[jonoma]

There are about a dozen couponers in my area, some new to couponing and some not, who would like to organize a coupon trading get-together at a local establishment. They'd love to be able to trade quickly and save on stamps, too!

If all 12 of us are able to attend, the amount of people may require some form of organization. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd like it to be as useful as possible for everyone involved.

I've searched online for advice, and these are some of the options I've seen. I'm not crazy about any one of them, but I think we may need some guidelines so that people don't feel taken advantage of:

1. Bring an envelope of 50 (or more) coupons that you won't use. Pass each envelope around and take any coupons that you can use.

2. Organize a wishlist train and take it live. Have each person prepare an envelope of wishlist coupons for one or two other people and trade envelopes in person.

3. Pair up and take turns requesting coupons and trading accordingly. This sounds a little like a game of Go Fish to me!

4. A total free-for-all. Sit around, chat, and have everyone talk at once.

I could REALLY use your suggestions - what do you think? I know there must be someone who has done something like this before...

[gypsywoman35]

Well since I was the one who came up with the idea I suppose I should help out. Sorry Jolyn didn't mean to make more work for you my friend.

How does this sound again just going off of the suggestions you have already posted. Everyone that's coming should have a envie with at least 20 coupons to trade, similar to what we do on a train.

Then when we actually meet we can each pass our envelopes to the person on the left or the right. That way everyone gets coupons.

Personally I would not have folks bring a wishlist we want to keep it light and not alot of work.

How does that sound?

Lisa - who needs tea before I can come up with any more ideas LOL

[dmyersquin]

The envelope thing really does work. Have each person put their name on the envelope(s) they bring. Then as they look through someone else's envelope, they will put their name on that envelope as well so they know they looked through that one. You can store the envelopes in a shoebox when everyone is done looking through them all and taking out what they want. Then, maybe meet evey couple weeks or once a month to swap coupons again. As people look through the envelopes, they can pull the expired ones to throw away or send to army families overseas. A great book that explains this is Shop, Save, Share by Ellie Kay. I highly recommend it. Your library should have it or you can find it used cheap online.
Hope this helps, Diana
ps. the cool thing about swapping is that we each have different needs. A friend gave me a huge bag of coupons she had already looked through. She is a vegetarian, so I was able to find lots of meat coupons that I could use.

[heznjon]

I did a coupon club a few years ago. I spread the word by mouth and another coupon forum. From me just thinking about it and posting on that 1 forum in 24hrs I had over 15 people in my area contact me. So then I was off to where to hold these meetings. I called the local library. I could do it there if there was less then 10 people. So I called another local library and they had a bigger conference room that could hold up to 20 so we would flip flop between the two. Depending on how many people rsvp'd each month. I made a yahoo group for the members of my group. This way we could talk about things, we could post what good deals at the kroger super doubles or Harris Teeter Triples we got.

At first we just passed around envelopes with coupons in them. I believe the limit was like 50 per envie, 1 envie per person. If someone was looking for a certain item (like we had one lady always needing the poise pad coupons) I allowed them to post in the group. They could make trades with others who had the coupons or it was just here take them I wont use them type of deal. Since the meetings always seemed to never go the way we wanted we finally just passed stacks of coupons around the tables (we'd set them up so it was like a square) and we'd take what we want. At the end of the meeting if there was stacks of coupons left over and no one wanted them I'd put them in a bag and take them home and bring them the next month. Pretty much the meetings ended up being a free for all . We did vote and pick a name which was fun. And actually the group I started still meets, still has a yahoo group and still uses the name we voted and picked! Im no longer part of the group since I dont live in the area anymore.

HTH

[DanielleCT]

I meet with one every 6 weeks. We all bring our full inserts (with coupons cut out that we have kept for ourselves) and just pass the piles around. It works well! One person brings a snack each time

We also always grab 7 if we see tearpads or non sunday booklets to give to each member. We email between meetings if someone is ISO so we can save it for them

Each year we have a xmas party too - its a great group!

[gggirl]

I organize one in the st louis area and we meet at the st louis bread company, and we bring in our coupons that we don't need and pass the stacks to the right. If someone is looking for something particular, and if someone comes across it and they don't need it, we give it to them. We are pretty informal and laid back, we also have a yahoo group we post great deals or if someone is looking for something in particular etc... We are very lucky that one of our members works at a wags and she is very generous and brings us friends and family discount cards and if we see a great tear pad we grab extras for the rest of the group. We talk about the deals and share ideas and we have a lot of fun.

We keep it very easy, no real rules and none of us feel like it isn't fair since we are getting rid of coupons that we wouldn't use anyway, and we always find coupons that we need. When I am going thru my coupons at home, I cut out what I need and place the rest in a large manila envelope that I wrote "Coupons to Trade" on, and I just bring that in along with another empty one to place my new coupons in.