🆕 Affinity Groups – Cultivating Grokkist Micro-Communities

Earlier this year, in our #🌱 Grokkist Kaitiaki Group conversations, we explored how to support more focused connection and collaboration inside the Grokkist Network. The idea of Affinity Groups emerged—spaces where grokkists could gather around shared identities, practices, or live questions. But we paused before launching into action.

We were mindful of what makes the Grokkist space special: the way it brings together unexpected constellations of people and ideas, disrupting the usual silos of profession, interest, or geography. Creating groups around specific topics or locations too early risked diluting that magic.

Instead, we took a beat—and created the Realms as a foundational layer to hold different modes of participation across the Network. Now, with that context in place, we’re ready to grow the next layer: Affinity Groups.

What is an Affinity Group?

Each Affinity Group is a micro-community within the Grokkist ecosystem, designed to explore, experiment, and evolve around something shared and alive.

Key features:

• Shared Practice or Inquiry – Each group forms around a particular identity (e.g. writer, public speaker), a set of practices, or a cluster of ongoing, resonant questions.

• Expert Conveners with Beginner’s Mind – Each group is held by a community member with lived experience of the group’s focus, but who approaches it with curiosity and openness. Think: wise amateur over polished authority.

• Collaborative and Emergent – Conveners bring momentum, set the tone, and offer structure—but the direction is co-created with the group. It’s about shaping something together, not just consuming content.

• Recurring Gatherings + Ongoing Space – Each group will host a regular live event (e.g. monthly-ish) and have a dedicated area within one of the Realms for discussion, sharing, and connection between sessions.

• Incubators for Community Creations – Affinity Groups are natural testbeds for community-led projects: new courses, Press creations, campaigns, and more.

The Bigger Picture

Affinity Groups help move the Grokkist Network in a few important directions:

• Toward a garden of interconnected micro-communities, each alive in its own way, but feeding and informing the larger ecosystem—think: Narnia’s wood between the worlds, with many pools to explore.

• Toward a more distributed and participatory model of governance, where leadership is shared, emergent, and rooted in practice rather than formal roles.

We’re planting this next layer now—tending the soil, inviting stewards, and gently shaping the spaces that want to be born.

Introducing Our First Wave of Affinity Groups

With the scaffolding now in place, we’re excited to begin rolling out our first set of Affinity Groups—micro-communities within the Grokkist Network where grokkists can experiment and practice together around shared questions, identities, and creative edges.

Here’s what’s already taking root:

🖊️ Grokkist Writing Salon

Convened by: @Alan Raw

Realm: The Wild Margin

A generative and reflective space for writers of all stripes and stages. Whether you’re journalling your way through life, chipping away at a book, or just trying to find your voice again, this group is a place to write together, talk about writing, and explore the texture of our inner and outer worlds through language. Already underway and blooming beautifully.

🤸 PhilosophyGym

Convened by: @Jessica Böhme

Realm: The Entangled Vale

Building on the energy and insights from our recent experimental sequence, this group is a place to stretch and strengthen our philosophical muscles together. We’ll be refining the format to support robust reflection, playful sparring, and the kind of grounded, collective sensemaking that grokkists do best.

🦾 Digital Ethics Collective

Convened by: @Nathan Oglesby

Realm: The Entangled Vale

In response to the recent #🟢 AI, Humanity, and the Value of Art cafe and wider community conversations, this group is for grokkists wrestling with questions of technology, ethics, power, and human flourishing in a digital age. Less doomscrolling, more dialoguing. A space to ground big questions in thoughtful discussion and shared inquiry.

❤️‍🔥 Reimagine Education Lab

Convened by: @Richard Bennet

Realm: The Wild Margin

This group is for grokkists rethinking education—from inside and outside of institutions. It’s a space to design, dream, and deconstruct. Expect big questions, bold ideas, and practical experiments in liberating learning.

🗣️ Shoes-On Studio

Convened by: @Kendra Fee

Realm: The Wild Margin

Got something to say but still finding the right way to say it? This is a workshop space for grokkists who want to speak from the heart, sharpen their message, and build confidence in public expression. A blend of creative development, practical guidance, and mutual cheerleading.

These are just the beginning.

These new groups will begin rolling out through August—each one an experiment, an invitation, and a portal into a shared practice.

✨ Want to start an Affinity Group of your own?

If you’ve got an idea or a hunch—however formed—comment below or get in touch. We’ll shape it into something that can be shared as #Calls and Invitations to the wider community.

This is how we grow together.