How many members?

[SouthernCook]

I belong to a supper club that has existed for about 10 years. Over time, the gatherings have become more elaborate and more couples have wanted to join (however, not all participate). How many couples do you think is ideal for a club? We meet monthly and the host is responsible for the meal. This has led to hurt feelings when one month someone takes the time and $$$ to prepare a large meal and the next month the host plans to meet in a restaurant and it is Dutch treat. I think if we had less members more hosts would be apt to cooking at home.

[runningkitcat]

Our club has eight members and though I've never belonged to another club -- nor have we had more or less members -- I'm very fond of 8. Enough people to keep things lively, not so many that the house is too crowded.

Maybe you want to discreetly gather your initial core members and start meeting with them again at a separate time, while slowly and quietly fading away from the larger group?

Good luck, either way!

Wendy

[LauraB]

My supper club has been together for 4-5 years now. Our membership numbers have changed over the years, but we have about 6 remaining original members and have surged to 10-12 occasionally with new people joining and sometimes staying active. We are all women, no couples so far.
We have always done pot luck, cooking almost exclusively from CL, with the host maybe providing an extra side dish or special drink. We sometimes alternate with going to a restaraunt that everyone seems interested in.
I agree that having more than 6-8 members is way to much if only one person is cooking. Money and time can be a big stress and reason a supper club falls apart, especially if everyone is not participating equally.
Maybe it is time to revamp the ground rules? Start doing pot luck revolving around a theme or try cooking together with everyone bringing their own ingredients??
Hope things improve. :)

[SouthernCook]

Thanks for your responses. You'll be shocked to know our club has 15 couples!

[LauraB]

My goodness!!! That is a problem!!! :eek:

[veschke]

I agree that eight is a good number. We have had more than that, but invariably someone can't make it that night so we wind up with about eight anyway.

Our group is also potluck; if I had to feed 30 people all by myself they'd be getting store-brand chips for dinner! :-)

[SouthernCook]

Thanks for all of the comments. Makes me realize I am not crazy for wanting something smaller.

[aloggany]

I think we got to be about 8 one time and we all agreed that was getting to be too many and we weren't allowed to invite any more people! We have about 6 people usually, basically potluck, but we do as much prep work as we can at home and the last minute cooking when we get there. We try to switch things around so that everyone rotates through drinks, apps, main, dessert, etc. It's been working well so far!

[TINAK]

Our group varies from 6-10 people because not everyone can make it every month...but the host does not provide all the food...everyone attending should cook and help with clean-up....the host provides the entree and drinks, and the others bring everything from apps to desserts...it works well for us and everyone is happy to host

[jalr124]

We currently have 6 couples in our group. We have had 7 couples in the past and even that started to get unwieldy and difficult to schedule. What we have started doing is having the host couple invite a "guest" couple just to join for that particular evening. We have found this to be a nice way to keep things fresh and interesting, but maintain our core group of 12.

[acginkc]

We have about 12-14 people in our supper club and while its kind of big, we always have a great time. We do potluck as well around a theme. To avoid the inevitable scheduling problems that arise with a group that size, we have it the same night every month (2nd Thursday of the month). So if you can't make it, you can't make it. If you are busy that month, then you don't host. Seems to work well for all of us.

Also with our potluck, we don't do a really formal course assignment. The host chooses the theme and main dish. Then all the members choose what to make. We always end up with some sort of apps and a dessert, but then no one gets stuck making dessert if they hate to make it. Sometimes we end up with 3 apps and only 1 side, but none of us seem to mind too much.