My First Pipe Club Meeting, Any Advice?

[brdavidson]

Tomorrow night is the inaugural meeting of the Durham Region Pipe & Cigar Club, which I started along with a buddy of mine. Looks like there will be around 10-12 of us getting together, which is a pretty significant number and I'm proud of that. Never having been to a pipe club meeting before, does anyone have any advice on what to do for our meeting? I want to keep it casual and relaxed in nature, thought of having a raffle for some pipe and cigar stuff, show off my collection and just relax and smoke with new friends. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[lestrout]

br - I've been to a number of different clubs, and they have all been great fun. Some have been formal, with presentations, others showed off neat collections. Our Morley's is unstructured and has no agendas, but it is loads of fun too. Just bring several pipes because a common feature is tobacco tasting. Bring several tobaccos, whether they are favorites or blends you would rather be rid of. It is amazing how tastes differ.
hp

les

 

[teufelhund]

Just be yourself...

 

[peckinpahhombre]

What about charades or pin the pipe on the donkey?

 

[kashmir]

Wear a bib. And bring enough baccy to share.

 

[allan]

I found pipe club meetings to be enormous fun. Men and women sharing their passion over pipes and tobaccos.
Bring your favorite blends and pipes and be prepared to try others that are offered. (tobacco, that is)
My club's meeting is hard for me to get to after a full day of work, but I am always happy I made the effort.
Allan

 

[dochudson]

What about charades or pin the pipe on the donkey?

that should run most of them off...
first meeting s/b a relaxed and a get to know everyone affair. everyone should bring a tobacco to share. ask everyone what they want the meetings to be. a casual smoke and bs'ing session or something more. maybe find a local pipe maker to show up occasionally. is this going to be at a local shop or rotate through the membership? of course poker would be a good option. maybe hire a local 'girl' to be bartender.

 

[tbradsim1]

Good advice Doc. The old cajun

 

[mso489]

There's an active group in my city but I've never gone. I should out of curiosity to find out how

they commandeered a restaurant that will tolerate pipe smokers. The other hitch is that I am

way out on the bell curve of introversion-extraversion (on the introvert side), and I already have

group activities with church and a writers' community. Excuses, excuses. I'd be self conscious

about either my old beater pipes, cheap but beloved, and any one of mine with a grander look,

for fear of pretense. I guess that's why I'm an introvert. But I may make the dive at some point.

No one makes you go back the second time.

 

[zonomo]

hey Br - I just started attending our club meeting and a few things happened that I thought was very interesting. First off, they allow people to sell stuff here. Nobody has a problem, nobody pushes or solicits anyone. This one guy has a giant duffel bag on pipes and he's super fun to talk to since he's so knowledgable. Then somebody brings a ton of tobacco to try so everyone gets to sample. In the Seattle Pipe Club, the members also freely share their own tobacco. In the 4 meetings, I've been to, there was no discussion or agenda. People were just smoking, drinking and eating.

 

[brdavidson]

I just talked to the place hosting and we may be getting Michael Parks out to the meeting, that would be pretty amazing! Apparently the owner of the shop is friends with him. Thanks for the input gents, think I'll bring a collection of pipes and tobaccos to show off and share. I'm pretty excited, now if I could just get over this stupid bug and feel 100% again that would be great.

 

[brewshooter]

Wear pants...kind of surprised no one has mentioned that yet.

 

[brdavidson]

I knew my list was missing something brewshooter :D

 

[zonomo]

Wear pants...kind of surprised no one has mentioned that yet.

Why? :nana:

 

[05venturer]

I AM SUPER JEALOUS

I wish there were a way to have something like that in my area, I have zero B&M's within an hour and a half and have found very few people in the area that enjoy pipe smoking.

Hope it turns out great for ya!!!!!

 

[pruss]

I can't speak for the others brdavidson, but I promise to be kind at the first meeting. 8)
Thanks for asking the question. I was wondering the same thing, being a pipe club newbie. I'll now bring a few pipes along, a couple different tobaccos and coffee for 12(ish). Now if only Mother Nature would be kind enough to turn off the snow/freezing-rain/rain/snow mix.
Best,
-- Pat

 

[simnettpratt]

Bring lots of baggies and a Sharpie or two. There will be much baccy trading and folks will forget baggies. If you forget the Sharpie, you might really like something someone gives you but not know what the hell it is. Pants optional. Have fun!

 

[neverknowsbest]

For future meetings, perhaps schedule some sort of interesting presentation that is non-tobacco related. I'm sure among the dozen or so of you, there are some cool hobbies and expertise that would be interesting to share, learn and discuss over a pipe.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

Yeah I'd definitely second bringing a number of pipes and a couple blends to share with others.

 

[piperl12]

@brdavidson we used to have theme nights for our pipe club once it was up and running. Still very casual but maybe one month was clay night, the next was meer night, cob, churchwarden you get the picture. We kept it casual and always made sure we did something for the host bar for the end of the night. Our waitresses were tipped VERY well for braving the tobacco smoke and walking up the stairs of the pub. There were several raffles but that was over a period of several years. Like the others said, lots of trading, selling and sampling going on. A pipe maker is a great idea. We were fortunate to have John Calich as a member, we also had Michael show up on occasion. Make it fun they will come back. Honestly who wouldn't want a mans night out. Sorry ladies lol