Next Meet Up is at:

Movie Appreciation - The Happy Prince - at Cafe Catalina 10am - 2nd May- a wonderful group of ladies to meet and discuss the film.. Always a lot of fun!

Bring out your Hidden Interior Designer 10am 3rd May at The Haven Trader, Palm Beach to enjoy a morning of interior design ideas, share stories and meet new friends.

Let’s meet up!

Start a 60s ‘Meet Up’ Group

Two years ago having returned back home in Australia I had an idea to connect with other 60 year old women to ensure my thinking of like minded women at our age was a reality and not just my thinking. ‘Meet Up’ is now world-wide and a very successful ‘tool’ to set up any kind of connection with others. There are walking groups, business groups, fitness, dance, meet for a coffee – its all about like minded people getting together. Once you set sign up, set up a venue time etc, their system spreads the word and soon sixty year old women would be connected to your invitation.

I am suggesting you start one! But before you do attend one. Log on to Meetup.com and find your area, search through all the groups and find ones of interest. There will be many to choose from, be bold sign up and turn up!

There is a need for interest groups to be available and the internet allows for this to happen easily. That’s the great thing about being sixty at this time of life as connecting to make things happen is as simple as a couple of clicks on your computer. The Internet states Meet Up stats are:

· 21.14 million members

· 195,186 meet Up groups

· 183 countries

· 521,897 monthly Meetups

· 3.59 million monthly RSVPs

· 7,074 monthly Meetups happen

There are 340 cities and towns in Australia with multiple groups in each, so its happening, just put it out there and let your interest group find you.

Check out this website

I launched ‘The Power of Women in Our Sixties’ Meet Up group late January 2016 with the description of the group being: ‘When women connect they create a force and can bond to make a difference. Coming up to my 60th birthday, I wanted to join with other sixty year olds (and not yet 60 year olds) to use our Power (which is simply our experience through the years in so many diverse ways) to make changes, support causes and fulfil our next decade. If you have something missing in your life, something to contribute or want to connect with like-minded women, please join us. So much more fun to do it together.’

It was funny as I thought, well if no-one signs up I can just close it up and pretend it never happened. No brochures required, letter box drops, no notices on public walls or on lamp posts! And no adverts in local papers are needed.

Immediately there were sign ups and I started to connect with some lovely ladies, all with a story to tell and information to share. A year later we are up to 220 ladies in the local area and although we have probably 4 to 20 meet each time, its always so worth it as one meets a new friend each time. Being sixty is a special age bracket as we are so capable to make decisions to do more, learn more and experience more. We don’t want to sit back and do nothing, life is now so much easier to make things happen. But, its always so much more pleasurable doing it with someone else and in our sixties, we bond easily as we have the same expectations, insist on truth and trust and of course always want to smile and laugh!

The Gold Coast, where I live, is a long area spreading down the coast so in a month I try to have 2 or 3 venues organised in a morning, an evening and now a Saturday morning for working women, which covers the area. Ladies suggest popular places to meet with the focus that we have a room or quiet area so that each person can introduce themselves to:

Tell their story
Suggest classes, activities, they enjoy
Share business, products or services
Promote their own business
Ask questions
Share experiences ie health, financial, family
Some ladies open up to share amazing life’s experiences and we can learn so much. Others are quiet and more private but they listen and many times gain some insight to allow them to be stronger at this age in life.

For me, the venue must be attractive and comfortable, good food and coffee and central to many. I generally phone up the venue before I post the event to ensure availability and if I have not visited before, I will visit and speak to the management beforehand. This makes for no misunderstandings or presumptions on both sides. At our age, we want to do ‘special’ and this means the experience fills our basic expectations of comfortable, visually pleasing, smells are fresh and the food is healthy and well presented. If you make this effort to provide this, its an amazing welcome for those who are nervous to meet new people and all know you have selected with effort.

High-end hotels are popular because we appreciate and enjoy good things. The foyer of a really good hotel has the most comfortable furniture, beautiful paintings and decorations, the service is generally good and although more expensive one doesn’t have to order too much. The Coffee Club is in every town and city and they offer a membership which is a great incentive, and their food is now really good.

Let’s meet up!

Our Next 60s Meet Up Group....