Common characteristics of older adults have led to the rise of recommendations to conduct user research and testing with this particular age group. Even though guidelines exist regarding human-centred design with older adults, there are not many reports on experiences with creating and maintaining elderly user groups for design and research purposes. This paper reviews previous reports in the literature about user groups and adds i) results of qualitative research about the experience of researchers who built their entire professional experience with user groups of older adults, along with ii) the authors’ own account of building and maintaining an elderly user group for years. The paper provides recommendations for recruiting, maintaining and motivating elderly user groups towards participation in HCI design and research activities, along with suggestions of strategies to use during field work.