I am sure I am not alone in finding myself with an increasingly packed work schedule, which oftentimes puts a strain on my social life. As we mature in our careers (and are pulled in a thousand different directions), it becomes even more important for us to make time for ourselves. For me, setting aside time to spend with my girlfriends can be difficult to schedule, but is critical to my overall social satisfaction and stress relief. About a year and a half ago, Dana and I started a monthly dinner club and it has been going strong ever since. Prior to forming our club, I had been part of numerous book clubs, wine clubs and dinner groups that ultimately failed - mostly due to a lack of structure. However, our dinner club has been successful because of the following five steps we took seriously from the get-go.
1 – Establishing Structure: Establishing a dinner club structure is an important step toward success. We have roughly six to eight consistent members in our dinner club. Once a month, someone volunteers to cook for the group and invites attendees to bring over a bottle of wine. We rotate each month, and members are likely to only cook for the group once or twice a year. In other dinner clubs, the host prepares the main course and a few sides, and then delegates other sides, dessert and beverages to attendees. However, we think our structure works the best because the burden to cook is fairly infrequent – which has resulted in consistent, high attendance.
2 - Selecting a Day: We decided that Tuesday would be the best day for our dinner club since our members are less likely to have plans toward the beginning of the week than they are at the end of it. I suggest discussing member’s schedules and polling them as to their most convenient day to meet each month. It’s okay to be flexible on the day of the week, too. Sometimes Wednesdays work better for our group – and no one minds if we temporarily move the day for a month or two. Additionally, we named our dinner club after the day it occurs to help members remember it. Our Evites are for the “Third Tuesday Dinner Club,” which brings me to…
3 – Invitations and Communication: It’s important to have a structured e-mail invitation so that dinner club members have all the information they need about the month’s club, including time, location, directions and information regarding the meal. Our dinner club uses Evite to communicate with members. Additionally, I think it’s important to set certain rules about cancellations. For example, our club frowns upon canceling the day of the dinner club unless it’s an emergency. We hate for the host to overspend and end up with a bunch of food left over, so it’s a good idea to set certain rules like this early on.
4 – Perpetuating Momentum: I think most dinner clubs die because they lose momentum. In hopes of avoiding a similar fate, we send out the Evite for the following month’s dinner club very shortly after the current month’s occurred so members can mark it on their calendars as soon as possible. Everyone appreciates advance planning!
5 – Diversity and Creativity: Dana and I wanted our dinner club to be a vehicle to merge our groups of friends. Our club is composed of a diverse group of girls from a range of backgrounds - which keeps conversation interesting and meals unique. We communicate about our meals prior to the dinner club so we can be sensitive to food allergies or aversions, as well as help to generate attendee interest in the meal. Members of our dinner club have cooked Jamaican food, Indian, Columbian, Mexican (tacos and tortilla soup), Italian (lasagna and ziti parmesan), kosher for Passover, create-your-own-salad, handmade ravioli, organic dinners with food purchased from the DeKalb Farmer’s Market and we’ve grilled out (turkey burgers and hobo packs).
All the members of our club look forward to our monthly meals. We hope that these five steps will help you to form a successful dinner club of your own!
xx, L
