Cashing in on Meetup, Cha-Ching?

There are potential business opportunities afoot at meetup.com, the networking site designed to bring kindred souls together.  There are listings for various clubs and interests like the “Ladies Valley Knitting” meetup the “Dreams, Past Lives and Soul Travel” one, and a bunch of bootcamps for anyone who wants to sweat it out in the sun, which I will always pass on.

Members can also adjust their settings to get certain notifications.  Maybe I toggled to the wrong things because mine have brought me the (currently defunct) “Fit Bottomed Girls of LA.” And while I’d like to be the poster child for sensible eating and exercise, I just like the name, though their defunct status, may have something to do with all plastic surgeons out here and the fact that some of them are now having sales.

I also got a notice for the (also now defunct) Los Angeles Botox Party meetup.  Their mission”  To come together to “discuss Botox at a reasonable price and other anti-aging treatments and experiences.”  How they came to be defunct I do not know but maybe some supplier or plastic surgeon underbid them, or that someone misinterpreted someone during a conversation because Botox tends to mummify the facial muscles making some communication, like talking and emoting, difficult.

That aside, the only surefire way I know of to stop the aging process is to stop growing older because something’s going to give somewhere.  Either it’ll be the knees, the hairline, the memory bank or something else I can’t remember.

Then there is the mother of all meetups that require a membership fee to reimburse the organizer for paying to organize the whole thing in the first place.  One is the “Sophisticated Friends and Singles” with a $15.00 membership fee.  The picture on their site, taken at the beach, shows two women sucking on what looks like the organizer’s chest.  The caption reads, “You may not win anything, but you will lose your dignity.”  (Maybe he waived their membership fee for that?)

They’re having a Labor Day beach party I won’t be attending because I hate the sun and sand and the smell of seaweed.  Otherwise, the beach is just fine.

The instructions say to bring red cups to hold drinks, sunscreen and whipped cream and an “ipod player to play music along with music.”  Either this guy stutters or was so taken by the whipped cream that he started typing like a madman.

Another is the Beverly Hills Boss’ Network which is “the perfect destination for happy, affluent renaissance gentlemen of independent means who are focused on living their lives to the fullest and creating a relevant legacy!”  (I didn’t add the exclamation point.  The organizer typed it in, and I just copied it.)

Now maybe I’m missing something here, but wouldn’t you think that these guys would know how to find their own networks, happiness and legacies at country clubs and Hollywood parties and such?

Its organizer doesn’t list her credentials, though maybe I’d have to turn myself into a rich male boss intent on living my life to the fullest and creating a relevant legacy to find out.

Maybe I need to change my city, settings, the times we are living in or all three.  Or maybe I need to become a happy, affluent Renaissance gentleman wanting to live life to the fullest and create a relevant legacy.