Contact: George Griffin GeorgeGri@aol.com
I live in San Luis Obispo, California and am involved with a group of
folks in a dinner group of a similar nature. We've been at it for three
years now and we're going strong.
Our set up is a bit different than yours. There are twelve people in our
group. Toward the end of each month, we break out a blank calendar and pass
it around. Each person signs up for a dinner each month. Single people
sign up once and couples sign up twice. Generally, we meet Monday through
Thursday to accomodate any weekend events or travel plans, though if someone
wants to cook on the other days they just ask the group. It's usually no
problem. We have very few rules and those we do have are looked at in a
relaxed way. "No pork," is one that people abide by, though it's rare for us
to serve red meat of any kind. Each dinner is the complete and total
responsibility of the host. He or she pays for it, prepares it and cleans up
after it. Common courtesy say that if you're not able to attend the dinner,
please call a day in advance. Another is that dinner should start at a set
time, either 6:00 or 7:00pm. It started out at six, but has moved to
accomodate a couple of people who work later. We don't seem to get the time
thing down, but there isn't a pressing need to. With San Luis Obispo being a
small city (population 40,000) we all live very close to one another, several
within two blocks and all within a five minute bicycle ride. I live the
farthest out- about fifteen blocks from the dinner group core area. It takes
a great rainstorm to make us take our cars to dinner.
Most of our members are friends who met through local political activism
or through the friends of activists. Our numbers have been pretty stable.
We lost a member to a move and another to a broken relationship, though he
still joins us occasionally. Within the group we have had two weddings, two
break-ups and one baby. Our dinners are now punctuated with the sounds of a
baby crying. There are plans being made for a third wedding and another baby
may be forthcoming... All in all it's a pretty dynamic group.
Our roots go back three years. Several of us were on a bike ride and had
stopped for coffe and snack. Jim had just returned from a convention on
intentional community building. He shared some of what he heard and made a
suggestion. Our coffee break lasted about three hours and at the end we had
the Dinner Group up and running.
Our focus from the beginning has been to develop community. We've been
doing that within our group through dinners and friendship and outside it
through political work as well. Our friendships have deepened immeasurably.
I look at this group as my family. We have traveled together, shared
housing, gardened, grieved, laughed, cried and played together. As time goes
on people are making long term plans that involve this group of friends.
Three households are on the same block and others are looking to move there
too. It has the possibility of becoming virtual co-housing...
Mostly, this has been a group of friends coming together for regular
meals, projects, special events and often for no good reason other than we
like each other.