This past summer and fall, the Virginia and Maryland groups have had four meetups:
Baltimore, Maryland (White Marsh area)
Silver Spring, MD
Union Station, DC
Herndon, VA
Meetups are without a doubt, a good idea. I've enjoyed the meetups I've attended and have become friends with some of the people I've met. After I've met other members of Daily Kos in person, I feel more energized and like we're going to be able to work together to accomplish more of our goals.
I'm a moderator for both Virginia Kos and Maryland Kos because even though I live in Virginia now, I lived in Maryland for most of my life and have many connections with family and friends there. But the drive to Maryland is not that easy for me and I'm probably not going to be able to attend any meetup that is much further than Silver Spring unless I stay in a hotel.
But Maryland really really needs a meetup. Actually, Maryland could use a few meetups since some members are on the Eastern shore and probably not eager to cross the Bay Bridge. Still, the Eastern shore is important and getting that area energized is our only hope for Maryland picking up an additional House seat (because Democrats already own the others, yay!).
Most meetups are held in public places. We've had two at local Paneras. Paneras are good for meetups because they are not too expensive, have wifi access, located pretty much everywhere, and most important, you can rearrange the tables.
I'd like to encourage some Maryland members to host meetups. Hosting doesn't mean you necessarily have it at your house, you just need to pick a time, place, and post diaries about it, plan to be there, and help other people find the rest of the group.
Once a meetup is planned, it needs to be well publicized. I find that writing several diaries about an upcoming meetup is a good way to make sure everyone knows about it and to motivate people to attend. Navajo has helped us tremendously by posting information about our meetups on her New Day diaries. Even though I might not be able to attend a Maryland meetup, if the host wants, I would write several diaries to help publicize it.
Before anything though, I'd like to get an idea of who lives where. If you're in Maryland or a surrounding state, and interested in meeting up somewhere in Maryland, where do you live and how far are you willing to travel?