second the Meetup suggestion
Posted by: willowleaf
on Mar-21-13 11:00 AM (EST)
A few folks started a paddlers group in my city on "Meetup.com" 5 years ago and I was amazed at how quickly it grew, so much so that they have several outings a week at a range of ability levels and ambitions, most of which fill up almost immediately. And sub-groups seem to have emerged from it. Last I looked at the member list there were several hundred.
The nice thing about Meetup is that the web-based structure is already there for setting up enrollment, tailoring the "exclusivity" of member lists, and means of automatically notifying people of outings and news and of posting schedules, as well as links to similar groups in the Meetup environment. There seems to be Meetup presence in most states and towns of any size,