As some of you may know, Meetup is not a free service and one of the assistant organizers has been paying the membership dues for the last year ($72 every 6 months).
Meetup suggests charging members $1 or $2 for every event to cover the costs but that was never done from the start.
I received an email this morning saying that we have to pay $72 in the next two weeks in order for the group to stay active and, obviously, it's not right for one person to cover the cost of the group.
Let me know if you're interested in pitching in (and how much) and based on the responses, we'll figure out what to do with the group (I would also like to pay back the $144 to the person who has been paying the membership dues until now).
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks :^)

[fred]

I think it would be difficult (and also not fair) to have attendees of today's meetup make up for all the bill. My suggestion is to charge $3 until caught up, and perhaps organize one or more events in the next month or two to "catch up". Maybe raffle a portuguese DVD? or a bottle of Cachaca? or Vino Verde?

In other meetups I attend, they pass the basket for donations.. some people give more, some less... but also there are more than just one event a month...

Hi Fred,

Please email me the instructions and I will send $5 through PayPal. I also have some feedback. It seems like we have a solid foundation to build on in the Portuguese Meetup Group. One of the goals for me - and probably most of the other non-Portugueses/Brasileiros in the group - is to improve my conversational portuguese. This seems to work best for me in a group/party atmosphere. I'd like to work with you to plan some alternative meetup events, focused more on group interaction and conversation. Perhaps at a coffee shop, someone's office at regularly scheduled intervals, a group "pot luck" picnic this fall (we have a great park here in Denton for a picnic), etc. Your thoughts are appreciated.

Sinceremente,
Paul Luster


o Paulo de Tejas