Our inaugural meeting was a huge success!!

The first meeting of the Kilmarnock Supper Club was held on Saturday, 14th January at the Franklin & Sloane Restaurant and it could not have gone better !

Fifteen people in all showed up for this inaugural event, and it was a fantastic afternoon! Everyone was really happy to be there on the day and had been looking forward to it all week, but there had been more than a few nerves all round.

We had a really nice mix of ages - with 13 ladies and two men! Wherever possible in the future I will always try to have communal dining tables where everyone sits in one big long row, but for the purposes of this group we were broken into smaller tables - all of which gelled with each other extremely well. These are some of the comments from people who had RSVP'd on Facebook before coming to the event:

I'm also very nervous about today and was for cancelling but I'm not going to and am sure I'll be walking past a few times before I actually come in x

Every 2 mins I'm all for cancelling. But hard bit is stepping in and that's over with in a second xx

I am the same but telling myself it just the same as going into m/s costa etc and starting to chat to someone it's only going for a coffee etc not major surgery

Nothing to be nervous about gorgeous people. You all do braver things than this every single day.

Can't wait to meet you all for this exciting new adventure.

I believe this will change a lot of people's lives in respect of not feeling lonely and getting out more.

I think it will be good and there are a LOT of people all feeling the same and in need of a wee night/day out and make new friends xx

A few of the guests had arrived before me and I walked in at five minutes to two with my girls! I was mortified as had wanted to get there nice and early for everyone, but couldn't find any name labels in the house and tried to get them from Tesco enroute!

Anyway, I introduced myself to the group and paired everyone off with a buddy to work with straight away and handed out some worksheets. I gave them a pen and a card each and a list of icebreaker questions so that they could get to know each other. I told them that they were to fill in the Registration Cards for their buddies, and introduce that person to the group instead of talking about themselves. I know for a fact that there literally nothing worse than taking turns at standing up and introducing yourself to a roomful of complete strangers and it used to make me feel sick and went red every time.

After that the tea and coffee were made available in a corner of the room for us to help ourselves, and scones were served direct to the tables. I stood up and gave the group a really big welcome and told them how brave they were for coming along - along with a brief introduction about myself and my reasons for starting the Club, and then each of Club Members took turns at introducing their buddy. Every story we heard was just so interesting, and it was really great fun.

After that I brought out this little gimmick bear called a 'Worry Monster' that I had bought from The Range the previous day, and I got everyone to write down their biggest fear in coming along to the event. My two children were observing everything and remained quiet drinking their cups of tea in the background, but I wanted them to come along with me to learn about the lives of other people and so that I could teach them how to run events in the future. They thought that the Worry Monster was a little bit embarassing but I persevered with it nonetheless!

I started off first as my greatest fear for the day 'was that no-one would ever show up' as I have been stood up in the past and it is absolutely humiliating. But there were so many people there who made similar comments and so I read out all of the fears back to them so that they were able to realise that they were not the only ones who had had the same misgivings.

I have to give the staff at Franklin & Sloane a huge thankyou for allowing us to have the use of the library, and for looking after our group so well. The venue was absolutely perfect and we had the whole room to ourselves.

I took the children out for dinner at one of the wee pubs nearby, and we had a big debrief about how we felt that the meeting had turned out.

All of the feedback so far has been extremely positive, and everyone is looking forward to meeting up again. Here are some of the comments made afterwards by the Supper Club Members on Facebook:

I had a lovely afternoon. Very glad I overcame the nerves and looking forward to the next time and getting to talk with more of you xx

Enjoyed meeting you ...felt like I already knew you....we knew a few people and share the same kind of job xxxxx (this was for another member of her table)

I felt our table just blended well - not only did I meet new people I got advice on a health matter - met someone who lives near bye that wants to go walking and urself - bet we could have great chats (for another member)

Was a HUGE success this afternoon .....I was MORE nervous in what the hell am I going to wear as it has been THAT long since I went out socializing that I am always just dressed in casual wear to go to work lol

I can't remember the last time that I have had such a mentally fulfilling week!

Until next time, Tamara xx