Tasky isn't blaming the explosion of social networking sites and the anonymity-rules blogosphere for Life in Duluth's inability to unite the area's post-collegiate masses, but. "I mean, we have about 150 members, but the turnout we usually get is around 20 people." "Some people might be sort of freaked out about meeting people on the Internet then going out," he said. "It all comes down to just having a good time."Īs fun as some of the events are, Tasky still struggles with getting people over that "real world vs. "Because you never do the stuff where you live, I guess. "I'm discovering a lot more about the town that I didn't know before with stuff like that - all the stuff that the tourists do but locals never get around to doing," said Tasky, who grew up "in the middle of nowhere" just northwest of town. Since its inception, Tasky's group has come together for everything from movies and UMD hockey games to having fires on the beach and touring the Haunted Ship. "But I looked in Duluth and there was just zero Meetups, while other towns had 100 Meetup groups each," he recalled.
To the business-business-business chiropractor, it looked like it had potential. It revolved around a social group for people his age. Tasky's answer came in the form of a post one friend of his, now living in Arizona, made on Facebook. "I was just looking for some kind of an outlet." "I don't know, I got out of grad school and I guess the social opportunities were considerably different," he said. Problem was, those groups weren't explicitly social - it's hard to "let your hair down" when you're trying to maneuver your way into an organization.
After he moved back to the area three years ago (Tasky learned his trade in the Cities), running his practice kept him busy, yes, but he made time for those business networking groups so popular with aspiring young professionals. And I know that's not everybody - it's a horrible stereotype - but, nonetheless, it drives me mildly crazy." (We won't even mention what it's like to move to a new city and try to find companions you don't have to work with.) "It's weird," Tasky said, "people get older and they get married and they have kids and it's like nobody does anything anymore. Besides a general age range, Life in Duluth's members aren't easy to pigeonhole, but they probably all shared one observation when they decided to jump in: Meeting people outside your established circle of friends is hard. Undeterred, Tasky soldiered on, eventually building his group to its current size of more than 150. We actually get better turnouts now - most of the time, anyway - but, yeah, those first few were fun. "There were about 10 people in our group and maybe two people would show up," he said.
Why? Well, to be perfectly honest, the first couple activities he planned for Life in Duluth - the group he started for locals in their mid 20s through early 40s - weren't exactly blockbusters. The fact that Tasky's not totally jaded is a bit of a surprise, actually. When you start getting to the actual adult world and you have to get out and interact with other people, you discover, Hey, other people are actually kind of cool - most of the time. "I mean, not everybody's a social butterfly," he continued, "but I used to be the shyest guy in the world. Meet Brian Tasky, a local chiropractor who is trying to rally those homebodies. "I don't know," he said casually, "maybe us Minnesota Lutherans up here are just like homebodies and don't like to do stuff."
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