MeetUpMondays™ Visitor and Host FAQs
MeetUpMondays is an initiative launched to help address loneliness and isolation.
It offers hospitality businesses the chance to strengthen their local communities by supporting them to hold free, weekly coffee mornings.
These create friendly and welcoming social spaces for folk who might feel lonely or isolated, providing opportunities for friendship and company that might not otherwise be available.
Each MeetUpMondays is unique to the venue which hosts it.
Some are held in pubs, some in cafes or tea-rooms, some in hotel lounges, but the same premise applies to every MeetUpMondays – the venue provides a space for everyone to just sit and have a chat and some company for an hour or two once a week, every week.
Some venues offer biscuits or cakes, some have sandwiches or sausage rolls, some visitors bring their own baking to share, but there’s always tea and coffee to fuel the chat!
No. Monday is often the popular day of the week chosen by venues as it is often their quietest day after a busy weekend.
It can often be the loneliest day of the week for some, too, so an ideal day to seek some company.
Some businesses find that other days of the week are better suited to run their sessions on, and the network caters for any day of the week – we have MeetUpMondays on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays too!
So check which day of the week your local venue runs their sessions on before going along.
Anyone and everyone is welcome! No matter what age, experience or background, there’s always a warm welcome, and if you don’t feel like talking but could do with the company, that’s still OK.
You can come on your own or bring someone along – maybe you’ll make a friend or two there! Some venues are dog friendly if you have a furry companion to bring, just call ahead to check first.
If you’re new to the area and would like to meet your neighbours, it’s a great place to start.
If you’re feeling fed up or lonely – give it a go and then perhaps you won’t be!
Those who do go aren’t labelled by the word lonely, they are individuals who may not happen to have family or friends around them at present, but want to share their day and their companionship with others.
The whole idea of MeetUpMondays is to guarantee a welcoming environment where people can expect to find kindness and a friendly face to chat with, if they’d like to.
The venues which join the network do so because this is what they want to offer to their community.
The people that go along do so because this is what they hope to find and be part of – and those attending may have been in your shoes when they visited for the first time, so will appreciate just how you feel!
Not at all – just turn up!
Because MeetUpMondays are held in everyday businesses you can take it at your own pace.
Chat as little or as much as you’d like, stay for 10 mins or stay for 2 hours.
Because they happen weekly, every week no matter how many people are there, you can attend every once in a while, or every single week – it’s up to you!
It’s FREE!
Refreshments are provided free by the venue, and there is no charge for attending.
Each venue is different.
Most just provide the space for a natter over a cuppa, but some venues hold a small raffle or quiz now and again.
Some venues have organised extra outings for their groups (theatre, boat or museum trips), and some MeetUpMondays groups have enjoyed each other’s company so much they’ve formed lunch clubs so they can stay on at their venue even after the MeetUpMondays session has ended!
If you enter your postcode onto our locations map and use the zoom in and out facility, you’ll be able to find the details of the nearest MeetUpMondays sessions to you.
The initiative was only launched in 2018 and is still growing.
We’d love to have a MeetUpMondays in every town across the whole of the UK, but if you don’t have one near you at present, why don’t you print out our flyer and take it to your nearest pub or café.
Meetupmondays FLYER 2019
Let them know about MeetUpMondays and see if they’d like to join the network too!?
We’ll support the venue in starting up their sessions, (more information about how on our Venue FAQs page) and we’ll send them out a Welcome Pack with lots of useful goodies!
The network was started in Suffolk by the Rural Coffee Caravan charity and the Suffolk Good Neighbour Schemes network to help address loneliness and isolation in rural areas of the county.
However it quickly became such a popular idea that it has grown nationwide, and we are delighted to be welcoming more and more venues from all over the United Kingdom to the MeetUpMondays community!
An innovative pub landlord, Mick Dore, of The Alexandra in Wimbledon, decided he was fed up with hearing people talk about loneliness without doing anything about it.
He’s always been doing his bit for the community by offering free Christmas dinners to anyone on their own (amongst other things).
He held the first MeetUpMondays session at his pub (The Alexandra, in Wimbledon) in January 2018, and now a regular crowd are there before the doors open every week, just waiting for their MeetUpMondays to start.
Mick gave us his blessing to spread the idea to other pubs and cafes, and Ann Osborn of the Rural Coffee Caravan and Sally Connick of the Suffolk Good Neighbour Schemes have currently grown the network to over 60 venues across the country, with new hosts coming on board all the time. You can follow Mick’s community adventures on Twitter: @TheAlexSW19
and you can follow MeetUpMondays updates from venues across the network on our MeetUpMondays Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages, and by searching #meetupmondays!
Once a week, for an hour or two, the host venue provides a space in their pub/café/tea room/hotel lounge for people to sit and chat, and provides free tea, coffee and some sort of nibbles for the visitors to enjoy during the session.
Some venues offer a packet or two of biscuits, some provide cakes, sandwiches or sausage rolls, but all offer tea and coffee. Some MeetUpMondays visitors even bring their own baking to share, to help fuel the chat and to support the venue!
For the price of some teabags, a jar of coffee and a packet of biscuits – you will be rewarded with something which is absolutely priceless: lifting the lives of the members of your local community!
An unexpected bonus is that visitors often enjoy the welcoming and friendly environment so much, many come back at other times of the week as paying customers. Some groups even form regular lunch clubs so that they can stay on after the sessions to continue enjoying the company and the chat!
Current hosts have expressed how MeetUpMondays is the best thing they’ve ever done. It’s helped them to gain a useful insight into what their locals want, and what’s going on in their community. As one host put it:
“Your business will grow, and your heart will grow.”
The idea of MeetUpMondays being held in hospitality businesses is that they occur in ‘everyday life’ situations within the normal, daily running of your service, to keep your workload to a minimum and to ensure the consistency of keeping them running.
If only a few visitors turn up one week – you’re open anyway so no extra arrangements would be wasted. Sometimes local volunteers get involved by being friendly ‘Meeters & Greeters’ or helping to serve the tea/coffee, so no extra staff should be needed.
Not at all! The network caters for any day of the week – we also have MeetUpMondays on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays – we have branding and templates to cater for each day of the week, whilst still keeping everyone part of the same network!
Hosts find that choosing their quieter time of day and day of the week to hold their sessions on helps to keep their business busier on these days.
MeetUpMondays HQ helps to get the ball rolling – we’ll create a poster/flyer template for you, we’ll add you to the map and the list of locations on the website.
We’ll promote you on our MeetUpMondays social media pages and create a repeat event listing for you on the MeetUpMondays Facebook page, but the best way is for you to keep ‘shouting’ about and sharing the wonderful thing that you’re doing! The internet is a great tool for this, because even if your visitors might not use it, chances are someone who knows them probably does – and can let them know how good MeetUpMondays would be for them!
We’ll send you the official logo for you to use online and in print and we’ll also post you a free Welcome Pack which contains handy items such as a MeetUpMondays window sticker to display in your venue, some MeetUpMondays drinks coasters, and some ‘Happy to Chat’ badges for you and your staff to wear at your sessions.
We’ll offer help on getting a pavement swing sign to place outside your venue, to signpost visitors to you.
All of this will show you’re part of the recognised MeetUpMondays network.
The MeetUpMondays network is established for hospitality businesses, a further explanation of why can be found in this PDF:
MeetUpMondays – 10 Reasons Why
But don’t despair! We are looking into the possibility of another network which encompasses the wonderful coffee mornings run in village halls, community centres and church rooms across the county, which are equally as valuable a resource in tackling loneliness! Email us if you’d like to register your interest in being part of this network, and we’ll update this page as soon as we have more info about it.
Email us at MeetUpMondays HQ to let us know you’d like to come on board! To add you to the network we’ll need to know:
- your business website, address & contact details
- your proposed start date and session day/times
- what refreshments you will be offering free
- your business social media account names so we can tag you to help promote you
We’re here to help you get the MeetUpMondays ball rolling but each venue has its own unique style, and our hosts tailor their sessions according to their knowledge of their own locals, their business, and also to the means at their disposal.
The biggest difference is made by simply providing the space to let the chatter happen each week, but some venues also occasionally offer a quiz, raffle or games.
Some venues, once their MeetUpMondays are established, have gotten local events companies to support the initiative by donating outings for their MeetUpMondays group: a theatre matinee; a boat trip; a trip to a local air museum for example.
MeetUpMondays HQ will create a repeat event listing on Facebook to help advertise your sessions each week. We encourage you to keep posting online about the wonderful thing you are doing, and we’ll also use our social media pages to help promote you.
We’ll occasionally send newsletters to share ideas and heartwarming stories between our host venues – you become a part of the supportive MeetUpMondays community when you join the network! We’re here to answer any questions or offer tips and ideas along the way.
If you’re a local business you could support your local MeetUpMondays by offering to print flyers to promote their sessions (we can send you the template), with your own details on the reverse of the flyer
You could supply refreshments for MeetUpMondays sessions, or vouchers for them, to the venue.
There is an option of sponsoring a pavement swing sign (we have templates for this too) and your sponsor details can be displayed on the sign to show your support. Email us if you’d like further information.
Perhaps you are an organisation which could offer an excursion to a MeetUpMondays group?
If you’re an individual who’d like to see MeetUpMondays in your home town – download and print our leaflet, and take it along to your nearest pub or café. Tell them about the initiative and how much of a difference it would make! Meetupmondays FLYER 2019
You can volunteer to be a ‘Meeter/Greeter’ or ‘Happy Chatter’ at your local MeetUpMondays; to be that warm welcome and friendly face when someone comes through the door.
Download a PDF of our MeetUpMondays flyer to print and share with your local pub, cafe or tea room to encourage them to join the network, or share it with someone you know, who might be interested in finding a MeetUpMondays near them. MeetUpMondays FLYER
