RussellMcFarlane.com

Have you started a club lately?

Whether it is Beer Club, MTB crew, V.G.N., B.G.N., Film Club, or Brunch Club, organizational strategy is key.

Beer Club grew out of a friendship with one my best friends – Travis.

He and I had been meeting up for a long time, and there was initially a sanctity to this time, as we were both young professionals and working our way through the challenges of management. I was building my small business (my dental office,) while he was building his professional network through National Instruments. We would occasionally invite other people to join along, and this rhythm worked well for a few years. We settled into a nested structure, wherein he and I would decide when or where to go, then, invite the next rung of our friends. This provided a simple and low pressure context for regular meet-ups. The limitations were internal and organic, as it was loosely organized.

The next [2nd] stage of Beer Club was a slightly broader index of adding/including additional people, who were showing increasing interest in making the meet-up more consistent and predictable. Then, one of the people we added said, hey, I have a friend who I think would like to come be a part of this. So, we said sure invite him. At this stage, four out of the five consistently attending members had small children. We liked the person being added, but, even with the recurring nature of the engagement, he seemed unable to attend because it was not on a calendar with his family. So, I decided, let’s just put it on the calendar. What I discovered in this iteration was that putting it on the calendar helps everyone. Although it was originally every week, the problem this posed is the excess availability complex. Many people love Beer Club, but, when every week, it was a different set of people each week, no one every really saw the same group twice. This was true because at an every-week interval, the internal monologue of an attendee was – ‘Hey, I can miss this one, because there will be another next week.’ So, attendance in this phase was spotty.

The third iteration of Beer Club, we opened up a little more and invited a few more people, and set a bi-weekly schedule. Due to the increase in size of the group, and the intention of increasing buy-in, I setup a Google Subscription Calendar, that anyone could use to automatically populate their own calendars, without requiring any individual effort. The most important thing that happened during this stage was the improvement in participation. As individuals were now tasked with making a suggestion for “their week” and each person was responsible for choosing the location of our meet-up. This took a small additional effort on the management side to assign each person a week in the subscription calendar. The intentionality of it paid off. With the majority of the planning still taking place on the Group Text Thread, each person had a voice, which resulted in an egalitarian structure. No one person is more important to the success of the group than the next person. The drawback of this is structure is that when assigning weeks for 9 people on a biweekly calendar, some people are being assigned 18-weeks ahead. The unintended consequence is that things come up for people. Therefore, there was a moderate rate of people swapping weeks, which disrupts periodicity.

Summers are hard on Beer Club, as we have (2) members of the 2nd Stage who travel extensively during the summer, [as well as (2) from the 3rd Stage who travel, similarly]. Likewise, almost everyone in the group travels more in summer, so there are many weeks where the text thread looks like a ghost town. The momentum built up from the previous school year hits a nadir every year. Each year I wonder if Beer Club will survive the summer. But, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, it always seems to make an incredible comeback. So, I have come to regard this group as seasonally affected. But, the value of camaraderie and connectedness and laughter keep bringing us back together.

MTB (Mountain Biking) has been a joy, but, not without its own challenges.

After competing in triathlons during and after dental school, I continued road riding for exercise and fun. There are several things that turned me off of road riding, cycling. But, I will save those thoughts for a different day.

MTB was a direct response to my love of biking and the realization that if I wanted to keep riding I needed to find a new way to do it. My brother had invited me to mountain bike when I was still in high school and he was in his mid-twenties. Unfortunately for me, I had a knee surgery at 16-years-old and I was required by my orthopedic surgeon to take care of my right knee. He gave me explicit instructions: “No impact sports for 3-years.” So, from 16 to 19-years-old, I could sit on a recline bike with near-zero resistance to improve the mobility of my knee, and to help it heal and prevent any additional damage. I followed these instructions. So, when the initial offer to mountain bike came from my brother, I had to decline. But, in the back of my head, I always thought [quietly to myself] – ‘one day I will do it.’

So, I started leaving my road bike in the garage more and more. I started my MTB journey on my blue 26-inch front-suspension Giant. This bike had a very short travel (initially 110mm, I believe.) I had purchased it my senior year of college, 2003, on Care Credit for $800, which I paid as (4) $200 payments from University Cyclery (R.I.P.) When I dusted this bike off 15-years later to take it out on trails again, I had to replace the front suspension, and I bought a RockShock Judy (130mm travel), and got to work. The trails were rough, and I pushed it to the limit of what that bike could do. As I got interested in this, I encouraged my close friend Travis to buy a new MTB and expressed that I planned to get very into MTB and I wanted to go on the journey together. He initially questioned my sincerity, but, realizing that his MTB from late HS or early college was in pretty bad shape, he bought a mid-tier Marin (27.5) front-suspension. Fast forward 2-3 more years, and the pandemic hit and indoor activities were incredibly frowned upon culturally due to virus-spread risk. So, I upgraded my bike to a Marin Alpine Trail 7. I proceeded to literally ride the wheels off that bike. More on that in a second.

When you start mountain biking, you discover this unique niche of fearless people doing amazing things. At this juncture, you are making inroads to figuring out who your group is. So, you find out who does it, who used to do it, and who’s thinking about getting into it. There is a level of commitment needed to get a group of this type going. MTB has somewhat of a cap on group size as well, because when the group size gets to 4 or 5, depending on how well matched the riders are to each other, you are close to capacity. So, you ride with various groups, but, once again a subscription calendar can be incredibly useful for organizing everyone. Because the group size is smaller, the calendar serves more as a guideline. Within MTB, there are people who want to ride more challenging trails, and there are people who would much rather just keep to smooth gravel trails. Finding people who are roughly at your same fitness level, risk tolerance, and general time availability requires some patience to develop.

Recommendations for this type of group, we have settled on a text thread with (4) people, as that often results in a ride group of 2-4, and friends of people are welcome to join for rides, but, if the group gets up to 6/7/8 people, the number of unexpected stops due to: lagging (usually fitness-related,) or mechanicals (when bike goes boom,) or other situations, goes up immensely.

A side note on the Marin Alpine Trail 7. I loved that bike. It was not the lightest, nor the nimblest, but, I got to a place where I got to know it, and I was able to send it. At 4-years, 10-months, the frame on the top bar cracked. I sent the bike frame back to Marin, and it was determined to be under warranty (5-year warranty on frames,) and I received a different style bike (Marin Wolf Ridge Pro – 2019) in return, which I am getting more used to now. But, it was initially a bit of a shock trying to get used to the new angulation, weight distribution, and general softness of the rear suspension. Marin did right by me, and I just wanted to call that out.

V.G.N. (Video Game Night) is the longest running club of the ones mentioned in this blog post.

What has made V.G.N. such a success is the ridiculous nature of it. A group of grown-ups wanting to play video games together in person, in a way most similar to the way we learned to play as kids. We sat in front of a shared TV and played side-scrollers, competitive puzzles, 1-Vs-1 fight games. But, the interest in multi-player in-person games has led to a dedicated group that started as a group of 4, when it solidified, and in this first iteration was largely played on Wii. This first iteration has given way to 8-player games when it was at its max. This was made possible mainly through the advent of Nintendo Switch, which is the multiplayer in-person platform of choice.

VGN has been held consistently for over 17-years, weekly. We moved to outdoor projection set-ups during the pandemic, but, this unbroken and continuous meet-up has been as fun as it has been unexpected. When you start something, you usually have no sense of how long it is going to last.

Over the years, we have had some members take time off, and later return. Some Examples: One member just decided to stop coming for awhile (over a year,) even though he was a founding member. Another example is when one member moved to another country, and then, after a 2nd move, found his way back to Austin, ultimately rejoining the squad. This has occurred with (2) separate members on (2) separate occasions. Most recently, one member needed a break, and scheduled a weekly competitive pool (billiard’s) league.

Part of the reason, I think, this group has been so resilient is the flexibility that it has offered for individuals to take a week or a month or a year off. But, the dedicated group of people that still want it to happen persist. There are no other clubs that have proven quite this resilient, as of yet. But, this is a hallmark of the stickiness of non-judgemental friendship. V.G.N. is a place where people speak their mind with little fear of retribution, because it is a place where you are allowed to joke, and expect others to joke as well. Safe spaces for making stupid jokes without the concern of being cancelled or censored is becoming increasingly hard to find.

B.G.N. (Board Game Night) thrives with a group of 3-4.

When you start a B.G.N. (Board Game Night,) it is critical to get people who buy in. The size of B.G.N. is more delicate than any of the other group types. The players are not flexible; you cannot simply swap one board gamer for another. You know a certain set of games. Learning new games together makes the group grow in depth, but, it is also sunk cost. You cannot recoup that time.

When Nick and I initially started a really thriving B.G.N. with Andrew, it was every single week for a couple years, until Andrew moved to Connecticut. But, in the world of strategy board games, 2-player games are on the whole not as good as 3-4 player centric games.

“Why is 3-4 players the ideal number for BGN?” you ask.

Many games are designed to be played with 3 or more players, and do not work very well with 2 players. Gaming with only 2-players lacks some of the excitement, gamesmanship, and uncertainty out of the games. When you get to 3-4 players who play consistently, these folks gradually grow faster at the games you play since there is a body of games that everyone likes. The natural outcome is that you can get through more games, in a more reasonable amount of time. Having a group of 4 is ideal, because then, even if one person is unavailable, you can still carry on with 3.

While there are 5+ player games, this poses a different problem. Most table top games require a certain level of strategy, which each player requires when the board comes back around to them. In a 3 player game, the board may have changed somewhat. But, in a 5-player game, by the time the board comes back around, your strategy may have been completely blown up. This leads to time bloat. Because of the massively changed board each time it goes around, coupled with the likelihood that you complete fewer games, as a result of player number bloat. Players tend to be less engaged, less ready on their turn, and less experienced (having played significantly fewer games/rounds.) For larger groups (5+), games like 7 Wonders, Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, and Betrayal at House on the Hill.

When you are choosing games, there are numerous websites dedicated to helping you pick the best games for your group. BoardGameGeek.com comes to mind as a good resource. If you want to try it before you buy it, BoardGameArena.com has a lot you can try.

Ultimately, playing in person is really the best if you are trying to build community, and strengthen interpersonal relationships.

Film Club

Many of the organizational strategies that I have learned over the years of helping keep these other groups salient have been implemented here. There was a deep organizing principle for this group. After leaving a party one night, I asked a guest of the party, whom I was giving a ride home to, “Why didn’t the people from [this] friend group attend the party?” He replied, “You might be surprised to know that there is not a lot of overlap between these 2 friend groups.” I was surprised.

So, I started asking people from these 2 somewhat disconnected friend groups if any of them are interested in Film Club. I also asked people in my friend group, who form a 3rd friend group (in this theoretical construct.) I only pursued people who showed interest. If a person showed no interest, or said they don’t really have time, I left it up to them, and said that we could follow-up if they later change their mind. I set a time limit for the structure of the group of 1 year. This lightens the sense of burden that the decision is seemingly forever. It also creates a little bit more sense of urgency, as it creates shape to the group of having a beginning, a middle, and an end.

The other thing I have done is continue inviting new people who hear about Film Club and are interested. I have also given off-ramps to people, when someone is no longer attending, I ask them if they would like to be removed. This leads to the sticky situation of when is it time to let people move on. In the USA, in 2025, a group text thread is the strongest way to connect a Club of this type. In other places, you can use WhatsApp or similar. The group text thread has one little problem, which is that it basically requires a referendum to remove someone. So, I think it is really nice to tell people up front, ‘Hey, if you don’t come for over 1 month, I will take that as a sign that you are no longer engaged and wish to be removed you from the group.’ This comes with the caveat that if they later decide, no wait, I do want to come and be a part of it, that there’s no real barrier to entry or exit.

A lot of really great groups die from the detritus of non-removal of members. The healthiest group allows people to vote with their feet. Low barrier to entry. Low barrier to exit.

The other really unique organizational strategy is the way we select events and times. Anyone can pick a movie, buy their ticket, then, include the screen grab in the text thread, with the implied invitation of anyone else who might want to meet up at that same time for that same movie. This creates the MOST egalitarian structure for leadership that we have been able to come up with. This grew out of experimentation, with Mark and Ping. But, it really works.

Brunch Club is a response to trying to stay connected to my retired friends.

It never occurred to me that some of my friends would be retired in our early 40s. So, I have carved out some time to stay connected for this group. A little Girl Talk is good for the soul.