Local Communities

[LadyAznTiger13]

I guess this would be where you put this question... if I mis-categorized, I apologize in advance.

There is alot of mention of finding a 'local community' to get yourself started along with going to lessons etc. Maybe its just me and my way of looking for it, but I'm finding a hard time looking for one here. It is understandable considering this is the state where they're trying to put bans on 'adult toy stores' so to speak, and look down on people who practice anything other than 'insert a into slot b'. I am a cheap college student so all of my funds go to school.. I dun wanna drive to Austin if there is some way to find a source of enlightenment here.

So my question is this: Where/how do u find your local communities?

[Euryleia]

What part of Texas are you in?

The Society of Janus (http://www.soj.org/) has several links to places in the state as does Dark Heart (http://www.darkheart.com/usalist.html#Texas) and Domsub Friends (http://domsubfriends.com/cgi-local/wwwdir/db.cgi?db=org&uid=default&state=TEXAS&view_records=View+Records&ww=on). Not all the links work but enough do to give you some ideas. I'm putting a few here:

Austin has http://www.gwnn.net/ and http://www.boundbydesire.org/home.htm

Dallas-Ft Worth has several: http://www.dfwbdsm.net/bottomsup/, http://www.mastdfw.org/, http://www.dallasbdsm.com/

Houston has http://www.hpep.org/ and http://www.houston-eros.com/

Central Texas has http://www.touchofleather.org/

Waco has http://www.geocities.com/wacotxsite/default1.htm

Hope that helps. Happy hunting. :D

[LadyAznTiger13]

I live in denton, which is the college town about 45min from the heart of dallas... haha forgot to mention that... I knew I forgot something lol

[fetishdj]

Best place to find local communities is online in my experience. You can live in one place for years and not know a single kinky person then post a message on somewhere like here saying where you live and suddenly find that someone who lives really close to you but you may not have thought was in the scene also posts on the forums.

We have to be a very secretive community because of the risk of persecution. Many would lose jobs or family members because of their association with BDSM. IN some places this is worse than in others. From what you say about where you live you are in one of those places [don't these morons realise that banning something just drives it underground and makes the percieved problem worse? Not only that, it makes it uncontrollable and less taxable... idiots :) ]

[LadyAznTiger13]

Yea most of the sites under dallas didn't work too well... actually only one did. I looked at dallasbdsm a while ago and almost all of those links for groups were out of date.. it made me sad inside... that or they were for guys. wtf? where would u suggest putting a post out at?

[fetishdj]

Here is a good start... there is also informed consent, mydungeonspace and a few other sites. Stick a post on any of these looking for people in your area and I am sure at least one person will answer you.

If there is no longer a local munch that you can go to, start one. You only really need an understanding venue. And in fact the venue does not even need to know that you are kinky - just make sure everyone is aware of the 'vanilla dress only' and the 'don't scare the normals' rules. Any bar or restaurant will do so long as it is safe and relatively accessible to all.

[Euryleia]

The Austin group, Bound by Desire, is a women's leather group. You might want to contact them and see if they know more up to date contacts in Dallas. Also, consider doing a search on yahoo groups, there are a lot of munches that are using that as their main contact point.

[Mr Sazabi]

Any groups around Melbourne?

[J.Carter04]

does anyone know of any groups in or very near to Valdosta,GA?

[Euryleia]

Any groups around Melbourne?

Is that Melbourne, Australia or Melbourne, Florida, USA?

There are probably more but this is what I have for that area of Florida:

Orlando, FL: Munch (http://www.orlandomunch.com/) and RT BDSM (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rtorlandobdsm/) and DSSG (http://hometown.aol.com/dssgorlando/myhomepage/profile.html)

Try these links for other areas: Dark Heart-Florida (http://www.darkheart.com/usalist.html#Florida) or Domsub Friends Florida (http://domsubfriends.com/cgi-local/wwwdir/db.cgi?db=org&uid=default&state=FLORIDA&view_records=View+Records&ww=on). Not all links work.

Sorry but I don't have info on Australia but there a number of members from down under, so you might want to post another thread with that as the subject.

[Euryleia]

does anyone know of any groups in or very near to Valdosta,GA?

Would you be willing to travel to things in Florida? Otherwise, you've got to travel up to Augusta or Atlanta.

Here is a link to a list of groups in the state: Domsub Friends GA (http://domsubfriends.com/cgi-local/wwwdir/db.cgi?db=org&uid=default&state=GEORGIA&view_records=View+Records&ww=on) or Dark Heart -Georgia (http://www.darkheart.com/usalist.html#Georgia). Not all links work.

[the_moirae]

OMG thank you so much for starting this thread Lady!!! I have been looking for offline/RL connections in my area for AGES and finally found them thanks to you (and Euryleia). YAY!!! :yahoo:

[LadyAznTiger13]

hee hee good to hear that I was helpful =p

[tusayan]

So far, the most useful sites have been MAST and NLA. The yahoo groups that I found were primarily personals sites that seem like spam collectors or, like Lady mentioned above, they're essentially defunct.

No luck finding munches in my area. Maybe I'm using the wrong search criteria?