Join a Club
Strengthen Social Connections - Part 3
I am lucky to have an abundance of friendships, many of them decades in the making. But expanding my social circle beyond my existing friends is good too, and I’ve enjoyed being a member of several clubs.
I use the term “club” loosely, sometimes it’s a full-blown Incorporated Society with AGMs and whatnot but more often it’s an informal WhatsApp or a Google Group. (Although the informal ones don’t have patches, mottos, chants, or merch—so are they really clubs at all? It’s like a zoo without an elephant…)
Why join a club? Well, as I said, new friends for a start. And not only new friends, but friends from different walks of life. Take tennis, for example—I’ve played with some people for years and have no idea what most of them do for a living. It never comes up. (Which makes it less awkward for me when they ask what I do!) Same deal with an investment group I’m part of, our shared interest in investing in under-represented (and under-estimated) founders brings together people from across the UK, Africa and the States that I wouldn't have otherwise met.
This diversity is important, especially living in my largely homogenous 7000-person neighbourhood. As Max Rashbrooke says in his book Too Much Money, “Physically separated, people of different status slowly lose their understanding of how the other half lives. Their sense of those other people being ‘like’ them, their feeling of having something in common with them, and consequently their empathy for and trust in them, all dwindle.”
Building relationships with people of diverse ages, viewpoints, ideas and experiences—what author Robert Putnam calls "bridging social capital"—is important as it helps build a more cohesive and vibrant society. Clubs are a great way to do this.
Of course, being in a club offers benefits beyond friendship based on a shared interests. For example, I co-founded a local homebrew club, and our monthly meetings have been great for:
Camaraderie. The club is a supportive group and enhances my sense of belonging to the bigger diaspora of homebrewers. We’ve co-hosted events together, like a mini beer festival at our local scout hall that we cheekily called Bayvana (in homage to a bigger beer festival called Beervana). We send photos of beers we drink when we’re out of town, like the nerds we are. (Take 1d4 damage to Charisma).
Learning. We swap tips, tricks, and insights on everything from gear and recipes to brewing techniques, and we've even had the chance to learn together in hands-on ways. For example, we once brewed the same recipe, varying only the hops, to see how it would affect the flavour. Another time, we teamed up with a local brewery to brew a 400-litre batch of one of our own recipes.
Inspiration. Hearing what others in the club are up to helps keep me engaged and encourages me to brew more and try different things. Or not, two of the brewers keep re-brewing a small number of recipes to try and perfect them, and has inspired me to do the same, rather than brewing something new each time.
