Hi, my name is Doug, and I am a Certified Cuddle Party Facilitator. This thread just came up on Google News (sometimes they aren't real fast to get stuff indexed), and even though it's been while since the last posting, I thought I'd throw out a few thoughts.
As background, I attended the weekend training in Santa Monica in Feb 2004 and was formally certified in June 2004. Since then I've hosted 1 or 2 parties per month at my apartment.
There are lots of negative comments here, and almost none positive, which is typical when people who have never been to a Cuddle Party start talking about Cuddle Parties.
Money always comes up as a topic. Why pay $30 to cuddle? Well, typical attendance is 10-20 people, which works out to $600, right? Not exactly. The assistant gets some money. Returning guests often get a discount. The food bill usually runs somewhere between $50 and $75. Many facilitators are paying rent for a Yoga studio or the like. Website hosting costs money. There are some annual licensing fees to the cuddleparty.com folks (which provides a lot of on-going support, monthly conference calls, etc.) In short, lots of costs come out of the money that is collected from the guests. Plus, by the time the party starts, I probably have 20 hours of prep for a 3.5 hour party. Lots of time goes into newsletters, and website updates, and lots of time goes into setting up the reservations and answering questions. Net pay (after completely ignoring the initial training and investment in blankets and pillows), is generally less than minimum wage. No one hosting Cuddle Parties is making very much money on them (although we are having fun).
But it's still $20 to $30, right? So what do you get for the money? A gender-balanced and age-balanced group of people, a comfortable area for the party, lots of food, and most importantly, a facilitator who is committed to safety and comfort for all of the guests, who has the training that keeps the party flowing smoothly and keeps things from becoming problems.
Many of the guys who come might be happy to see the party become a sexual event (though the structure is very effective at preventing that from even getting started). On the other hand, most of the women aren't at all interested in getting laid. (It's too easy for a woman to pick up a guy at a bar for her to want to pay money to come to a Cuddle Party that's (accurately) billed as a non-sexual event.) Creating an environment where women get what they want and continue to return is ... well ... pretty magical. (All credit goes to REiD and Marcia, who came up with the concept and fine-tuned it with 100 parties before starting to train others.)
Is it really worth the money? Glad you asked. Yes! Absolutely! I am one of several Facilitators who offer a no-strings, complete-satisfaction guarantee, and not one single person has ever asked for a refund. Which is to say that every person who has ever attended one of my Cuddle Parties apparently thought they got their money's worth.
Rather than address all of the other specific concerns here, I invite everyone to take a look at my web site:
http://www.oc-cuddle.com
There are pages that talk about what really happens at a Cuddle Party (hint: innocent touching among those interested, with lots of back rubs, after a 45-minute welcome circle that sets the party up to be comfortable, safe and fun), and there is a FAQ that addresses almost all of the concerns that have come up here. Also, a bunch of real testamonials.
Or better yet, how 'bout just trying a party. In case you are wondering, the rules say that you don't have to cuddle anyone at a Cuddle Party, ever, and that's for real. You are also free to leave at any time (in many locations with a full refund).
Hope that helps a little, and I'd love to answer any specific questions.
-- Doug
