The Beginnings

After its inception last school year the club has seen a steady membership and the variaty of activities keeps increasing.  Born from the desire of a few students to support one another in having healthy relationships with the opposite sex, the club's meetings have widely broaden.  The discernment process took a few months wavering between exclusive and wide open club to intimate Christian Life Community we finally decided to opt for an exclusive club open to new members (!).

We now meet weekly at lunch in "The Lodge", my (lightly-altered-man-cave-classroom).  Attendance is not mandatory but a slight pressure to be present is felt among the guys.  Numbers vary from a dozen to over thirty at times.  We have a core of seniors who have the unofficial status of founding fathers among whom we have an official president, a couple of semi-official VPs and a chaplain.  Also showing up are a good number of very committed underclassmen of every level and some guys who show up to just check  things out.  There is an obvious but informal hierachy made obvious by the authority they project in discussions, faithfulness of attendance, seniority and the place they sit at meetings (couch, table or desks).

Lunchtime meetings fall in one of the four following categories:

1) Discussion
2) Workshop
3) Guest Speaker
4) Business

1)  Discussions revolve mainly around relationships, girls, sexuality, etc.  Topics of discussion have included:  "How far is too far?"  "What do girls want?"  "How do I break up with my girlfriend?"  "How do you know she is the one?",  . . .  The format includes reading a passage from Jason Evert's Pure Manhood and discuss it under my more or less involved guidance.

2)  Workshop entails hands on activities.  How to with the practice.  "How to jump start a car." "How to whistle with your fingers."  "How to shave like your granddpa."  "How to change a tire."  Various members of the community have served as masters in these activities: counsellors, maintenance personel, other teachers, . . .   Some of the ideas for these come from the artofmanliness.com website.

3)  Guest speakers are experts in a certain field who come to present some of their expertise that could be inspiring to our young men.  A USMC major came to talk about the role of a man to be a warrior and protector, our own teachers have volunteered to come speak on "Manly characters in literature" or "How is a gentleman a good steward of his finances".

4) Rare are business meetings.  They are usually for officers or founding fathers.  We try not to hold these meetings on Thursdays.