Start of Summer (& gas/food prices just keep going up!!) Membership sale!

You can now try the club for as little $7, or only $20 for a full year (that's just $1.67/month)!
Click here to see all the sale prices!

Low cost paid membership and NO event fees!!! (click here to Compare & Save!)
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[ Support our club by visiting our sponsors... 250 free (+s/h) business cards, etc]

Frequently Asked Questions
(Questions & Answers)

Click on a question or scroll down
  1. Can I attend an event without becoming a paid member?
  2. Do you offer a money back guarantee?
  3. Can non-paid members sponsor an event?
  4. Are there additional and/or event fees?
  5. Can I bring a guest to an event?
  6. My friend doesn't have a computer, how can they join?
  7. Can I bring my children to an event?
  8. When did the club start?
  9. Where are you located?
  10. Who are the event contacts?
  11. How do I contact an event sponsor with out signing up (RSVPing)?
  12. How do I change my e-mail address?
  13. How do I un-subscribe from the club's mailing lists?
  14. I forgot my password, how can I login?
  15. How come all the events are far away me?
  16. How many events per month?
  17. I heard this club used to be free?
  18. Where are the members located?
  19. What is the age range of the members?
  20. How many women? How many men?
  21. How come some events show how many are RSVPed (signed up) and some don't?
  22. What do the distances mean for each event?
  23. Question that is not asked/answered here?

1. Can I attend an event without becoming a paid member? [top]

Only very few select events are open to paid and non-paid members. When viewing the current events calendar, the events open to non-paid members are flagged with the South Park character icon. Our competitors allow non-paid members to attend their events, but you still have to pay their per-event fee, which is even higher for non-paid members. For what you pay for our competitors event fee to try just one event, you can try a whole months worth of our events.

2. Do you offer a money back guarantee? [top]

Simple answer is no. Membership fees are non-refundable and non-transferable.

However if you are unsure if the club is for you or not, your best bet is to try out a half (1/2)  month membership for only $10, and you get to attend as many events as you can in thatnth period. $15 is what some other area clubs charge for an event fee in order to be allowed to attend just one (1) of their events.

We also recommend that you try at least three (3) different events to get a real feel for the club and our members.

3. Can non-paid members sponsor an event? [top]

By all means yes! You must still agree to the club's terms & conditions however. Click here to add an event.

4. Are there additional and/or event fees? [top]

The club's pricing plan is designed so that in general, unlike most of our competing clubs, you do not pay a per-event fee, only a membership fee. The club feels charging per-event fees would mean higher admisistrative overhead, and less flexibility for the members to be able to sign up at the last minute (clubs that have event fees usually require you to sign up and pay your event fee in advance).

So at most events you will simply pay as you go, ie. pay your own way. For example, if you go out to dinner, you pay for whatever you ordered (food, drinks, etc), plus tax & tip. For a movie event you'd pay for your own movie ticket, popcorn, etc. And obviously some events have no cost such as playing tennis on public courts, a walk, bike ride, etc.

There may be some exceptions. Some events may have what would appear to be an event fee, but is essentially a cover charge. For example, for a pot luck dinner at some one's home, while every one is bringing food, the club or the host may be supplying paper products, plastic ware, heating extra rooms, cleaning (both before & after), drinks, etc. Your membership fee in the club only covers administrative costs in running the club. So few people open up their homes to the club's membership, it wouldn't be fair if they had to eat those costs.

Some events may also have a pre-paid cost. For example, if we run a bus trip to some where, a concert, sports event, etc. Built into that pre-paid cost may be an extra fee due to the extra overhead of running such events. This is essentially how the Boston Ski and Sports club runs all of their events, they just don't let you know up front like I have here.

5. Can I bring a guest to an event? [top]

Unless specifically stated in an event's description, all events are paid members only. Your guest would have to become a paid member. As indicated under an earlier question above, your friend/guest can try out the club for 1/2 a month for $10 or less, and be able to attend several activities. This is cheaper than what other clubs charge as a guest fee to attend one event.

There may be some exceptions to this rule. For some pre-paid events, we may allow guests, but with a non-paid member surcharge.

6. My friend doesn't have a computer, how can they join? [top]

Have you friend see if they can use their computer/e-mail at work. Or have your friend obtain a free web based e-mail account from someone like mail.yahoo.com, and then they can access their e-mail (and our web site) at your house (or their other friends), or from their local library.

We don't have the infrastructure, nor the staff, to be able to handle non-online members. We also can't publish a hard copy newsletter as it would be out of date usually within days of being printed, due to the dynamic nature of our calendar.

7. Can I bring my children to an event? [top]

Unless specifically stated in an event's description, all events are adult's & members only. Children at an event changes the whole dynamic and feel of the event. Parents without Partners has more family events.

A way to have more events on the calendar that allow children, consider sponsoring (running) an event.

8. When did the club start? [top]

September 10th, 2000.  We started with less than 30 members.

9. Where are you located? [top]

We are not really located anywhere.  We are where ever the events are. Currently that's mainly in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

10. Who are the event contacts? [top]

Event contacts are volunteers (they are not paid). They are usually the one who have the idea for the event itself as well. Almost anyone can be an event contact.  However we usually like to see someone attend at least a couple of events first.

11. How do I contact an event sponsor with out signing up (RSVPing)? [top]

On each event's web page, right above the text box where you would normally enter text if you were RSVPing, will be the text "If you have a different question about this event or want to reach this event contact then send it to the webmaster." That last word, webmaster, will be a hyper link to a page where you can ask your questions. Do note you must be logged in to the web site.

12. How do I change my e-mail address? [top]

Similar process to how one originally registers. Click on the "[update registration]" link. The form's fields should have all your registration information, including the e-mail address you are currently registered with. Change your e-mail address and whatever else you'd like to change, then click on the button labeled "Update (Registration) Now". The web site will automatically e-mail you a confirmation of your new registration settings.

13. How do I un-subscribe from the club's mailing lists? [top]

Even simpler than registering. Go to the un-register page and check the boxes for the mailing lists you wish to remove yourself from, then submit the form. If you are not already logged in to the website, it will ask you to login first.

Please note that if you are asking this question because you are receiving too many notifications of new events, you can reduce the number you receive by updating your registration instead to restrict those notification to only events being added that are occurring within a given radius of your registered zip code. You can also restrict the notification to those that will occur within a specified number of days (useful if you wish to be notified of events added between copies of the weekly newsletter). Click on the "[update registration]" link.

14. I forgot my password, how can I login? [top]

You can have the web site e-mail it to you automatically. Click on the "login" link, enter the e-mail address you registered with, leave the password field blank and click on the button under the form labeled Login. The next page will indicate you entered an incorrect password, under there will be a button labeled "click here to have your password emailed to you". Click on that button.

If you forgot your password and no longer have access to your to e-mail sent to your registered e-mail address, then you will need to contact the webmaster.

15. How come all the events are far away me? [top]

We are a member run club. Events are where ever the members who are pro-active want to sponsor them. While 40% of the membership is in Massachusetts, 52% are in New Hampshire.  So therefore there are usually a couple more events in New Hampshire.

If you are willing to be the contact person for an event near you, the webmaster can provide as much help as needed to get the event on the calendar.

16. How many events per month? [top]

Since the club's inception to date we have averaged about 20-40 events per month. There usually is not that many on the calendar at any given point in time because events are added to the calendar all the time. Look at a prior months calendar to see.

This is something relatively unique to our club. Most other clubs have far fewer events (as few as a dozen or less), and their calendar is fixed (non-changing) between 1-3 months in advance. We (and you) have the flexibility to add events to the calendar in response to the members, weather, movie schedules, etc.

17. I heard this club used to be free? [top]

Yes, it used to be. From it's inception on September 10th, 2000, until June 1st, 2004, it was run by the club's President (Jeff Michaud) as a free community service. He paid for the costs of running it out of his pocket, wrote all the software, and volunteered significant time each week administer it.

He has since left his full-time day job, and is now devoting his full time to the continued success and growth of the club. However that also means having to charge a membership fee. We are still however the lowest cost social club around!

18. Where are the members located? [top]

Please see the demographics statistics page (click here). If you have registered your zipcode the table on that page will be sorted by distance from your zip code.

19. What is the age range of the members? [top]

29% of the members are in their 20's/30's, 35% in their 40's, with the remaining 32% in their 50's and up.

20. How many women? How many men? [top]

Because we are primiarly a social club, not a dating service, that tends to attract more women to the club than men. Overall the membership is 63% female.

21. How come some events show how many are RSVPed (signed up) and some don't? [top]

By default the RSVP count for an event is only public (visible) to everyone when it is at least 15. For some events it may be set so it becomes visible at a different count (lower or higher).

Why? Because experience has taught us that when the count was visible no matter how many, it created a catch-22 situation. A fair number of members would wait until there was already a critical mass (ie. a good sized crowd) before signing up. Because almost everyone was waiting, it would never reach that critical mass.

When you sign up for an event do not ask how many others are signed up. You'll find out either when you get there, or when enough people sign up so that it's visibile (displayed).

22. What do the distances mean for each event? [top]

The distances you see specified after each event (such as n miles) is the computed straight line distance between your registered zipcode and the zipcode where the event is taking place (vs. any carpool location, if any). Note that actual driving distance in general should be a little longer. When you RSVP (sign up) for an event the RSVP confirmation email should contain a link you can click on for driving directions from maps.yahoo.com (this is in addition to any handcrafted directions that may be attached to an event).

If you would like to see a more accurate estimate of actual driving distance and also driving time, before you RSVP for an event, go the the RSVP page for the given event, and to the right of the row in the table labeled "Location:", under the name of the city and State where the event is, you'll see a link titled "Where is City, State?".

23. Question that is not asked/answered here? [top]

Please contact the webmaster.

Start of Summer (& gas/food prices just keep going up!!) Membership sale!

You can now try the club for as little $7, or only $20 for a full year (that's just $1.67/month)!
Click here to see all the sale prices!

Low cost paid membership and NO event fees!!! (click here to Compare & Save!)
[Home] [Events Calendar] [Event History] register login [Site Index] [Frequently Asked Questions]
[ Support our club by visiting our sponsors... 250 free (+s/h) business cards, etc]
Current time: Sat Jul 5 13:21:23 2008
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URL for this page is http://singlesclub.org/faq.cgi
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