I LOVE my TOPS group. I've joined many different TOPS groups over the years, and I always did great while I was a member. In one group, I was doing fantastic (and the group was huge with a wide range of ages) and then I took a job in a bigger city more than an hour away, and I didn't like any of the groups in my new city (heck, I would have done better to look further afield for meetings or even driven the 80 minutes each way every week to stick with my group).
Every TOPS group is run differently, because while all the chapters have to follow some common guidelines and rules, each group is self-governing otherwise. For example, in every group you have to pay your yearly national dues ($28 per year, and I believe half that for additional family members in the same household. The national dues includes a monthly magazine, and only one magazine is sent to each household). However, monthly chapter dues vary from group to group. There are four groups in my area and one charges $2 per month. One charges $3, and mine charges $5.
Even though mine has the more expensive monthly dues, the chapter also has more opportunities to earn and win prizes. For example, in my chapter you earn free dues for the month, if you lost any weight the month before. Every week all members contribute a dime to what we call the dime contest, the biggest loser of the week takes home the dimes (about $2.50 to $3.00 most weeks).
Are group charges a dime for every pound gained that week, and that money goes to the treasury to pay for prizes. Some groups don't charge for gains. Some charge a pricer per pound from a nickel to a quarter. And some charge a flat rate, say a quarter no matter how much or how little you gained. In some groups the weight gain fines are given to the biggest loser or split between the biggest loser and the treasury. Our club decided not to do that, because it meant that winners benefited from the misery of others so they thought it fostered an unproductive competitiveness (gee I hope I'm the biggest losr this week, and I hope everyone else gained so that I get to take home a lot of money).
Our group also pays the best loser for the month a $5 prize, and best loser for the quarter gets $10, and there are just dozens of other ways to win money for weight loss and other healthy behaviors.
At first I thought the group was contest-happy. Our group runs so many contests it's taken me almost two years to keep them all straight, but it makes the process a lot of fun.
On the last meeting of every month we have a fundraiser auction (to fund all those weight loss contests). Anyone who wishes too (about 1/3 of members generally do at any given auction. I bring a gift about half the time). The gift has to be wrapped (it doesn't have to have any real value at at, in fact it can even be a gag gift... for example we've had everything from used puzzles and books to toilet paper and a dirty mop). We go around the room and whoever brought a gift gives a clue as to the contents of the gift and then the bidding starts on that item. The winner opens the gift and then we move on to the next person who brought a gift and they give their clue.
It's tons of fun.
Not all groups do any of this. Some have no contests and no fund raisers (some don't even charge monthly dues at all, though this is rare). Anyone can start a TOPS chapter, you only need four members (many of the groups that charge no dues are private chapters... usually a group of family members or friends).
I didn't really know about the private chapters until I read about it in the TOPS magazine. These groups don't have open membership (they don't advertise and they may have no interest in including strangers or non-family members into their group, or they only allow folks into the group by special invite).
This means that if you don't find a group you like, you can create one, so long as you find three other people to join in with you. You can open the membership to anyone, or you can choose to keep membership invitation-only.
That's why when people complain that TOPS is "just for really old people," I tell them TOPS can be anything you want it to be. If you want a group of people exactly like yourself, just look for those people and create the TOPS group you want to have.
I've been tempted at times to try to start my own group for a variety of reasons, but I really like the group I'm now in, even if I am one of the youngest and fattest members.
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