A little ettiquette question....

[pixiecrinkle]

OK. Here's a little thing I've been mulling over. It's not a big thing, but I don't make enough polls, so here we go.

The situation: There's a loosely organized national "movement" (for lack of a better term) known as Stitch n' Bitch where those who knit gather in a particular coffeehouse/whatever in their city and sit around and knit, crochet or otherwise craft in a group setting. I was excited to find a group in Columbus on their list, so last week, I joined the associated yahoo group.

Well, it turns out that they don't actually meet in C-bus, but in Pickerington. I live downtown. I work downtown. I go to school downtown. To me, Pickerington is not Columbus. It's probably a 30-45 minute drive from where I live, depending on traffic (which is notoriously bad in that area). They meet at 7 pm, so I could probably just barely make it there after work.

Now, I'll admit to having a chip on my shoulder about the superiority of urban areas over suburban ones, but aside from that, it would be ridiculously inconvenient for me to try to get to this group's meetings. I've also not found that I "click" with the rest of the group from the email list. I very well might scare them. So the logical solution, since I haven't found any other groups closer to me, is to start my own. But the ettiquette of that? Do I "ask" them? Do I just do it? Would announcing it on their list be rude? These are the questions I put to you, my faithful reader:

[Poll #278807]

Comments

[queensheba.livejournal.com]

I think it's completely okay if your group is going to be focused in a different geographic area. As a courtesy, I would explain that to the existing group, so in the future, you can refer potential members to each other as needed. They should take it okay, I would think, considering you want to meet somewhere closer to your home - that's totally reasonable. If I had to drive to, say, Mason, that's a 35 mile drive from Northern Kentucky. On a weeknight, I'm not likely to do that after work. On a weekend, sure. But I'd much prefer to go to something within at least 10-15 miles of my house, or closer.

[pixiecrinkle.livejournal.com]

The weekend/weeknight thing is a good point. So far from the on-list conversation it seems that most of the group are young stay-at-home moms, so there isn't the "getting home from work" problem. Maybe I'll bring that up. Thanks!

[yerpretty.livejournal.com]

ill second that.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

I don't even live in Ohio and I don't consider Pickerington part of Columbus. It's as far out as Waterloo! Are they going to start claiming Marysville is part of Columbus, too?

You could ask on the list if they'd ever consider meeting in town. Perhaps they'd move their meetings around once a month or so. If the answers are extremely negative, just say that you're interested in meeting downtown and anyone else who's interested in urban meets can feel free to email you. Don't advertise a group as such, but set up a separate list so that anyone who *does* email you can be told about it and can join it. Contact the folks who advertise stitch n' bitch lists and give them your info, too.

[pixiecrinkle.livejournal.com]

I don't even live in Ohio and I don't consider Pickerington part of Columbus. It's as far out as Waterloo! Are they going to start claiming Marysville is part of Columbus, too?

Ha! Thank you--I thought it was me being all critical of sprawl. Actually though, Columbus and Pickerington pretty much touch now, whereas there's some space between here and Marysville still.

I went to college in Granville, which is about 30 minutes east (vaguely) of Pickerington. I fully expect Columbus to eat that in the next 3-4 years as well. Sigh.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

yes, sprawl does eat things up like that, but that doesn't mean pickerington = columbus. ;)

if people asked where i lived from 1994-2001, i tell them the DC area. if they want specifics, i tell them i moved to Rockville, MD, in 1999, and to Gaithersburg, MD, in 2000. Gaithersburg is 10 miles north of the beltway. there's sprawl all the way out there and *further*. i refer to it as the DC metro area in general, but if i were advertising a group/event which meets/takes place in Gaithersburg, I wouldn't call it a DC group. *shrugs* I'm like that, I guess.