About Rhode Island Dining Out Meetup Group

The group is about the meeting of minds around a table of delicious food! I am a Rhode Islander who loves to go out to eat and talk, and something tells me I am not the only one. So, since this type of group seems to be *wicked* popular in Boston, I figured I would create this closer to home.

Because I want to have fun too, and don't really want to go insane, I am limiting each meetup to 12-15 people. There will be a new location each month, to try new foods and hopefully please all of the people some of the time. Meetings are on the last Friday of the month, with a rotation of every 4th meeting on the last Saturday of the month in order to include as many people as possible.

When you attend a meetup, please plan on paying your portion of a group tab and at LEAST 18% tip(what they generally add on to groups anyway). So, basically, plan on whatever your meal and beverages costs plus 30%. If service/food is poor and you feel you should tip less, speak with me, so hopefully things may be recitified with each location.

No contact, no shows are STRONGLY discouraged due to the limited number of people that can attend each meetup. I will send out a reminder email including my phone and email address 1-3 days prior to each months event.

The following are the details of our attendance policy.

All no-call, no shows(NCNS) will be removed from the group, NO EXCEPTIONS
-A NCNS is defined as a member who does not show for an event AND
-Does not call me or email me before the event OR within 24 hours AFTER the event
-Does not have a valid(ie emergency or serious issue) that affected their attendance
-ie an "I forgot" excuse will not count as valid and will therefore be considered NCNS

All members will be entitled to TWO(2) "emergency" notifications
-Defined as a phone or email that are received the day AFTER the event:
-Any more than two after event notifications, I will consider each member on a case by case basis

Every member will be entitled three(3) last minute notifications:
-A last minute notification is a call or email the day of or DURING the event
-If any member exceeds three, their membership will be considered on a case by case basis

Finally, all members are asked to answer the question in their profile that confirms they have read and agree to abide by the attendance policy. If the attendance is still an issue in future events, I may require this question to be answered in order to honor an RSVP.

This new policy may seem a little firm, however, I have to respect the restaurants we are attending. In addition, I want to respect the membership who are really interested in this group and who are serious about attending events.

Please feel free to view the poll and the messages section to vote for your favorite foods, etc and to reccomend some of your favorite restaurants for us to visit. I am very interested in your input and would love to utilize your reccomendations as much as possible.

In order to help me with the cost of posting on meetup.com, I am asking each member to contribute $1 for ever other event you attend. I don't plan on being dogmatic about this, but your contribution will be much appriciated.

As always, feel free to email me with any questions.

Here's to good food and stimulating conversation!