Is there a way for non-members to add themselves to Friends/Affiliate list?

Our club is looking to trim our Meetup list (100+ people) to keep our numbers within the 'Basic' level. Instead of completely losing contact with all these people, before deleting them on Meetup.com, we were thinking we could invite them to Like our FB page and invite them to 'Subscribe' to our website via the Friends/Affiliates FTH list. That way, we could occasionally stay in touch with them.

I tested the FTH Contact Us form. It adds to the Prospects list and says 'Someone will be in touch soon' after filling out the form. I have the ability to manually move them to Friends/Affiliates, but seems labor intensive and we don't really need to 'get in touch with them'.

I know it opens us up a bit to spammy form subscribers, but that would be manageable if there is a way to allow 'outsiders/non-members' to automatically add themselves to a Custom List or Friends/Affiliates list?

Thanks in advance for any guidance/suggestions!

Meetup can get populated with people you never hear from again especially if it has been over 6 months and it you emailed them would probably mark your email as spam.

You need have the specified permission to add any email to any mailing list, that is called opting-in. I would not recommend adding anyone from meetup to the friends list in FTH without a specific email or signed card or form that says they want your email.

I 100% agree, Brian. That's why I'm looking for a way to invite them to subscribe themselves to our FTH list.

Invite them to the club and then once they sign your guest card with the email authorization add them to the FTH guest list.

Get them in the door and make them members.

I agree that getting 100+ people in the door in the next week or two is an ideal situation.

What we're up against is the fact that they've already 'opted in' to our Meetup list and a deadline when we are about to have to sever ongoing contact with them with no way of further relationship-building to get them in the door.

I'm looking for a long-term online solution to move their opt-in (and receive many more future opt-ins, I'd hope) to a FTH list to have the opportunity to continue to be able to invite them in the door and make them members.

I just need to know if this CAN/CANNOT be done on FTH.
Hope that clarifies.

You can add them one by one to you guest list, just not optimum. You should clean the list first of people who are no longer interested. Email them all and ask if they want to continue if they respond add them.