Manifesto
An afternoon summer camp for grown-ups.
Meeting people as an adult is hard. Statistically, it gets harder every year. Robert Putnam called the early version of this the collapse of American community in Bowling Alone (2000), and it has only gotten worse since. The night economy wasn't built for people who actually want to know each other. So we built this instead.
Daylight over darkness
Starting at 4 PM is way better than being sleep-deprived and (cough cough) happy at 4 AM.
Teams over crowds
Twenty people, two teams. Inside your team: cooperation. Across teams: competition. A crowd is strangers standing near each other; a team is strangers who had to pass you the rope.
Sweat over smalltalk
You learn more about a person in a tug-of-war than in three rounds of "what do you do?"
Memories ahead of experiences
An experience you watched. A memory you lived. The goal is the kind of Sunday you'll still bring up a year later.
Cooperate inside, compete outside
The scoreboard is there to give us something to build around. The scoreboard is not the point.
In-person, phones down
No apps as the connective tissue. No swiping. No matching. Just showing up.
Not speed dating
We're tackling the Friendship Recession, not the dating app problem. The two are related; the dating problem is downstream of the friendship problem. Build a good community, and romantic connection finds its own way. Optimize for dating directly and you get a room that feels like a casting call. F&%# that.
Curated, not crowded
We dislike nightclubs. So instead of just complaining, we're building an alternative. We're stealing one thing the best LA nightclubs get right: paid, yes, and the guest list is curated. Every participant is a 1st- or 2nd-degree contact of the Imagineer. Disrespectful behavior isn't tolerated. What counts as disrespect? Canadian law plus common sense, with a Christian bias, full disclosure.
Cheap, not free
We charge enough to raise the "show up" bar. We charge little enough that a pub beer is more expensive. Nobody gets rich. Nobody gets excluded by price. If the number is the problem, let's talk.
Iterative
The first events will be rough. The tenth will be less rough. The hundredth will be the thing. This is a club, not a startup. Small is beautiful.