Ideas for managing LARGE club?

[joshcoen]

Hi there,

We have just started a vegetarian supper club and had nine people at our first dinner. The club has doubled in numbers since then, as we are opening it up to anyone interested (I realize this is not a typical Cooking Light supper club format). However, we still want to keep it to a more intimate, sit-down dinner rather than a crowded potluck.

Anyone have ideas on how we might do this without capping membership? One idea is to cap each dinner at 8-10 and simply have more than one dinner going on to accomodate everyone interested. Then, we could figure out some kind of system to mix up the groups each month so everyone eventually gets to meet and socialize with each other.

Does anyone out there do anything similar?

Josh

[cangoss]

At one point, our Club was that big. We found that it gave us more flexibility in scheduling - if a couple of people couldn't make a date, it was no big deal and they'd just try for the next month. Now our group is down to about 8-10 people and we feel like it is too small... (we lost people to moves - we live in a college town so it's very transient). With a smaller group, we feel like it's no-go if more than one couple can't make a date. When we had big dinners (like 16 people) we just kept adding folding tables until we had enough room :D One time, my house looked like a restauarant, with four different seating areas.

[joshcoen]

Candace, thanks for your input! Sounds like we are going in the right direction then. We are also in a college town and I have a feeling we may end up with the right amount of guests everytime because of all the people who won't show up. Time will tell!

Josh