Getting more members to RSVP

An ongoing issue for most Organizers is making sure that your members RSVP for meetings so that you can know who is coming and who is not. Here are some ideas generated by active Organizers to get people to RSVP!

Make sure people know about your meeting

Walter wants to remind everyone: If you create a meeting it's up to you to announce it, otherwise people won't know it exists. You don't have to announce it the moment you create the meeting, but you shouldn't expect people to just stumble across the listing. Yes, for the monthly meeting that Meetup creates, an email will go out 2 weeks before the event to those who haven't RSVPed... but that's not enough. Please, when you create a new meeting, announce it to your members!

Set a good example

RSVP yourself immediately after creating the meeting to let everyone know that you will be coming. If appropriate, RSVP for other people that you may be bringing. People are more likely to RSVP if they see that several other people are coming. Silver Seraphim wrote: When I RSVP, I also indicate that I'm bringing my daughter with me. I select the "Me + 1 guest" option in the "Who's coming?" box. This has started a trend! The other moms now also indicate how many kids are coming with them. Right now, I can tell you that there will be 5 other moms and 7 other kids at our October meeting, all because we've indicated how many people are actually coming. This will give me a better idea of how many people to expect, and hopefully aid me in the planning of future meetings! Yay!

Use the comment field

When RSVPing for others (children, spouse, computer-phobic friends) describe them in the comment field. You can also use the comment field to give information to help people find you (i.e., "I'll be the one in the Purple Beret with the Meetup sign at my table.")

Use profile questions to remind them

When new members join your group, they are asked to fill out a profile. Sheldon Schwartz, the Twin Cities Organizer of the Great American Meetup Bowloff had a great idea, adding the question "Have you RSVP'ed for the Bowloff yet?" to everyone's profile questions. Other groups could ask, "Have you RSVPed for one of our meetings yet?" How do you add questions to member profiles?

1. From the Our Home page of your Meetup group, click Group Settings.


2. Click the Your Members link.


3. Click Add profile questions.

Ask them to RSVP even if they are NOT planning to come!

Bill M wrote: On the premise that "RSVP" is not always understood to mean "tell me whether OR NOT you're coming"... in my announcement message for the dinner event, I included: Whether your response is 'yes', 'no', or 'maybe'... it's important that you RSVP, using the link below. Thank you!

Include the number of those who have RSVP'ed in the subject of your e-mail reminder!

Bob Watkins had used this to good effect: I sent a reminder email to the other group I organize, the Bellevue-East Side Bookcrossing Meetup Group. I borrowed heavily from the templates here, reminding everyone that 'No' and 'Maybe' were just as important. Then I did something different. In the subject line of the email, I put not only the usual Meetup, but the current RSVP statistics. It read something like: April Bellevue Bookcrossing Meetup - 3 Yes, 0 Maybe, 0 No. Within the hour, I got another Yes and another Maybe! I think maybe people could see without even opening the email, that the meeting was likely to go - after all, 3 people had already said Yes.

Motivate with food

Bill M. suggests inviting people to dinner first: I chose to create a (technically) distinct "event", immediately prior to our regular October meeting. The purpose of this new event is... dinner... and then moving to the (nearby) "official meeting". Within a couple hours, I got more RSVPs than I've seen, since 3.0 rolled out, for anything.

Offer door prizes

Michael Phipps suggests: I send an email out to my Meetup every Monday to talk about developments in the group. One of my members wrote back and suggested a door prize (kindly offering the first prize) The announcement of a door prize, but only being eligible if you RSVP'd for the event prior to coming (either Yes or Maybe) did the trick, and people began RSVPing. The next Meetup is tomorrow so I'll let you know how actual attendance was vs the people that RSVP'd I thought this is a great idea, but I'd hate to have to fork out for door prizes each month to get people along, so I approached a business that is relevant to our particular group and asked if they could make a donation for a door prize, in return for a bit of advertising in my emails out to the Meetup. The answer was an astounding yes - here's 2 books! I'm looking forward to the next meeting announcement so I can reveal my prizes and see how it affects the RSVP. Think of the businesses that the members of your group support. Approach the businesses and offer a bit of advertising and promotion in return for an item being donated for a door prize.

Some related discussions from our message board:

• An RSVP Trend I Inadvertently Started!
• I am having trouble getting people to join or RSVP
• Sponsored Doorprizes

What has worked for you?

Feel free to post in some of the discussions above and continue the conversation!