I may have blogged about this before, but it's really getting under my skin (especially after tonight's debacle).

Ok, so in our local area (within an hour) we have 2 (really 3 but I just can't count the one that shows 8 signups on SLS and 2-3 of them are the same host with different usernames). Then 2 hours south in Birmingham we have 3 socials... and of course the same distance north in Nashville we have actual on-premise clubs.

The hosts of one of the Birmingham clubs was coming up here and (co) hosting one of our local socials for a while, while the regular hosts were dealing with some personal stuff. That's cool. What I can't figure out is that now that the regular hosts are BACK, these two socials (that used to work so well together) are now holding court on the same night of the month!

So what happens tonight? The signup sheet for the local social has less than 30 couples signed up, while the Birmingham social has over 100 (and probably 25% of those live in this area - as in closer to the "local" social).

Then add to that, that right now as the schedule stands... 2 of the Birmingham socials are holding court on the same night through eternity. And both of the "local" socials are set to conflict with at least one of the Birmingham socials for at least the next few months.

I look at what's happened in recent months and I can't help but believe that part of it is marketing. The social that's been going for a while had dropped off on pushing their social. But, leading up to the first one of the year they pushed hard and made a really big deal out of it, sending out regular reminders on SLS and on their Yahoo Group... but that PUSH has slacked off A LOT in the last month or so... and now the results/ turnouts to their parties are showing it and reverting to what they were last summer. The new party also did a really big push and built a lot of buzz going into their first party. I'm just hoping they can keep it up. The party was great and everyone enjoyed it, but they have to constantly be reminded about these types of things.