Anything you do can be a club.

We all have activities that we engage in by default. We’ve seen our (in this example, teenage) lives played out on sit-coms:

Mom:   “So what did you do today dear”

Kid:      “Nothing”

Mom:   “Nothing, Huh?

Kid:      “yeah”

Mom:   “well that doesn’t seem very good, just nothing?”

Kid:      “well, not nothing, just like, hung out, y’know?”

Mom:   “hung out?”

Kid:      “yeah, hung out, jeez get off my back”

Your moms right you know, nothing doesn’t really sound like much, but by following some basic steps, your nothing can become a something. The steps are this:

1. think of something that you find yourself doing, without even trying

say, for example, you find yourself drinking a lot of soda. Not because you are some kind of soda-zealot or anything, just by coincidence, maybe this conversation has happened to you:

You:        “so, uh, its good to see you, I guess”

Friend:    “Yeah, Its good that you called”

You:        “ummm…”

Friend:    “did you have anything…”

You:        “…uhhh…”

Friend:    “…like … to … y’know … do”

You:        “we could go to the corner store”

Friend:    “…and”

You:        “and get a soda!”

That’s a success in my book. One of life’s small victories is teaching yourself to “hang out”. But the novelty wears off. Over time these casual mini-mart trips will become increasingly frequent, less formalized, and less special. Before long, you’re “just hanging out” and that slacker stigma will never leave you.

2. pick a specific time and place for that activity

Say you enjoy about 4 social sodas a month. What you need is a weekly appointment. How about every Wednesday at Midnight at the Safeway on Redmond Way. It’s just that easy. You’ve gone from being a "slacker" to an  "active participant" with five easy words. Of course you can still drink soda any other time, but don’t miss that appointment, what ever you do, because that’s the third step:

3.  Engage in it with regularity and diligence

Heres where the real fun begins. Once you’re club has had at least two meetings with at least two members at each your safe to consider it official at that point. Once your official, you can make yourself available to new members. Maybe a flyer is in order, maybe just personal invitations. In my experience a massive media blitz isn’t in order. Remember that you aren’t trying to force people to like your club (like scary Scientologists), your just looking for people who might be interested (like friendly Alcoholics Anonymous).

What I took away from my experience with soda club is that the specific activity you do doesn’t matter, but by being a club it can be more. We were drinking soda on purpose! And the idea that other, new people could be there every week made showing up more fun. I met a lot of sweet people who I wouldn’t have met otherwise, and a bunch of us are still freinds. I meet a lot of kids who grew up in the suburbs and spent a lot of times hanging out in parking lots and say that they hated it and that it was boring. Not me though, I have great memories. I was in a club.