Meeting one person from online, in daylight, in a busy place.
- How often
- Whenever you arrange it
- Cost
- A coffee
- Suits
- Anyone about to meet someone they only know from the internet
What it actually is
Not an event so much as the step everyone skips. Before any play, meet once in a busy public place, in daylight, with no plan beyond a drink. You are finding out whether this person is who they said they were and whether they can hold a normal conversation.
What it is for
People who are going to be careless with your body are usually careless in smaller ways first: pushing past a no about where to meet, arriving with a changed plan, treating a boundary as an opening offer. An hour with a coffee surfaces all of that at almost no cost.
Leaving early is a complete sentence
You owe nobody a reason. "This isn’t for me, take care" and standing up is a full and acceptable end to the meeting. Anyone who argues with that has told you something useful.
What to expect
- A public venue you chose, not one you were sent to
- Daylight and other people around
- A friend who knows where you are and when you will check in
- Roughly an hour — long enough to tell, short enough to leave
- No obligation to go anywhere afterwards
How to behave
The short version everyone is expected to know.
- Say up front that this meeting is not a scene
- Do not drink more than you would at a job interview
- Keep your own transport home
- Trust the feeling if something is off; you do not need to justify it
Get told when something is on near you.
Gatherings come from members in the Munch app. Register and the ones in your city show up here.