Need help determining boundaries for mom group please :) (Austin, Round Rock: chapel, home)

[Indigoblue]

Hi Because I'm such a preplanner :P despite the fact I'm not quite living in Austin yet, I'm in the process of setting up an Austin area branch of a national non profit mommy group. I have to submit what cities and counties my group will cover, and which cities, as well as come up with a short description for the area.

I'm almost 100% sure I'll be living in Williamson County's Cedar Park or Round Rock and would like to have my area coverage be Williamson County and Travis County. There is a potential issue however that a more northern branch of the group recently added Williamson County to their area so we may have to negotiate a line to be drawn in the county with some of it going to my group and some to the more rural/northern one which includes five counties all north of Austin.

So my question is, what cities in Williamson County would you consider a part of the Austin metro area? In other words, cities that moms would conceivably be willing to drive to Austin for the occasional group wide event, or to Cedar Park/Round Rock for regional events? Is Georgetown part of the Austin area? Is Leander? What about the other small towns above and around Cedar Park and Round Rock?

Oh also, what is the area generally called by locals? "Greater Austin area" "Austin Metro Area" "Metro Austin Area" "Greater Austin Metro Area" ?? Any advice is much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

PS. Williamson and Travis counties alone will be a large area from the perspective of organizing a mom group which is why I'm not even attempting to include any other counties around the bottom half of Austin.

[gigi927]

Are all of the moms within the drawn boundaries going to be in the same group or will you be breaking them into subgroups? The reason I ask is because while Austin is a fairly small metro area, it's spread out geographically. I live in NW Austin and would not drive to Leander for a mom's group; nor would I drive downtown for a mom's group. I want to meet people who live near me so that getting together is much easier, especially with the cost of fuel. If you're including Williamson County you have to include Hutto and towns out that way as well. That is a very big area to cover for a mom's group.

Personally, if I were living in Cedar Park or RR in Williamson County I would try to just take the area I was living in or just lump a few cities together - combine Cedar Park and Leander and west Round Rock, maybe. Possibly Liberty Hill. I wouldn't even go into Travis County if I were you. That's just way too big.

[love roses]

For Williamson County, you would have to include Hutto as gigi says, plus Taylor. Our playgroup based here in Hutto just recently changed it's name to Williamson County Moms and we have members from Taylor, all over Hutto, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Georgetown, and Cedar Park, and if I'm not mistaken, even one from closer to Elgin. It's a pretty large group (over 100 moms) and many of us do travel all over for playgroups. Some have gone to Kerbey Lane to eat, we go into downtown sometimes to Scottish Rite Theatre, Radijazz, The Children's Museum. Pretty much many of us will travel anywhere if whatever we have planned is fun enough. But, we're only one group here. There are quite a few others in Round Rock, plus a Taylor MOPS group and a Round Rock one. Sometimes people even join more than one to meet more people. I had to reread gigi's post, but I do agree, I like that the group I'm in is based where I live whether or not we go all over the place for things to do. One of the reasons I haven't joined any Central Austin playgroups because it would just mean more travel when you factor in home dates as well.

[Indigoblue]

Thank you for the info so far! To answer questions -

Yes there would be area subgroups, and that is something I had hoped to get feedback on but forgot to include in my original post. Would Williamson County, North Austin, and South Austin make sense as starting subgroups for the area? As the group grew these could be further subdivided if necessary. Or maybe Cedar Park, Round Rock, North Austin, South Austin? SW Williamson, SE Williamson, N Austin, S Austin?

I know the vastness of the area sounds crazy big but I just came from a similar site covering a far larger metro area (Raleigh - Durham - Cary - Chapel Hill, NC) and it works, with events mostly happening within subgroups, for example my city Durham was split in two halves) and the occasional group wide event happening in a central location. Members can attend any subgroup's events so it caters to people who just want to stick to their local area, as well as those who are wanting/willing to drive > 20 mins to get more event variety.

As far as Williamson County my main question is which cities would be considered part of the greater Austin area? For example this is an Austin forum and people from several outlying towns seem to consider themselves part of the Austin area... It sounds like Georgetown and Leander and Hutto are on some level bedroom communities for many people working in Austin. Am I correct? Any other outlying towns?

Thank you for your input

[Indigoblue]

One more question - for those of you in Williamson. If you saw a group being advertised called "Austinsomethingelse.com", would you want to check out the website or would you just immediately write it off thinking Austin is too far away? What about if it said AustinAREAsomethingelse.com? A bit wordier but would that better convey that it wasn't just for Austin itself but also surrounding areas? Thank you

And sorry for all the mystery about which national group I am working with, but craigslist does not like urls leading to mommy groups being posted. I've had posts altered or deleted for doing so in the past.

[love roses]

I guess you could call us bedroom communities, as these are not new communities but old established towns with their own founding histories and town centers. Lots of people out here do commute into Austin or North Austin for work. I work inside my own town, so no commute for me If your main title is going to be Austinsomething, add area to it, or some type of explanation of the areas you cover. Your breakdown of counties sounds good as a start. There are tons of little towns in Williamson County, not just the big ones you mention. Rice's Crossing, Norman's Crossing, Frame Switch, New Corn Hill, Walburg, Coupland, Granger, Taylor and possibly Thrall. Possibly other very small communities...but many of the people who are out there (these would be rural/farmland areas) do things in the largest nearby town, so you may not need to add these places by name...Just the larger ones like Cedar Park, Leander, Round Rock, Taylor, Georgetown, Hutto, Pflugerville, Manor.

[texastea]

I hear "Greater Austin" more often than anything else. And love roses has a good list of the towns included in that.

[txbreeze01]

I am part of a playgroup and we have moms in North Austin, Round Rock, Hutto, Pflugerville, and Lago Vista!

[love roses]

Wow! Sounds like a well rounded group Avery Ranch is about as far West as any of our members are from.