Vegetarian singles events.

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

>I wonder if we could have some kind of event that would give vegan/vegetarian

singles >(straight, gay, lesbian, bi, whatever) the opportunity to meet and get

to know one >another in a comfortable, no-pressure setting. However, while I've

pondered this of late, >I'm admittedly a poor organizer. I don't even have any

real ideas about what exactly >such an event would be

 

Well, let's see here.

 

First of all, don't forget that a new called " lifepathsinglesdating "

has recently formed. These folks aren't explicitly vegetarian -- they are more

kind of new ager types. Also sfbay-aware has various singles events announced

now and then, for example a " Singles Sangha " in Marin, and while there is some

overlap of people between the vegetarians and these " Awarians " its a different

purpose. For example, I wouldn't feel real comfortable going to one of their

chanting and praying sessions.

 

And then there are the cooking consortia I'm organizing... !

 

I've announced this a couple of times but so far the response has been fairly

muted. When I was a student many of the Indian students (most of them single,

not all) organized themselves into cooking consortia in which a group of 14-16

would eat dinner together every night, with a different subgroup of 2-3 cooking

for the whole gang each night. This arrangement allowed for a radical

improvement in cost-efficiency of food, as well as guaranteeing everyone a good

wholesome dinner every night and a good chance to gossip. A sort of extended

family of a sort.

 

When I moved here to SF I began to wonder (after numerous microwaved frozen

burritos of dubious nutritional quality) how this custom might be transposed to

the urban setting among vegetarians. After having an initial planning meeting

with some vegetarians and input from others, it was decided that the best way to

proceed would be to organize groups of 4-7 people such that each person would

take a turn hosting and cooking dinner for the group, which would meet once per

week. This seemed reasonable to start.

 

So far, I've got enough people for 2 groups in S.F. and 1 in berkeley... I've

hesitated to actually convoke the groups into existence, because I want to

prepare a document covering the details and guidelines for the groups -- a task

which in fact I am planning to do tomorrow (monday). So, these cooking groups

are slowly coming together. (I work full -time and also have a ton of other

projects I'm organizing, most notably a personal rapid transit advocacy group to

bring this exciting technology to the bay area... but I digress)

 

So what does this have to do with meeting veg*an singles in a mellow atmosphere?

Well, although the cooking consortium project wasn't intended specifically for

that purpose -- both singles and couples are accommodated, it would nevertheless

make a very good context to meet people. Now it may be argued that 4-7 people

might not contain your ideal match, but there is no reason why some mixing among

the various groups can't happen and in fact that's a provision I'll write into

the guidelines.

 

In my experience, if you go somewhere expecting to find a date, you'll be

disappointed. Much better is to join some clubs full of people with similar

interests, and make friends with them, and eventually be introduced to people in

their social circles, etc. Eventually even the most eccentric person will meet

a good match. (This works even here in the bay area for straight 30something

guys even though the population here is definitely skewed with more guys than

gals and at that age the pool of single women has been decimated by marriage.)

 

So, the key point is that if one is looking for veg*an singles joining one of

these cooking consortia certainly wouldn't hurt, and might help. It's certainly

a better use of one evening a week than going to a bar or one of those godawful

rave clubs.

 

DG