Island Professionals is a social group for single people of professional or semi-professional background, intended not as a dating group but for genuine social companionship. There has always been one or more singles groups on the Isle of Wight, but IP is distinguished by its professional and business-like approach and its intelligent use of information technology to tie all its activities together.

Island Professionals started in 1988 as "Newport Professionals", originally intended as a telephone contact network. The original idea was to put an advert in the County Press, meet once in a member's home, and then exchange names, addresses and telephone numbers as a starting point for contact and support between its members. Two changes rapidly happened which were to set a more permanent direction for the group. One was that the information was held on computer database; the other was that an organised social emphasis started to develop, and the idea of a supportive telephone contact network never really took off.

The main area of activity is now almost entirely the "Social Calendar", listing events and activities organised mostly by members for members. This comprises regular events such as pub meetings, badminton, dance lessons, and other one-off events such as eating out meetings, musical evenings, theatre visits and even organised holidays. This is all listed on the monthly magazine which also contains names of new members, telephone lists, etc. Security has not yet become a major problem on the Island and we still find it acceptable to publish members' details. We understand that mainland groups find it necessary to protect members' phone numbers, but hope that this is something we will never need to do.

A mainstay of the group, remaining consistent since the beginning, is the practice of the introductory evening when interested people are invited to attend one of two monthly meetings as a group. At this introductory evening the apprehension and nervousness of meeting with almost total strangers forms a strange rite of passage which seems to have a bonding effect on the group.

Over the years that Island Professionals has been in existence, its business and administrative machinery has steadily evolved so that it has become quite a structured organisation. Its public face has remained fairly simple so that new committee members are often surprised at the work that goes on behind the scenes. This is all to the credit of those who do the work; but it does mean that there is more to learn and more responsibility attaching to that work.

IP being successful also means that this body of knowledge is increasingly valuable and as such is worth writing down for others. One of IP's objectives has been to increase links with other like-minded singles groups on the mainland. We feel that we have a great deal to offer other groups or others wishing to start similar groups. The object of this manual is to consolidate what we have learned for ourselves, and to provide a guide to others wishing either to start their own group or to look at ways of developing their own existing group.

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