with Howard Dean's vision," group organizer Charlene Figge, 56, of Stevens Point said. "Meetup.com is the anchor that kept the whole group together."
The group continues to meet at the Charles M. White Library Building on Main Street in Stevens Point.

Many members of the witches group that meets in Wausau said they were relieved to find each other through meetup.com.
"There's comfort in finding others, if not of like-mind then at least of similar-mind," Wade Mueller, 29, said just before the new-moon ritual began. Mueller lives in the town of Halsey just outside of Athens.

"Before Meetup, I found pagans through various Yahoo groups," he said. "Meetup.com is different though. This is a good way for people who are afraid to come out of their broom closet to get acquainted."
Trittin agrees.

"For a lot of members, it's nice to be able to talk openly and not worry about a reaction," she said. "Normally, there's a lot of hesitation about blurting out that you're a Wiccan."

The book behind meetup.com
In "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community," Robert Putnam addresses how people have become increasingly disconnected with their neighbors, family, friends and democratic institutions and how people might rebuild those connections. He draws his conclusions from thousands of interviews conducted in the past 25 years and shows how changes, including those in the family structure, the workplace, women's roles, computers and televisions, have contributed to the decline.
Source: bowlingalone.com

What is a Meetup group?

Meetup groups share common interests or causes. They use the Internet to stay connected but regularly meet at such places as people's homes, parks, restaurants, coffee shops - just about anywhere. Each group has an official local organizer and is run by members. Log on to meetup.com to find out how to start a Meetup group or how to find one.

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