Join A Club.(the fate of America depends on it)
Check out the small groups we are launching in 2024 and share your interests here. If you’re interested in one of the groups listed below, you should fill out this interest form so we can get you more information.
Interested in becoming a small group leader? We’re offering $300 stipends all year. Check out the details here.
Below are longer descriptions of some of the clubs we’re offering (or you might decide to host) this spring.
The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling Podcast Club. Jessica Lowe-Minor is hosting a podcast club. Again, RUN (don’t walk) to join this one. It will almost certainly include coffee… or tea… or wine. Regardless of one’s choice of beverage, it will be a chance to libate (moderately, liberally, or conservatively) and talk about keeping/saving the Republic. Which is a big job, so it requires us to stay hydrated. Interested? Contact Jessica.
Wine Over Politics: Peggy and Dennis Gallant are hosting a “Wine Over Politics” group and they would love for you to join. They themselves get regular practice at navigating differing political views from one another and often enjoy wine during these conversations! You don’t have to be a wine drinker to join, but beware – there could be some whining over politics goi
Positive Posse Group: “February 17th is National Random Act of Kindness Day! Join the ‘Positive Posse’ Group to share love and light with fellow Tallahassee humans. We’ll be holding positive message signs from 12 to 2 p.m. on the corner of Magnolia and Mahan to spread joy. We have several signs available for holding or you can bring your own. Your sign must be positive with no angle or partisanship and readable from a distance.”
Trail Walking with Kate Kile. Come join us for a Saturday morning walk in the woods! We gather the first Sat of the month at 9am and walk for about an hour. We’ve picked easier trails to accommodate all abilities and we especially love little humans and four legged friends. There are so many wonderful trail gems all around Tallahassee to explore together. Come breathe some fresh air, feel the forest carpet under your feet and make some new friends. Everyone is welcome! Here it is Village Square Walks in the Woods 2024 Walks
Raising Grandma with Cheryl Geiger. Are you a grandparent spending time with your beloved grand babies during the week? We have the perfect group for you! Cheryl Geiger (and her grand baby) will be hosting the Raising Grandma group at the Eastside Library on Friday mornings from 10:30-11:30am starting on February 23rd (Register for full list of dates). Raising Grandma will be enjoying the library’s Baby Story Time with Ms. Gina from 10:30-11:00am and will then enjoy time playing and visiting afterwards from 11:00-11:30am (hopefully on the playground if the weather is nice!) Click here to sign up for Cheryl’s group and to get more details.
Civic Stitch n Bitch will return in 2024. Liz Joyner (founder of The Village Square) is hosting another Civic Stitch n Bitch. Here’s the official promo language straight from Madison Ave: Bring your knitting, needlepoint, or a snack. Or just an open hand to hold to a wine glass. We’ll hang out. One rule, we only “bitch” about the ways that our civics isn’t working for ALL OF US (it’s a countercultural mental exercise). We’re going to stitch up this ugly ole divide, whether it’s with yarn or relationships. Contact Liz if you want to join in.
Thursday Think Piece Club is back from an encore in 2024. (We know it will be on a Thursday; not sure about the rest). We plan to be running small groups all year to discuss interesting think pieces. Liz Joyner and Neil Skene are going to go back it as a dynamic hosting duo and we’ll love for you to join us. Contct Liz if you want to join in.
Sobremesa. (Our first group is filled, but please consider using Betsy Ouellette’s Zierden’s inspiring idea to start your own group.) Sobremesa is one of those beautiful Spanish words that doesn’t exist in the English language, so it can be difficult to translate. It’s a word that can be both a verb and a noun. The direct translation is upon the table, however the real meaning of the word encompasses so much more. When you get together with friends or family for a meal in Latin America, the experience is not just limited to the meal itself. Sobremesa is the time you spend in deep, meaningful conversation, relaxing together, sometimes for hours, well after dessert has been served. You talk, drink, debate, laugh, and fully enjoy each other’s company. You… sobremesa. The conversation is rarely shallow or boring. It’s not a time for small talk. As you may know, once people have eaten delicious food and enjoyed a bottle of good wine (or two), they can talk about anything. That’s what makes the conversation after a meal so much richer than any during it. There is no subject too heavy, provocative, or immature for the table to discuss, if it is done so with good manners and much respect.
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This year at The Square, we’re going to be starting a club. To be more precise, we’re going to be starting a club about starting more clubs. We hope we’ll see clubs popping up all over about every sort of thing—about walking + talking, stitching + bitching, about big ole thorny problems—or about nothing much at all. Jump down this page to see a few of the groups we’ve started already (some of them you can even sign up for). (You can also download our concept document here and add to our club-a-palooza brainstorming document here, including telling us about existing clubs that like all sorts of people to join them.)
“I’ve never been much of a joiner. We hear that a lot from new people that come in. But I think whatever your burn is in the world, there’s something out there for you.” —From the feature film “Join or Die.”
So why all this group-ish-ness afoot, you’re cleverly wondering? We think that hanging out with each other in our hometowns might just be how we’re going to save America (and ourselves). We’ve believed that since we were founded 17 years ago by an unofficial “club” of a few friends who disagreed on politics but liked each other anyway. Ask yourself how much time you spend really talking with friends or acquaintances who disagree with you ideologically? If you’re like most Americans, the answer is “hardly ever,” so how do you really know you hate “those people” so very much? Right?
And now, especially now, too many of us are sad and lonely and angry. We wonder when was the last time that some of our sad and lonely and angry neighbors were invited to join up to much of anything?
Healing what divides us in America doesn’t have to be a slog — it can be with good music in the background, a beer in your hand and laughter all around. We’re convinced that if we turn this experiment in self-governance around, it will be because we got up off the couch and joined something or other, preferably that included people who aren’t just like us.
“In the background of the American story behind the presidents and wars, recessions and boom times, scientific breakthroughs and social movements—are clubs.” —from “Join or Die”
Here are just a few of the clubs that popped up and built America: Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society, Detroit Athletic Club (and the Banjo Club at the Detroit Athletic Club), and (of course) Ben Franklin’s famous Junto, that met on Friday nights in Philadelphia to debate philosophy.
So—in this proud American tradition—here are our first clubs, below. Give Cassie a (polite) yell if you’ve got one you want to add to the list with your “Beautiful Dogs & Their Beautiful Owners Club” or your “Coffee Roasting Unicycle Club.” Give Liz a (friendly) holler if you’re just trying to figure things out and you want a little club-coaching.
“Wherever at the head of some new undertaking you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association. —Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America”
