You’ve got one wild and precious life to live. Why not spend a day of it with a spatula in your hand while someone else preps the Tofurkey sausages and then sit back in a lawn chair and put some coleslaw in your face surrounded by a bunch of people you’ll soon find yourself hopelessly in love with?

In which Claire and Whitney talk to folks who have planned or hosted meet-ups and ask them for tips and tricks they’d pass along to others. Also, there’s a lot of dreaming big in here. Get into it!

Welcome to Straddler Nation, a brand-spankin’-new series in which two rockstar meet-up group captains talk to folks building Autostraddle communities IRL around the world. For their first installment, they talked to some folks who started or are taking the reigns over their local groups.