Rochester Kink Society

BDSM stands for bondage and discipline; dominance and submission; and sadism and masochism. These initials (BD, DS, SM) are then run together, removing the duplicate letters to form BDSM.

Each letter pair represents subtly different types of play and interaction commonly found within our community.

BDSM is not abuse. To contrast the two, let us first take a look at what abuse is, then see how BDSM is different.

Abuse is verbal, emotional, or physical violence, often occurring in an accelerating cycle. Abuse is characterized by lack of consent of one person to the actions of another. An abuse victim is often isolated and lacks ability to stop the violence or leave. Abuse almost always occurs in secrecy, and results in emotional or physical injury. Abuse frequently occurs in combination with the use of drugs or the over-consumption of alcohol.

BDSM, on the other hand, occurs between freely consenting adults. It is practiced with a mind for safety, with explicit consent of the participants to their involvement. BDSM does not result in permanent injury, and those involved retain the right to stop involvement (or leave entirely) at any time if they choose to do so. Many BDSM enthusiasts will not practice BDSM while under the influence of alcohol or drugs; neither alcohol nor drug use are allowed at RKS. Furthermore, our events are staffed by dungeon monitors to maximize safety.

See the membership information.

If you live locally, yes. However, in certain cases, you may attend a party as a guest without attending a munch. See the Attending Parties for details.

As for why:

1. It is a way for you to check out the group, first of all.
2. We do this to protect our members and our society's integrity and confidentiality.

In a nutshell, we like to keep our regular meeting location and play-space discreet. Read Attending a Munch or Social to learn more.

If you're under 18, you're too young. If you're too closed minded, that may present a challenge too, but for pretty much anything else the answer is no, you're not too whatever. RKS members range from late teens to seventies with a variety of body shapes and sizes, political views, religious affiliations, sexual orientations, genders, etc.

Yes. Our members are free to express themselves no matter what their kink or level of interest. As one of our members has joked, We believe in equal opportunity perversion.

Yes. We have members who are single, coupled, and in multi-person relationships. Some play only with their partners, others have open relationships regarding play. Some of our members have long-term, established vanilla (non-kinky) relationships and use RKS as an avenue to express their kinky side.

No. First off, RKS does not allow sex or other forms of penetration. More generally, though, RKS is a social club, not a sex club– if you want a chance to play with others, you'll need to make friends with them first. Although each member has their own level of comfort for how well they need to know someone before playing, anonymous play is exceedingly rare.

Couples interesting in swinging may want to look into Candle Light Associates and Entice.

RKS doesn't have a hard definition for being kinky, and by no means do all kinks involve pain. If you've read stories on the 'net about parties with half the attendees shackled to the wall whimpering, the other half carrying whips, the sound of cracking lashes filling the air, then you've probably gotten the wrong idea. While this kind of scene does occur, kink is much more expansive— as simple as using a feather to erotically tickle your partner, dressing up and role playing, or using rope not to restrict movement but hold a toy (or even just a strategically placed knot) in place. One of the amazing things about sexuality is how nuanced it can be— and at RKS, we embrace that full range of kink.

Yes, the main entrance is wheelchair accessible. However, since our parties are at night, all doors are locked. You'll need to ring our doorbell, which is at the side entrance. After the attendant has to come to the door and become aware of your needs, s/he can let you in the main entrance and show you to one of the elevators.

Bathrooms are on the same floor as RKS. Each bathroom has a stall that's large enough to accommodate wheelchairs, although there are not yet grab bars installed.

Attending a munch, social, or movie is free. Coming as a guest is presently $25 per visit. The most common membership ("Standard") is $55 per quarter, but there are other types of membership– see the membership rates for more information.

Workshop costs varies, depending on whether we have a local or visiting presenter, whether you are a guest or member, and the type of membership.

• Cash or check are accepted for member, guest, and workshop fees.
• Credit Cards are accepted, but must be sent in ahead of time since we don't have Internet access in the dungeon. (Please bring a copy of your transaction receipt.)

See attending parties and play party rules. It's also a good idea to review scene etiquette.

Destination	East Avenue Inn	Hyatt	Radisson	Strathallan
Getting Around
Airport	8 miles	7 miles	7 miles	8 miles
Train/Bus Station	1.2	0.7	0.7	1.4
Shuttle	No	Yes	Yes	By reservation
Transit	Park Ave 17 East Ave	on hub	on hub	17 East Ave
Food Options
Room food service	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
In-house restaurant	N/A	Scene on Main	Legends Sports Bar	The Grill at Strathallan
East End	0 miles	0.7 miles	0.8 miles	0.3 miles
Village Gate	0.8 miles	1.5 miles	1.6 miles	0.5 miles
Other food	N/A	Dinosaur Barbecue Legends Sports Bar	Dinosaur Barbecue Scene on Main	N/A
Other
Internet	Free in room	Paid in room	Free in room	Free in lobby
RKS	1.3 miles	1.7 miles	1.7 miles	1.3 miles

Given the short distances and our lacking public transit (rgrta.com), we suggest walking, taxi, and hotel shuttle (if using hotel shuttle to come to RKS, check with the your hotel to ensure they'll pick you up at our weird hours). If you're bent on the bus, the Radisson and Hyatt may be better choices: Rochester has a spoke-based transit system, and the hub is just outside these hotels, avoiding a pay-and-delay transfer to get just about anywhere. Transit shuts down about midnight.

East Avenue Inn

384 East Avenue, Rochester NY 14607

585-325-5010

At the corner of East and Alexander, the East Avenue Inn is in the heart of the East End.

Strathallan Inn

550 East Avenue, Rochester NY 14607

585-461-5010

Located on East Avenue near Goodman, the Strathallan is an upscale hotel with a classy restaurant. Most suites have a kitchenette including dishware and appliances.

Radisson Hotel Rochester Riverside

120 East Main Street, Rochester NY 14604

585-546-6400

Located in Rochester's downtown, the Radisson features all the typical amenities. It features an in-house sports bar and room service.

Hyatt Regency Rochester

125 East Main Street, Rochester NY

585-546-1234

Also located in Rochester's downtown and kitty-corner to the Radisson, the Hyatt is another full-service hotel. It features an upscale restaurant along with room service. Visit their respective web sites for contact information.

We do have a video projector in our main dungeon. If you want to bring just your presentation and use our laptop, it can read CDs, DVDs, and USB drives. It's loaded with KeyNote. For PowerPoint or OpenOffice, please send your presentation with plenty of advance to RKS Publications (publications@RochesterKinkSociety.com) and we can check it out, make minor fixes if necessary, or arrange a machine with the necessary software to display the presentation properly.

If you prefer to use your own laptop, we have have hookups for:

VGA	S-Video	DVI
Mini-VGA	Mini-DisplayPort	Mini-DVI

And while you're at it, now might be a good time to write the Electronic Industry Assocation and Apple to demand they stop coming up with new standards for video cables.