I am guessing that there is a thread somewhere that announces the meetup, tells the when-and-where information for the itinerary that is planned, and invites all CC members who are able to attend...?
It's a very small group get-together with friends from this site who have already met at least once, sometimes several times. Everyone has met at least one member of the group in real life and can vouch for them. We wrote a thread about our last meetup a few years ago as well -- just to share our adventure, like any other vacation or life event.
Would you invite anyone and everyone to your family reunion? I'm guessing not, and this meetup really is like a family reunion.
Years ago (when I was part of another group,) we talked about having a meetup and opening it up to everyone in Singles.
But it became too much of a liability issue. Some of the people in the group were already having problems with members who were a little too enthusiastic about meeting certain other members (aka, stalking,) so we decided collectively to have certain limitations -- mostly for reasons of safety and security. In the end, I think it wound up being about 6 people, and again, some had already met in person, so there was a better level of trust and security.
Unfortunately, there can be serious problems with meetups.
What if Member A is crushing on Member B, and Member B isn't interested, but Member A won't take no for answer? And then what if Member A finds out where Member B lives?
As much as I'm all for friendship and fellowship, I have also unfortunately known cases of real-life incidences in which people on this site had to get the police involved due to someone else actively trying to force themselves into their life.
We've also talked about trying to have general meetups in which we announce here on the forum, "Hey, some of us are going to be meeting on August 13 around 12:30 at Louie's Crab Shack -- come stop by if you can," but again, we've been concerned about privacy issues.
Obviously, the place we're meeting at is going to be close to where at least one or more people in the group live, and most people I've become good friends don't want anyone knowing those kinds of things about them.
I tend to make friendships very, very slowly. These are all people I've known here for a minimum of 5 and up to 10 or more years through their posts, PM's, chats outside this site (so I got to see what they were like in real time and around others) -- eventually, I wound up meeting them in person while visiting family, and now a few of us who have met in person meet up in person all together.
If you have ideas how to have a safe and secure meetup for more people from the site, I'm more than open to suggestions.
We've actually been talking about this for years, but haven't been able to come up with anything everyone is comfortable with.