Hey shzm93, sorry you missed it as well. Come to the next one for sure!
I think we can definitely improve on the coordination of meet ups. There have been a few issues so far:
1. Forum bugs. Some people report issues with getting notified when people reply in this thread, and therefore miss key information and meet ups. This leads to the host having to private message every person who has posted in the last couple pages.
2. RSVP. It would be nice to let the host know how many to expect. There were seven people listed as able to come to the last one, but then there were four. No problem there, but an RSVP would have been helpful.
The Meetup.com option is great, but the Organizer Subscription is my only concern. With so few participants, there's got to be another free way to smooth out these issues.
Foundapenny started a Google Group sometime last year, but it just didn't stick for some reason. We spoke about it briefly at the last meetup. Maybe he wants to revisit the idea?