Vape clubs and vape meets advice!

[CMancini]

Hey everyone.

I will start with the background story, I am a vaper from Maine, and unfortunately vaping is not as well known here as in other areas, but there is certainly an interest in vaping. After hearing about vape meets, I was excited to go to one, but I couldn't find any in Maine, the closest ones I found were in the Mass area, and I don't have the option to drive 2ish hours for every meet.

So, being a person of action, I decided to do something about it. I started the "Maine vaping Club" and have been generating interest both online, and in person with friends and people I meet. So far, I have started a Facebook Page, ECF Thread, ECF Group, and even made our own Forum .

I have had some help luckily, but things are going as smooth as I would like. There are only a few local suppliers and stores in the whole state, but I have been reaching out to them, will little results. I hope to have some local suppliers have a presence at meets as a way for them to have free advertising, and in return I plan to ask for them to bring juices and equipment for people to try or to maybe provide something we can raffle or something like that. a couple are very interested in doing something like that.

the biggest problem I am running into is, I don't have anywhere to hold a vape me, and I have tried to ask some local places, but I am getting no where. the problem is, is that I can't really provide an incentive to anyone. There are no businesses that sell vaping products and also have the space to hold a meet. Every businesses I know that has the space to hold one isn't connected to vaping in anyway, so I can't blame them for saying no when I am asking to use space in their businesses for free, or for very little money. I tried offering 20-40 bucks, cause that's all I can really spare out of my personal money, although I'd rather not spend my own money. None of the people helping me have had any luck either, so I am at a loss...

I'm not sure if the problem might be in my approach. I try to be professional when dealing with businesses or organizations. I am always friendly, and polite. I seem to get along with these people in the community very well, and have even ended up have 20-30 minuet conversations with some of these people, which I though was a good sign, but has got me no where. Unfortunately, this is more work than I originally anticipated, fortunately I don't give up easily.

I also would appreciate any other general advice, such as how to set up the actual meets. As I've never been to a meet, I only have a vague idea of what happens at meets, and would love any pointers. Any tips, big or small would be great, and feel free to check out the FB page or Forum and comment about them as well.

Thanks for reading

 

[Hoosier]

Howdy! I'm also known as J, president of the Hoosier Vapers club. We've been hosting meets and helping shops host meets for awhile.

The thing to do is just have one then build from there. Our first meet had 3 whole vapers and each of those became officers of the club. One guy found a bar that was more than willing to allow vapers to vape. We've since hosted meets that had over 70 vapers attend. We also have monthly meet & greets at a bar. (It's the Silver Bullet bar which we find to be a great name since that is the name of one of the first "mods" to be commercially available.)

First thing is that our meets are a bit different. We don't have vending on site. (Vendors do attend, but they are treated like any other vaper and sometimes keep the fact that they are vendors quiet so they can just hang out and have fun.) We went this way because every county in Indiana has different laws regarding retailing product and licensing and we try to have our meets in various places around the state. (A couple examples I know about is my county, Howard, a vendor wouldn't have any issues, but Parke county requires temporary vendors to have a $40 license purchased in advance.) If nothing is being sold there are no issues with county retailing laws.

A meet takes some effort. Finding a place can be difficult and getting donations to hold a raffle isn't fun. All of our raffle proceeds, every penny, goes to CASAA. Attending is free and first raffle ticket is free. We award additional raffle tickets in exchange for a donation to CASAA. Finding a place that doesn't mind vaping and has space they would like to fill is a bit challenging. We need someone local to the area that can find a place that isn't typically busy in the time frame we'd like to hold a meet. Then approach the manager and ask about reserving some space for some customers who vape and want to have a good time enjoying their services. Many times it is a bar, but sometimes it is a restaurant that has a party room. (Once had a meet at a restaurant with over 70 vapers attending and we estimated 50 and the manager only had one server for the entire room which really meant that the establishment missed some revenue as folks gave up trying to order and left to get something to eat.) Bringing folks into a place that sells food and drink should be something good for that establishment.

A meet & greet is more laid back. We don't solicit for donations. We don't have a raffle to man and run. (There are occasions where a vendor will send us stuff without us asking and we'll do a small raffle to give those things away.) It's basically vapers getting together to talk, try someone else's juice, admire new mods, or find out about a mod or get some how-to from someone who has been there and had the same problem. They don't have the same draw as a meet where the raffle prizes are advertised on social media well ahead of time, but they are actually more fun for us club officers. It also seems more open for folks to come forward and ask about vaping because we see more folks asking about vaping that are thinking about starting at the meet & greets than we do at meets.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas on getting started.