The joy of finding an AceAro club near me and connecting with more people was unfortunately subverted when I went to a meeting and found that they were absolutely unprepared for the "meet & greet" they had promised
This obviously isn't a "AceAro meetings bad" post (just covering that for the folks with no reading comprehension), but this specific group meeting was so bad that I need to vent somewhere
There was no chance to TALK, only to listen to the two (sometimes three) who were talking, and when you managed to ask a question in an attempt to start a conversation (and you know, actually connect with people, the whole point of the meeting), you would get one response and then they would go back to ignoring you. These two were the MAIN PEOPLE BEHIND THE MEETING
The seating arrangement was so that we were all close together, so separate conversations would be difficult to have. Several of us (either half of or majority of the group, I think?) sat silent and awkward
Keep in mind I am very socially anxious so piping up isn't easy, and doing so only to get like a two-word answer and then ignored? Not fun.
Good on you for starting the club to begin with and all that and setting this up, but you can't just stop there. You can't arrange a meeting if you're going to take over the whole conversation without allowing some back-and-forth.
Write icebreakers for people to ask (better than nothing). Open a discussion for the whole group and give people time to talk. Give people the opportunity to actually make connections