starting a veg*an facebook page/group for my area.. advice?

[muchluv]

I want to meet some more vegans especially in my area so I considered that a good way of doing this would be to start a group, and I thought the easiest way would be on facebook. (I don't personally use facebook as it is the work of the devil).. maybe there are better ways?

I guess I'll make it open to vegetarians too. I want to make it for my town and the surrounding area but that is quite large, so it's difficult to know how to word the title.

Does anyone use facebook groups? How easy are they to control? I will add the local Lush facebook page as well as local independant health food shops etc if they have pages.. I know one does.

Sorry for the rambling

[baldy]

Facebook is the devil, I held out for so long then finally recently caved in. Hard to be a single man around town without FB these days, sad but true.

Most successfully vegan groups seem to be hosted on meetup.com these days. You need to pay for the service but its only a small fee.

[Talyn]

I was actually thinking about doing something similar for Essex, seeing as it looks like there is nothing for vegans out that way, and I'm moving there soon.

I will have a think about it and we can compare ideas.

[skoptic]

I run a Facebook group for my running club. It's easy to control, you just need to accept people when they ask to join (easy enough and stops the small number of spam users we get). I hate FB and would prefer not to use it but sadly that's the easiest communication channel and gets the most response. I have an RSS feed set up from our website news page so all news feeds into FB and keeps the group ticking over.

So go for it, and maybe feed in some info from relevant local sites to keep it updating automatically?

[Big Good Wolf]

If you want some ideas, here's a couple of local to me groups.
Vegan 3 Counties (Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire)
Birmingham Vegetarians & Vegans

The Bring & Share thing on the V3C group page is a great way to meet other vegans and eat each other's food.

[Hiking Fox]

I was actually thinking about doing something similar for Essex, seeing as it looks like there is nothing for vegans out that way, and I'm moving there soon.

I thought VegSX were really active?

[Hiking Fox]

I want to meet some more vegans especially in my area so I considered that a good way of doing this would be to start a group, and I thought the easiest way would be on facebook.

Facebook attracts people who say they will come to everything, then only about 10% of them show up.

I recommend putting notices in local shops, cafés, pubs etc. saying you're starting a social group and set a time and date for your first get-together. Monday to Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons are good times. You could meet in a pub with at least one vegan option for drinks, or meet in a café where you don't have to book.

Find out who the local movers-and-shakers are in green, human rights and animal groups and ask them to promote your event. Their social networks will soon forward it on. Musicians tend to know loads of people.

You could set up a People's Kitchen, like the one I'm helping to do in my area (see thread in Activism and Events), as cheap food gets bums on seats. Film nights and lectures are much less popular.

Perhaps you could launch your group by planning a joint activity, like a benefit gig, car boot sale stall/yard sale for a good cause, or a creative event? People love helping with things, though they need some encouragement at the start to feel welcome and useful.

[mabli]

I set up a facebook page in n wales at the end of last year, we've only got 40 members but we meet regularly (every other week), go to festivals together, do free vegan food days together and are planning a vegan festival in the spring and to take part in a local food fayre in autumn... facebook really helped to kick start this group, the only downside is the folk who arent on fb and trying to remember to let them know about stuff.

When you set up your page post on vegan soc page, vegan billboard and other such pages, i reckon free food days are a good way of finding other vegans in your area too.

Many of the local contacts at vegan society have also grown their groups through facebook...

[xJimx]

I'd say first & foremost you come up with an effective hippy deterrent. For instance a survey including a question of the consumption of carob - an easy way to weed out the weirdos.

[skoptic]

LOL - that's the 3rd anti hippy comment I've seen on VF in as many days! I should probably revoke my membership

[baldy]

LOL - that's the 3rd anti hippy comment I've seen on VF in as many days! I should probably revoke my membership

Consider it your third warning.

[muchluv]

Thanks very much for the responses guys. I found a couple of contacts on the Vegan Society website that were quite close to me, emailed them both got one response saying they didnt have many people wanting to do meet ups, and that they had a facebook for my county but didn't have many people on there. Will see if the other person emails back.

Failing that I would still like to go with the Facebook group idea, but would be better to actively seek out as no one seems to be searching...

[muchluv]

I set up a facebook page in n wales at the end of last year, we've only got 40 members but we meet regularly (every other week), go to festivals together, do free vegan food days together and are planning a vegan festival in the spring and to take part in a local food fayre in autumn... facebook really helped to kick start this group, the only downside is the folk who arent on fb and trying to remember to let them know about stuff.

When you set up your page post on vegan soc page, vegan billboard and other such pages, i reckon free food days are a good way of finding other vegans in your area too.

Many of the local contacts at vegan society have also grown their groups through facebook...

40 members is still good! Guess 'north wales' is pretty big though.

I was actually thinking about doing something similar for Essex, seeing as it looks like there is nothing for vegans out that way, and I'm moving there soon.

I will have a think about it and we can compare ideas.

Yeh let me know how you get on man, we can compare notes.

LOL - that's the 3rd anti hippy comment I've seen on VF in as many days! I should probably revoke my membership

How hippy are you exactly? You don't look that hippy?..

I'd say first & foremost you come up with an effective hippy deterrent. For instance a survey including a question of the consumption of carob - an easy way to weed out the weirdos.

LOL. This is the benefit of using a Facebook account - I can see who's who etc.

Facebook is the devil, I held out for so long then finally recently caved in. Hard to be a single man around town without FB these days, sad but true.

Most successfully vegan groups seem to be hosted on meetup.com these days. You need to pay for the service but its only a small fee.

This is true it's difficult without Facebook.

I want to meet some more vegans especially in my area so I considered that a good way of doing this would be to start a group, and I thought the easiest way would be on facebook.

Facebook attracts people who say they will come to everything, then only about 10% of them show up.

I recommend putting notices in local shops, cafés, pubs etc. saying you're starting a social group and set a time and date for your first get-together. Monday to Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons are good times. You could meet in a pub with at least one vegan option for drinks, or meet in a café where you don't have to book.

Find out who the local movers-and-shakers are in green, human rights and animal groups and ask them to promote your event. Their social networks will soon forward it on. Musicians tend to know loads of people.

You could set up a People's Kitchen, like the one I'm helping to do in my area (see thread in Activism and Events), as cheap food gets bums on seats. Film nights and lectures are much less popular.

Perhaps you could launch your group by planning a joint activity, like a benefit gig, car boot sale stall/yard sale for a good cause, or a creative event? People love helping with things, though they need some encouragement at the start to feel welcome and useful.

These are cool idea . Might just stick with online thing at the moment just to keep it simple and so I can check people out a bit lol.

[muchluv]

Ok I started a page , and I couldnt seem to edit anything on that. So I made an account, then started a group with it, and it seems you can only add people onto the group if theyre your friends? What the hell?

[Big Good Wolf]

You can only add people directly if they are your Facebook friends.
Anyone can ask to join though, you just have to confirm their request.