Meets on the third Wednesday of each month, 7:00 pm at the Radisson in Mission Valley Contacts: contact hispeach@aol.com and sensadist@aol.com

History and Mission

Peach and Sen started the SD SM in February 1998 to create an atmosphere where those interested in the SM lifestyle could meet and mingle with other like- minded people in a relaxed, open environment.

Location

They chose the Mission Valley Radisson lobby bar because it is centrally located, usually uncrowded on a weekday evening and, like all good bars, conducive to people mixing and mingling. The bar will accommodate over 100 people (154 is the room capacity as I recall). The July 1998 social was attended by 92 people. Directions at the end of this note.

Time

The Social is held every third Wednesday. The official starting time is 7PM but you usually find a few early birds in the bar by 6:15. The Social goes until the last person leaves or 1AM when the bar closes.

Cost

Zip, zero, nada.

Dress and Accessories

As this is a hotel bar, street legal clothing is a must. Black is always in fashion, and black leather is certainly appropriate. Collars are acceptable, leashes are not. Wearing your favorite flogger or manacles on your belt is not appropriate nor is cracking your single- tail in the corner.

Activities

This is a not a play party it's a social. Sometimes there are activities going on upstairs behind closed doors. Spanking, playing or any other rough housing is not appropriate. Merchants and other manufactures of kinky toys, please leave them in the car or keep them in your hotel room.

Who Attends

People interested in bondage and discipline (B&D), Sadomasochism (S&M) and the erotic exchange of power. The crowd is pan-sexual, there are straight and gay people there, male tops and bottom and female tops and bottoms. Usually a dozen or so people come down from LA and Orange County along with a few from the Inland Empire. The majority are from the local San Diego area. There are new people who have never attended a BDSM event and people who have been active in the scene for over 20 years. The average experience is about 5 years.

What To Expect

The SM Social a place to meet and talk with people with the same basic interests as you. When you come into the hotel front entrance you'll see the bar on the left. Just outside the bar is a table sometimes we have a sign: AOL Group, sometimes not.

At the table, you have an opportunity to fill out a name badge and add your name to our mailing list. Both are optional. Name badges are blue and red, red for bottoms, blue for tops. The easy way to remember the convention is, "Blue tops make Red bottoms." Switches always have fun creating half and half badges. Again, name badges are optional, you can use your real name, but most people use their screen name or a nickname.

Inside you'll see a bunch of people with red and blue name badges. Most everyone is pretty sociable, that's why they attend the social. Sociable behavior is encouraged. Mixing and mingling. If you're an on-line person you'll probably recognize people by their screen names. Feel free to go up and introduce yourself.. A line like, "Didn't I see you in SoCalSubFemRoom the other night" is always a good ice breaker and, " Are you on DALnet or ICQ" works too. See Sen if you don't know what these mean.

If You're New To The Scene: Sen and Peach are good people to introduce yourself to. They can point you to whoever might be sponsoring an upcoming workshop or, once they get to know you, who might be of interest to you on a more personal one-to-one basis. Representatives from Club X, Threshold, Conquest and SDL are usually in attendance. You can also get information on discussion groups for like-minded, like-oriented people like: Submissive Women Speak and Dom's Round Table for example.