A potential problem is that the group becomes fragmented because only certain people attend certain meetings. Also, unless the meeting locations are well publicized in advance, people may forget where the meeting is and decide not to attend. With the same location, people always know where to go. Step four - Publicity Publicity is crucial to a beginning support group. Ditto on the PSAs, but also contact your local community access cable channel.
Many cable channels have a scrolling marquee that announces meetings in the area.
You may also be able to get air time on your local channel, since many of them are in need of programming. Make up a flier announcing the meeting. You're not writing the great american nover here, sojust give people the basics - date, location, time, and a brief description of the purpose of the group. Remember, if you're putting the flyer up in a public place you may have only 2-3 seconds toget a passerby's attention, so use large type and few words. Distribute the flyer to all the people on the mailing list.