Fed up with staying in and watching the soaps? MAXINE GORDON reports on a way to kick your couch potato lifestyle into touch.

DO you daydream of starting salsa lessons or taking up tennis? Perhaps you would love to go on a pub crawl around York or check out the newest restaurant? Maybe you would prefer to see the latest movie at City Screen or catch a play at York Theatre Royal.

The snag is having no one to go with - or perhaps you are just too busy to arrange a social diary.

Well, you are not alone. More people than ever are now living by themselves, while record numbers are working longer hours.

Such social changes prompted Harrogate couple Jilly Chinnery and Richard Stevenson to set up Club Vivendi 12 months ago.

In essence, this is a social club where members keep in touch via a website and through regular get-togethers.

Club Vivendi is well established in Harrogate, with some 350 members, and is now expanding to York, where it will host its first meeting on Thursday evening.

The club arranges events every week for members, from pub nights, dinners and lunches to sports outings and trips to gigs and theatres. There is even a date to take a flight from Leeds/Bradford airport to see the Northern Lights.

Jilly and Richard had the idea for the club after struggling to get their social lives off the ground following divorce.

Jilly said: "It's difficult when you divorce or are newly single. There's not a lot out there. Club Vivendi was born out of our joint experience. It was what we would have liked in terms of having a pressure-free, non-confrontational and non-committal way to meet people and get out again. Something within your control."

The couple, who met through a dating agency, stress that their club is not designed for lonely hearts, although members have ended up dating each other. Couples are just as welcome as singles, says Jilly, and indeed many members are, in Bridget Jones-speak, 'smug marrieds'.

Membership is open to the over 18s, but most tend to be over 30s with the average age mid-40s or, as Jilly calls them, "the second time-arounders".

Alongside their own events, the club also links in with other organisations to give members a fuller social calendar. To date, a sommeliers organisation and dining club regularly invite Club Vivendi members to their events.

Jilly is keen to hear from organisations and businesses in York which might like to hook up with or offer deals to Club Vivendi members. And she is keen to stress that the club is not just for the newly broken hearted, but the busy professional too.

Through the website, members can post profiles of themselves, contact other members, chat on-line, access the diary of events and arrange their social diary.

Members don't have to rely on Jilly or Richard to post events on the club website, they can advertise their own events too, such as if they want to find a group to go for dinner or attend a theatre production.

Jilly says: "It's not a traditional club in the real sense, more of a social network"

People can join free for a month, then pay £99 for the year or £25 for a further trial month.

The first York meeting is on Thursday at 8.30pm at the Dormouse, by the Holiday Inn, Clifton Park, Shipton Road.

Jilly believes the York branch will be as successful as the one in Harrogate.

"We believe there is a requirement for this club. There are more and more broken or single households and people moving into new areas with their jobs, who want to meet people and get involved in a social life.

"Some people may join a gym or tennis club, but then they are restricted to just doing sport or meeting people in that club.

"When you join Club Vivendi, you are joining a whole social network. You are getting a ready-made social life all under your control."

For more information visit the website: www.clubvivendi.co.uk

Updated: 10:19 Tuesday, February 17, 2004