Top Ten Tips for Organizing a Tarot Group

Someone just emailed me, asking for my advice on starting a tarot group. I sent a quick reply … and then remembered that I actually wrote an article about it in 2006.

Top Ten Tips for Organizing a Tarot Group

Reading tarot cards can be a lonely venture for a lot of us. Tarot card readers are still on the fringe in a lot of communities, and it can be hard to find like-minded friends and colleagues in the tarot world.

Even so, tarot aficionados are some of the most outgoing people you’ll ever meet, and most of them are eager to get together with other card readers.

If you’re ready to find fellow tarot enthusiasts where you live, try these suggestions and ideas:

1. Use meetup.com. I’ve organized a lot of groups, classes, workshops, and events in my lifetime, and Meetup is the easiest way I’ve ever found to get a new group underway. I like it because everything is automated: You can get a group website, flyers, cards and promotional materials without needing to understand HTML or graphic design. Anyone who’s interested can log in to the site for free, join the group, and get automatic reminder emails about upcoming events. Meetup even prompts members for RSVPs, and if you decide to charge dues or event fees, Meetup makes it easy to collect payments online through PayPal. Granted, Meetup does charge a small fee to organizers — but not to members — and if you don’t go through Meetup, you can still make promotional materials and publicize the group on your own. It’s just a lot more work.

2. Bite the bullet. Whenever I start work on a new event or group, I worry, at first: What if nobody joins? What if some people join, but they’re crazy, or demanding, or somehow too needy for me to deal with? What if everyone who comes complains about what I’ve set up? Happily, none of those fears have ever panned out, and I’ve decided that they’re just not worth the worry. If you want to be part of a tarot group, take a leap of faith and start one. After all, if you don’t start the tarot group you want, who will? And how long will you wait for them to get things moving?

3. Make it easy on yourself. Choose a date, time, and place that fits your schedule, and others will usually adapt. Coffee shops, bookstores, libraries, and parks are usually convenient for a lot of people. Once your group is well established, you can ask your members which meeting dates, times, and places work best for them.

4. Set a regular meeting date and time, and it will be easier for members to arrange their schedules. Choose something that recurs on a regular basis — like the third Sunday afternoon of each month, or every other Tuesday, or the 15th of every month.

5. Plan your schedule months in advance. Once you’ve come up with a calendar of dates and times, try to develop a theme or a focus for each meeting. It’s easy to do with tarot cards: you can work your way through the Major Arcana, for example, or suits, or simply pull a card at random and use it as a starting point for discussion. You could also invite guest speakers, or ask some of your members to prepare special presentations in their area of expertise.

7. Don’t worry unduly about schedule conflicts. Some people worry about scheduling meetings that interfere with Monday night football, or Wednesday night youth programs, or other community events. Unfortunately, people are busy, and some members of your group will have conflicts with any date you pick. Of course, if your regular meeting date happens to land on Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or New Year’s Day, you might want to choose a different date.

Once your schedule is set, try not to change it for individual members or you could unleash a domino affect: other members may not be able to attend on the new date, or they’ll come on the wrong date, or two of your meetings will be too close together, and everyone will wind up discouraged and sad. My advice is to stick to your schedule, and simply tell those who can’t attend a particular meeting that you’ll see them at the next one.

7. Charge a fee. It might sound harsh, especially because tarot readers usually don’t have a lot of spare cash floating around, but I think you should charge a fee for membership in your group — even if you ask for the fee as a suggested donation. People value what they pay for, and a “free” meeting might seem less worthy of your members’ time and involvement. Charge a fee that seems reasonable to you. You should be able to recoup any money you spend organizing and promoting the group, for one thing. You might also want to build a treasury of funds you could use for special group activities and events.

8. Begin on time, and members will get in the habit of showing up to the meetings on time. If you always wait more than 5 minutes for latecomers, pretty soon you’ll be waiting 10, 15, or 20 minutes to get your meetings underway.

9. Establish a regular meeting routine. Recurring meetings will flow more easily once members know what to expect. You might want to begin your meetings with round-robin introductions, followed by a general discussion about a single card or a symbol, and then conclude with a group or partner readings. It’s also a good idea to bring a sign to reassure newcomers that they’re in the right place, along with a sign-in sheet, nametags, and a few extra tarot decks for people who don’t have a deck of their own.

10. Keep it relaxed. Tarot groups are generally social groups, so keep your meetings light and breezy. If your meetings run longer than an hour, offer a mid-way break so people can stand up and stretch your legs. It’s also nice to conclude your “official” business after an hour or two, because some people will need to leave. Reassure those who would like to stay that it’s okay to linger and visit for a while.