The Club Format : What's A Club Meeting Like?

A club meeting will typically follow the 7 parts listed below.
Naturally they are bound to change depending on the time available.

1. Check-In
2. Ice Breaker
3. Show And Tell or Seek Advice
4. Break / Jokes
5. Questionnaire / Tests
6. Closer
7. Check-Out

* 8. Break Into Pairs (or Triples,etc.)

1.Check-In

This is a structure I am borrowing from the modern social unit called The Support Group.
Simply stated, members "check-in" with one another.
What makes the process unique and markedly different from everyday social interaction is that members have permission, in fact, are encouraged to be open and honest about how they are doing.

Personal Tangent

It is quite amusing (and quite disheartening) that our typical greeting, "How are you?" is meant solely as a rhetorical question where an honest and open answer is typically neither expected nor desired.

When somebody has a mental lapse and actually begins to go into detail about how they are genuinely "doing", a fairly typical response representative of the chaotic, "hurriedness" of modern life is, "Wooh. Wooh. I don't want your life story!"
In fact, the "polite" response to, "How are you?" is, "I'm fine thank you." irrespective of whether you are fine or not.
Supposedly this is considered being "socially responsible" and considerate of other people, since they have problems of their own and do not need to hear about those of others; however, I believe this fails to honor the infinite strength and deep nobility of human beings, and their capacity to bear the burdens of others.

I think it's more polite to answer somebody honestly when they ask you how you are doing...
and that should be a goal to which humanity should aspire.

2. Ice Breaker

Ice Breakers are becoming very popular in the "Corporate World" as a means of relaxing before meetings, getting to know one another, activities to do during "Company Retreats".
They will follow the same function for the purposes of the club.
Each meeting following Check In, members will engage in a fun, Ice Breaker activity to "loosen up" and build some more sense of camaraderie between members.

3.Show And Tell or Seek Advice

Show And Tell

Remember Show And Tell from Primary School? It was a fun and very useful activity as it gave class members a chance to showcase important facets of their life to their classmates, and feel special and the center of attention for a little while, at the same time providing classmates the opportunity to get to know this particular student better, and satisfy some of their curiosity about this person.

"The most fascinating thing for human beings is : other human beings."

In this club, members bring in newspaper articles, magazine articles, poems, passages from books, pictures, and using the power of the internet and the utility of rooms equipped with computers and projector screens present Youtube Clips, Movie Clips, Songs, Online Articles, Online Images and whatever else the limitlessness of the Internet can afford a person to share with others.

Members bring things to share with their fellow members so that they can share themselves with others, and also, to get honest feedback,
to get advice from the heart.

Seek Advice

At this point in the meeting, members can also choose to present a problem that is bothering them and query the collective wisdom of the group as to its possible solution.

Naturally this is all dependent on time, and members can choose to either present something for debate, or seek advice from the group, or perhaps both if their is sufficient time.

The goal of the group is for everyone to have as much help as possible.

* Warning *

It is a responsibility, getting honest feedback from others.
Honesty is a difficult thing, it is not always pleasant.
The club does have policies on "asking for honesty" whereby a person requests permission to give a totally honest, unobscured opinion on something, but, once such permission has been given, the asker must take responsibility for an answer openly and honestly given.
Honesty is not always easy, but it is through honesty that we truly grow.

Personal Tangent

Although I personally strive for this ideal, like Chivalry, it is an ideal which was held up, but was admittedly not easy to achieve.

4. Break : Jokes / Word Of The Day / Meditation / Chat

A chance to stretch the legs.
After the active discussion of show and tell it's nice to take a little rest.

Club Members are encouraged to bring in jokes they love to share with other members so they can get a hearty laugh and unwind a bit.

Club Members are also encouraged to bring in a new word they particularly like to share with the other members and enhance everyone else's vocabulary.

"Words are the containers by which new concepts are turned into the building blocks with which people can construct new buildings of human knowledge and perception."

Time permitting, a club member will lead the group in a meditation exercise to further relax and enjoy some inner peace shared in the company of familiar others.

5.Questionnaires and Tests

"Ask Questions And You Will Get Answers."

The central aim of the club is for members to come to know themselves better and know others better.
Each meeting, either a brief Questionnaire or a short Test will be passed out to members.
The material will be taken from the wide array of Personality Tests, Character Evaluators, Situational Analysis available.

The idea here is to engage in a tactile, physical activity which gives a sense of concreteness to the pursuit of getting to know oneself.

Following completion of the Questionnaire or Test, the questions will be gone through and members are encouraged to share their answers and reasons.

6.Closer

Another Ice Breaker style activity, only with the focus being on relaxing and bringing closure to the meeting.

7.Check Out

Each member "checks out", sharing their thoughts on the meeting and perhaps sharing what they foresee their week will be like.

8.* Break Into Pairs *

The club is a debate club, but it is a support group at the exact same time, and when someone feels that they need some space, or maybe they feel the impulse to talk to another member or two in private, members are encouraged to leave the group and talk in an adjacent classroom.

The club will book several classrooms in close proximity, so that members can have privacy to talk with other members if they choose to.

Sometimes you are just on the right wavelength with another person and you want to pursue it.
The aim of the club is to give people the environment for them to do just that.