Easy platform to organize park days (in addition to Facebook)

[Xahm]

Our town (which is a large suburb of a very large city) has a lot of home schoolers and has a few co-ops and cottage school type things, especially for high school, but doesn't seem to have a group that organizes park days and the like. I'm looking right now, mostly by asking home schoolers I meet out and about, but if nothing turns up, I'm willing to set up and minimally monitor a Facebook page. What I hope, and what several other mothers have said they've been looking for, too, is a place where people can organize get togethers at the park, let others know of events happening in the area, get together a small group for a field trip, etc. I know some folks don't do Facebook, so I'd be willing to do a second thing, but only if it is fairly easy, syncs with Facebook so that we don't get weird cross posts, and offers a way to keep things private. I would set the Facebook page to be private, so you can find the group in searches but not see anything unless you are approved to join.

Do you know of something like this? If it requires signing up, as I imagine it would have to for the privacy aspect, it will need to be something that a lot of families that don't use Facebook do use. The more I write it out, the less likely I think it is to exist.

[hornblower]

I think Meetup might work for you. It syncs with fb for those that use it, or people can just set up a separate meetup account. 

[Ellie]

As far as park day, in our experience it was best to choose a day (Friday was the winner), a time, and a park, and that's when park day always is, and monthly, rather than weekly, worked best on a long-term basis. People go or they don't, so no need to check in with each other. Also, regional park days, each on its own day of the week, rather than one park day that moves around, IYKWIM. 

[Targhee]

MeetUp

[TheAttachedMama]

Meetup.

[Bluegoat]

I was also going to say Meetup, but I tend to agree with Ellie - have a regular day and maybe a policy for cancellation (like, if school is closed for bad weather you won't meet.)  It can still be nice to use Mettup to remind people, especially for the first while, and advertise .  If you have a local community net or homeschooling webpage, put the regular time on that as well.

[Xahm]

Thanks, all. I've decided to go with Facebook for now, but as I meet moms that do something different, I'll see about adding something. I hope to use Facebook to get a regular park day going, and after that I can set up something else to announce when and where it is.