Advice on starting a private bisexual group

[The Black Knights]

I need a little advice. I am sure that many of you here are familiar with lifestyle (aka swinger) groups. I have been in such in the past and may want to go back to that, with my lady's blessing. However, I am thinking about attempting to start a small bisexual/LGBT group in our immediate area. There is one or two similar groups around, but they are a couple of hours away from us. Worse yet, there are virtually no members of color in these groups, which kind of bothers me. I would prefer to be in a group that has bisexuals of both genders and also all races (not dissing Caucasians, of course, but I like variety and I am not White) I know about the issues with running this kind of a group, but this would be harder. Do you think this is a bad idea or not? Any advice on how to do this or where to advertise such discreetly (which is very important to me)? You can PM if you prefer, especially if you are close to us. I'd like to hear from ladies AND men on this. Thanks!

[fredtyg]

It's a great idea. About all I can think of is to advertise in your local area's Craiglist ads. I don't know how far that will get you as my experience shows most of the bi folks on Craigslist are scared to death of being outed so they're also scared to death to respond to ads.

Make sure there isn't some sort of thing in your area already. Where I live there's an (insert your area here) Impropriety Society. A fair number of those folks seem to be bi oriented. They have regular sex oriented get togethers.

[welickit]

We seriously doubt you can make it fly. Your statement about advertising alone just about kills the idea. Advertising on Craig's List will get you every guy looking for a quick FREE piece or a blow and go. Even in a major metro area you need to target your audience and get the message across. What do you have to offer that is unique? Where will the group be meeting? You don't seem to be able to do this openly so how will you screen members to protect privacy? How big is your budget for a website, servers and the associated software?

You might be better off starting a group right here and see if you can market it to others in your area. Drew would enjoy new members and you could test your marketing abilities. If you have a group here and you can't get people to join it, how do you expect to do it as an unknown new comer?

[fredtyg]

You might be better off starting a group right here and see if you can market it to others in your area. Drew would enjoy new members and you could test your marketing abilities. If you have a group here and you can't get people to join it, how do you expect to do it as an unknown new comer?

That's a good point, but it's likely just as hard to start a group here as anywhere else. I've actually made some effort to get bi/queer folks in my county to join this and other sites. As far as I can tell, I'm the only member of this site within 150 miles of where I live, and that's after years of off and on recruiting.

He's got a tough row to hoe, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth working on.

[fredtyg]

As I suggested, it might be good to look for some sexual friendly groups in your area first and try to find some bi folks there. I've been wondering if it might be easier to start an overall sex group first rather than focus on bisexuals. A larger pool of people to fish from that way.

Here's the web site for the Humboldt Impropriety Society (http://humboldtimps.com/index1.html). This may be a bit large for what BK is looking for, but you could always try and start something like this then pass it on to someone else if it takes off and gets big (as this one did).

They also have their own Yahoo Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/humboldtimps/join). I noticed a while back on one of the Group polls there was a fair number of bi guys and gals in the group. I notice there's almost 700 members in the Yahoo Group right now. That's quite remarkable as I think you'd be hard pressed to get one or two responses for such a group advertising through Craigslist.

I believe he started this group years ago by announcing it on the local sex oriented Yahoo Groups. While the 700 members might not be an accurate count of local participating members, I was told some years ago that their events generally get about 100 or more people to show up.

[Mr. Suck]

I agree with Welickit. Just wondering if this group is supposed to be "private" which is an illusion, how do you expect to attract new people? Also FYI there are already LGBT/bisexual/gay and bi men's groups for people and men of all races. Most large cities and some small towns have them already.