By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Last summer, Lauri Janiec Morrison was in what some might call a rut. Divorced, she was living alone when her son went to live with his father.
“Then my dog died and I was just on the sofa eating chips and watching TV on my time off,” said the pretty blond during a recent interview at the Sango Starbucks.
Morrison has come far since then. At her aunt’s urging, the Clarksville native went to the social networking site Meetup at www.meetup.com. Meetup is an online platform for groups of people who share similar interests. Groups form on Meetup, then their members meet in person for activities that run the gamut. Popular groups include book clubs, Baby Boomer clubs and clubs for sports enthusiasts.
Morrison’s aunt told her to check out the group called Meetup Clarksville Singles, which was formed in 2011.
“It took some prompting,” Morrison said. “And now I’m having the time of my life. I’m having more fun than when I was in college.”
Morrison’s first activity with the Meetup Clarksville Singles group was skydiving. The 278 members, who range in age from 21 to 70, enjoy a variety of extracurricular pursuits together, including canoeing, hiking, white water rafting, kayaking, indoor rock climbing and hot yoga.
But the activities don’t always require physical fitness. This singles group also gets together to eat dinner on Friday nights, go see movies, attend local fundraisers, do volunteer work and frequent local events such as Jazz on the Lawn or Jammin’ in the Alley. Members even engage in activities, such as roller skating, that allow them to bring their children and grandchildren along. Members can also bring a friend to events.
While some people think Meetup Clarksville Singles is a dating service, that’s not the case.
“It’s a community of singles who get together to do a lot of fun things,” Morrison said. “We’re not actually a dating service … although people in the group do start dating each other and that’s fine.”
Another interesting aspect of the group is that it is open to people who are what Morrison calls “geographically single” – for example, someone may have a spouse who is deployed and he or she would like to join the group for the social activities. Or someone might have a spouse who doesn’t enjoy going to the movies or fundraisers, so he or she can join Meetup Clarksville Singles to attend such activities with a group.
“We just ask that people are honest and say they’re married,” Morrison said.
People from all walks of life are among the members, including nurses, teachers, secretaries and those who work in the construction field.
“We like a wide of varieties members because it makes it more fun,” Morrison said.
While it took some initial prodding for Morrison to join Meetup Clarksville Singles, she is now the official organizer, which makes sense. She has a master’s degree in human resources and has worked as a director of human resources in the past. At one point, she ran a business in which she was a professional organizer. She is now a deputy clerk with the Clerk and Master’s office of Montgomery County.
She stresses that joining the Meetup Clarksville Singles group is free.
“It does not cost anything to join there are no fees,” she said. “You just pay to do the event.”
New members of Meetup Clarksville Singles simply need fill out a profile at this link: www.meetup.com/Clarksville-Singles. They should include a photo so that current members will recognize them when they arrive at a group event. Members will receive emails about events and if they want to attend, they can simply RSVP and wait for the fun to begin.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.