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)

If your group’s mailing list is enabled, you can set the reply address to mailing list. You then have the option to send responses to all those members subscribed to your mailing list, or just directly to you. This will save you time for occasions when you need to reach your entire group by email.

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 Meetup. To send a customized message, email your message either to your Meetup 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 Meetup group's Announce or mailing list address directly from your personal email. The biggest difference here is that unlike with Contact Members, these other methods will display your email address to your recipients.

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.

Who doesn’t love a good conversation? 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.

Get Notified About New Discussions

When anyone starts a discussion, we send a notification to the group’s organizer and leadership team. Our goal with this is not to barrage organizers with emails, but rather to make sure they can easily stay on top of interactions happening among their members.

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. Not to mention, being able to respond directly via email is great for when your members need their Meetup fix but need to look productive at work.

We assign every group a unique mailing list email address. If the organizer decides to enable the mailing list, members can find the address under More, then Mailing list.

Any member subscribed to a mailing list can email the list using the email address tied to their Meetup account. We archive every email sent to the mailing list in the Mailing list page of the group. This allows members who aren’t subscribed to see what they’re missing, and for new members to catch up on group activity.

 Keep in mind, when you email a Meetup group mailing list, your email address is 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. Note: Your email address will not be displayed in the mailing list archive.

 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
• Moderated: 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. Let’s walk through the different methods so you can find the one that makes sense for you.

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).

Note: 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. Navigate to your group’s page and 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

Need more inspiration for your keeping in touch with your members? Check out The Organizer Guide.

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.