Starting an RPG Meetup

From https://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?39280-Starting-a-D-amp-D-Meetup

CRKrueger asked:
"Hey, how about starting a thread detailing everything you did? Kind of a "Here's how you set up a successful Meetup" kinda thing."

Well, I didn't start cold. I had joined the local D&D Meetup in 2008 and become an assistant organiser there ca 2010, keeping that role with just one break of a year or so, until I started my own Meetup in early 2018. For a long time I was the one doing the scheduling and I had an eye on what worked and was worth emulating.

I was running a group at the big Meetup and we had a spinoff group playing beside us in the same Wilderlands campaign setting. The initial decision to fork was mostly due to lack of space at the venue (plus some issues with how the big Meetup asst org was running that day); we moved our two groups to another nearby pub venue I knew - this required some negotiation with pub management to get us a reserved space (which we may be losing, the new manager doesn't seem so keen) and added a third Wilderlands group. By this time we were basically a mini Meetup within the Meetup. When the asst org wanted to assert more control over us I decided to take it independent and start a new Meetup. I had already established a Facebook group for us which made communications easier - I was coming in with around 20-22 players.

For the new Meetup:
1. I secured a pub venue with good transport links in an area gamers could easily get to, that I knew was safe and reasonably pleasant.
2. I wrote a description for the new Meetup that made it clear we were open to new players.
3. I designed the Open Wilderlands multi-table campaign to be the core of the Meetup and to be very accommodating to new players coming in and out, no pressure. And no disruption/blame. I was influenced by Ben Robbins, Justin Alexander, and what I knew of how Gygax and Arneson had run their Greyhawk & Blackmoor campaigns.
4. I used the Meetup advertiser tools which announce new Meetups. Maybe because we immediately had over 20 members on the first day, their algorithms spread it further. Currently after 6 months we have 131 members, something which took the original D&D Meetup a few years (it's now the world's largest with over 4000).

I guess my advice would be:
1. Come in with some other people at the start. Money makes money and players make players. The main obstacle to others joining your Meetup is the apprehension that you're a lone weirdo with no social skills. I'd say you want at least an established play group (say 5 people) and at least one other person willing to GM as the Meetup grows. You should be normal, pleasant people - you will get the odd weirdo joining later, that can't be helped, but you need a good quality starting cadre.
2. Secure a safe, pleasant public venue with good transport links, at a good time of day when things are otherwise quiet (I chose Sunday lunchtime). Not all venues require booking, and indeed I think at the pub our first games did not have the space reserved, but I convinced the pub we were worth having.
3. It should be oriented around allowing drop-in & irregular play by players (I've resisted one GM's efforts to make it more restrictive), combined with very reliable GMing, which for me means low-effort GMing. The WotC hardbacks are not great for this, Phandelver is ok. Megadungeons are ideal; short wilderness delves in a sandbox are good too. But the main thing is that the GMs are reliable, flaky GMs will destroy a nascent Meetup.
4. Likewise the initial game systems used should be popular and accessible - making it explicitly a "5e D&D Meetup" helped a lot I think; you can always allow other systems later. 5e D&D attracts lots of new (often younger) players very keen to play, and without many preconceived notions or demands. And newbies attract newbies in a virtuous circle.
5. Know what you're doing - the more experience you have of how a public Meetup works before starting your own, the better. Eg I use the RSVP limits to set how many players can come each week, fitting the number of players to the available GMs. I allow people to bring 2 Guests, but not to bring in an entire established group just looking for a venue. The groups need to stay open to new players.