Real-time event chat is now available to some Meetup organizers using the desktop website or the classic Meetup app.

Send immediate updates about changes to your event time or venue – or share ideas and conversations prior to, during, or after your event.

At this time, event chat is available for many new and existing standard Meetup subscribers. If you do not see event chat on your event homepage, please be patient – we expect to launch this feature to all users soon. Event chat is not yet available for Meetup Pro organizers.

Setting up event chat

Event chat is accessible on the right side of the event homepage, under the date and location. Once you tap the Event chat button, organizers and members will be able to send messages, files, and photos.

You may view, copy, reply, report, or react to each other’s messages. To tag an attendee in a message, type the @ symbol and select the attendee to tag.

Who sees event chat?

Event chat is designed to replace event comments as the primary mode of communication for your attendees.

When event chat is visible, you should not see event comments or receive notifications about them. Existing event comments will not be transferred to event chat. Some groups with pre-planned events may still see event comments in older events published before we launched event chat. If you’re using event chat in a newly published event, and are still seeing event comments or receiving notifications about event comments, please contact our Community Support team.

When event chat is visible, all members will be able to see and use this feature. Attendees receive a push and on-site notification for new posts in event chats.

What content can I send in event chat?

Organizers and members are free to send text or media attachments in event chat, as long as the content shared follows our Community Guidelines.

Any photos posted in event chat will not be automatically shared in a group or event photo album.

 

Successful Meetup groups all start with the same thing: engagement. We want organizers to be able to contact their members quickly and easily to keep them in the loop.

The Contact Members tool helps you to communicate with your members without having to disclose your personal email address, as you would with your group’s mailing list.

To access your Contact Members tool via your desktop or mobile web browser:

1. From your Meetup group homepage, select Manage group
2. Select Contact members from the drop-down menu
3. Under Send this message to, you’ll see the default option is set to email all members in your Meetup group
4. Click see more options to choose a specific group instead:
• A custom list
• Members on the mailing list (if your mailing list is enabled)
• Pending members
• Active members
• Inactive members
• Leadership Team
• Members related to a recent or upcoming Meetup (by RSVP status)

While the Contact Members tool supports basic formatting options like bold, italics, and underlining, you can customize your message further by sending it directly from your email client. Sending from your email client also allows you to include attachments, such as the menu of the restaurant hosting your event. To send a customized message, email your message either to your group’s Announce address or mailing list address.

Contacting your members via the Meetup app

While the Contact Members tool isn’t currently available via the Meetup app, you can still communicate with your members by sending a message to your group's Announce or mailing list address directly from your personal email.

Note: When contacting your members via your Announce or Mailing List address on a mobile device, your email must be sent from the email address connected with your Meetup account.

Android and iOS Apps

1. From your Meetup group homepage, tap the three dots icon in the upper right-hand corner
2. Tap Contact members
3. This will launch your device’s preferred email client where you can compose and send your message

Message format

To ensure a consistent experience for members, messages sent by email include a subtle gray border and a Meetup logo at the top.

While organizers do have the option of using HTML in their communications to members, for the best results on all devices, we recommend keeping it simple, and ideally text only. Images should be a maximum of 360 pixels wide.

Discussions make it easy for your members to stay engaged outside of scheduled events. From newbies looking to introduce themselves, to longtime members sharing news and organizers seeking feedback, discussions benefit everyone.

Of course, with great discussions come great responsibility, at least for organizers. As an organizer, it’s up to you and your leadership team to make sure the discussions that take place in your group align with the interests and guidelines you’ve set. For most, this includes deleting spam, bringing the peace to arguments or heated conversations, and removing members who can’t keep it civil.

Delete a Discussion or Comment

Only the primary organizer and co-organizers can delete discussions and comments from their group. Any member can also delete any of their own discussions or comments.

Desktop and Mobile Web:

1. From your group homepage, scroll down to Discussions and click See all
2. Find the discussion you’d like to delete and select the three dots next to it
3. Choose Delete
4. Select Confirm to delete the discussion

Android and iOS App:

1. From your group homepage, scroll down to Discussions and click See all
2. Find the discussion you’d like to delete and select the three dots next to it
3. Choose Delete

Report a Discussion or Comment

While only organizers and co-organizers can delete content from their group's discussions, all group members can report comments and discussions. If you come across a post that seems to violate the group’s or Meetup’s guidelines, we encourage you to report it so our Community Integrity Team can review and take action if necessary.

1. From your group homepage, scroll down to Discussions
2. Find the discussion you’d like to report
3. Select the three dots icon on that discussion and choose Report
4. Choose a reason you are reporting this discussion and select Next
5. Type in additional comments (if needed) and select Report

Choose Whether Members Can Start a Discussion Thread

Using the toggle near the top of Discussions, organizers and co-organizers can decide whether members can start a new discussion, or limit members to reply only. This is a tool to help organizers have more control over the quality of the discussion. You can change this setting at any time by clicking the toggle. Members can always reply to existing discussion threads.

• When the toggle shows a check to the right, anyone, including members, can start a discussion.
• 
When the toggle shows a gray x to the left, only organizers and the group leadership team can start discussions, limiting members to reply only. 


 

Note: Custom email lists can only be managed via the desktop web version of Meetup.

There may be times when you want to contact a specific subset of members within your group. Perhaps you want to send a welcome message to only your newest members, or share study tips for the beginners in your Spanish language exchange.

Organizers have the power to create, edit, and delete custom email lists to send the right message to the right members at the right time.

When you send a messages to a custom list through the Meetup site, recipients are able to reply directly via email. The responses go only to you, and are not sent to anyone else on the email list.

To create a new custom list:

1. From your Meetup group homepage, click Manage Group 
2. Select Contact members
3. Under Send this message to check A custom list
4. Click New list
5. Give your custom list a name
6. Add members to the list by clicking Add to list in the left column
7. Remove members from the list by clicking Remove from list
8. When you’ve finished, click Create list to save your new list

To edit an existing custom list:

1. From your Meetup group homepage, click Manage Group
2. Select Contact members
3. Under Send this message to check A custom list
4. Select the list you want to update from the drop-down menu 
5. Click Edit
6. Make your changes

Save your updates by clicking Finish

When the 140-character limit of a discussion isn’t enough, your group’s mailing list is the perfect way to reach your members with announcements, newsletters, and more.

We assign every group a unique mailing list email address.

Any member subscribed to a mailing list can email the list using the email address tied to their Meetup account. 

Keep in mind, the email address of anyone who emails a Meetup group mailing list will be visible to the subscribers who receive it. If you prefer to keep your email address private, we recommend not replying to the mailing list, or creating a separate email address that you only use for your Meetup account.

As an organizer, you can adjust the settings of your group’s mailing list, including editing the email address and choosing from the following settings for member access:

• Open: Messages sent to the Mailing List are delivered to subscribers immediately or in a daily digest, depending on which setting each subscriber has chosen
• Organizer approval: Organizers must approve or decline messages sent to the mailing list before they are sent to subscribers
• Off: Disable the mailing list for the group

To adjust the settings of your Meetup group’s mailing list:

Desktop Web

1. From your Meetup group's home page, select Manage group and then Edit group settings.
2. Choose Optional features.
3. Under Communication, edit your mailing list address and settings.
4. Confirm your updates by clicking Save.

Mobile Web

1. From your Meetup group’s home page, select Manage group and then Edit group settings.
2. Select Other.
3. Under Mailing list, edit your mailing list address and settings.
4. Confirm your updates with Save.

Android App

1. From your Meetup group’s homepage, tap the ... Three dots icon in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Tap Group settings (this will open your mobile web browser).
3. Tap Other and scroll down to the "Mailing list" section.
4. Make your desired changes to the mailing list address and settings.
5. Tap Save to confirm your updates.

iOS App

1. From your Meetup group’s homepage, tap the ... Three dots icon in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Tap Group settings.
3. Tap Other and scroll down to the "Mailing list" section.
4. Make your desired changes to the mailing list address and settings.
5. Tap Save to confirm your updates.

When you have big news for your members, you want to shout it from the rooftops. Take it from us, Meetup messages, group communication, and contact tools are going to be much more effective (and safer).

As an organizer, you have several options for getting in touch with your members. You can message members individually, in small groups, or all at once.

Watch our Community Support specialists walk you through your communication tools:

For more details about each communication tool, see the written instructions below.

Contact Members

The Contact Members tool allows you to send a message to all members who have chosen to receive organizer announcements. You can also use this to send messages to specific subsets of members (based on recent activity or RSVP status, for example).

You can access this tool by following these steps on a desktop or laptop computer:

1. From your group’s homepage, select Manage group.
2. Select Contact members from the dropdown menu.

The Contact Members tool will not display your email address when contacting members, unless your group mailing list is enabled.

Contact Attendees

Need to contact attendees of an upcoming or past event? Follow these steps to send a message to only the attendees of a specific event.

1. Select the event from your group homepage.
2. Select the Organizer tools drop down menu.
3. Click on Contact attendees.

Group Mailing List

Every group has its own unique mailing list, to which members can subscribe or unsubscribe. When you send a message to the mailing list, Meetup will notify all members subscribed to the mailing list.

You can send these emails from the Meetup platform or directly from your email client. Just make sure to use the email address associated with your Meetup account, so our system knows it’s you. Also keep in mind that when you send something to the mailing list, your email address will be displayed to the recipients. The same goes for any members who reply to the message.

When a new member joins your group, they’ll receive mailing list updates by default. They can always choose to unsubscribe.

Learn more about mailing lists and how to use them to keep your members up to date.

Meetup Messages

You can reach out to members privately or in small groups using Meetup Messages. These messages are sent directly to the recipients’ Meetup inbox, and only the members included in the conversation are able to view them.

Welcome Message

When a new member joins your group, we’ll send them a welcome message, which you can set up to say whatever you like. This is often the first piece of communication they’ll see from you, so make it count.

This article explains why it’s so important to customize your welcome message and how to do it.

1. From your group’s homepage, select Manage group.
2. Choose Edit group settings.
3. From the group settings page, choose Your Members.
4. Scroll down to "Welcome message to new members" and enter your message.
5. Click Save to confirm your changes.

Discussions

Group discussions are a quick and easy way to get conversations going that all your members can access. The 140-character limit on posts and comments keep things from getting too crazy, while still allowing everyone a place to speak their mind.

Learn all the details you need to manage your group’s discussions.

Send Attachments to Members

If you need to share an attachment with your members - an informative welcome pamphlet or a map of the venue for an upcoming event - use your organizer announcement address or your mailing list address to send the attachment directly from your email client.

To find these addresses:

1. From your group’s homepage, select Manage group. 
2. Select Edit group settings from the drop-down menu.
3. Scroll down to Optional features.
4. Copy the appropriate address.
5. Paste it into your email client, compose your message, and send it.

Message format

To ensure a consistent experience for members, messages sent by email include a subtle gray border and a Meetup logo at the top.

While organizers do have the option of using HTML in their communications to members, for the best results on all devices, we recommend keeping it simple, and ideally text only. Images should be a maximum of 360 pixels wide.

Tips for a successful communications strategy

Maintaining a regular and robust plan for contacting your members is crucial to securing RSVPs and new members. Our Community Matters blog can walk you through some principles for devising a communications plan. You can also connect with top organizers who've used Meetup to build thriving communities! Join the Meetup Organizer Community on Discord and learn more about keeping in touch with your members.

Note: It is currently only possible to remove and/or ban members from the desktop web version of Meetup.

Organizers (including co-organizers and assistant organizers) have the ability to remove or ban members from your groups. You decide which option is best for which members. 

• If you remove a member from your group, they can request to rejoin at any time.
• If you ban a member, they are removed from your group and are prevented from sending a request to rejoin. Consider a ban if a member’s behavior is negatively affecting the experience of other group members, or otherwise in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. 

Whether a member is removed or banned, Meetup sends them a short message to let them know that they are no longer a member of your group. 

Remove a member

1. From the Members page of your group, click the member you want to remove
2. Select the Admin Tools dropdown to the right of their name
3. Click Remove member
4. Optionally add a message to them (we encourage you to explain your actions in this step)
5. Meetup will also send the member an automatic notification that they were removed 

Ban a member

1. From the Members page of your group, click the member you want to ban
2. Select the Admin Tools drop-down to the right of their name
3. Click Remove member
4. Check Ban from being able to re-join your group box at the bottom of the check box list
5. Click Remove member 

To make sure members are a good fit for your group from the start, we give organizers tools to screen members and control who can join their groups. Organizers who decline a member’s request to join their group also have the ability to ban that member from there. 

Keep track of banned members through the Banned Members tab in your Members List (this is only visible to the group’s leadership team). This is also where you can unban a member if you decide to change your mind in the future.