I've run various meetups in the past, some of which have been successful, some not. The biggest thing I learned was that you if you start it, you have to drive

I've run various meetups in the past, some of which have been successful, some not. The biggest thing I learned was that you if you start it, you have to drive it. If you take a few months off, don't expect anyone else to pick it up and run with it, even if they offer and you give them the keys to do so. Nowadays I don't have time for anything too involved. Instead of meetup.com, I "run" a small private group (which is me with a mailing list and a google calendar invite) of remote IT workers in Inner North Melbourne (AU) who catch up for beers once a month (email in my profile for details) It's surprisingly better in some ways. The group is tighter, and there's far less stress.