My poly group (WIPoly) has started doing an open outreach meeting once a month. Prior to this we were a kind of gated community. Only those who were already practicing polyamory, and had a clear idea of what it is, were invited to meetings. We started out as a social group ("not a Swing club, dammit" :^) and enjoyed the family feeling that ensued. There were discussions about opening the meetings up but some of us, including me, were opposed to it. I didn't want to lose the good feelings we had developed by having open meetings where we would be more likely (than in our regular meetings) to feel that we were in public. I think the WIPolyOut group is a good solution.
We are doing one open meeting a month, in which two of our members co-facilitate a specific topic. The first one was, obviously enough, Poly 101. I co-facilitated it with Marlann. It went pretty well, I thought, with a fair turnout although most of the people who came were from the regular Poly group. But I hope that as it continues it will draw some people out of the closet.
There was a problem though. A man showed up who had been kicked out of our group because of his behavior with the founder of the group. He was abusive. None of us were happy but didn't feel that we could do anything about his presence at a public event unless he did something there that warranted it. Unfortunately he will probably continue to come.
Copyright © 2000 Kyril Oakwind