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I know some of you in this Tribe do not have a Kindred in your area, so I thought you might find this information interesting. There are many ways to start/grow a Kindred, but here's what we did:
CREATE A MEETUP.COM SITE
Its a little expensive at about $20 a month, but its easy and convenient for those that aren't very web-savy. It allows you to set up events...add an "About" page...and it sends out automated reminders etc. It also ranks very high on Google and Yahoo searches. So if a solitary Heathen is looking for a group in your area, and does a search, they are sure to find you. And the final plus I can think of, is that often there are Heathens waiting for someone to start the meetup.com site. When I started mine, there were 18 heathens waiting for a meetup site here in Kansas City. Did they all pan out? No way. But of the five members of our Kindred, three of them found us from the Meetup.com site. Now that our group is established, there may come a time when we pull the Meetup site down. But it has served us well, here at the beginning.
SET UP A FIRST MEETING
I knew zero heathens in my area, and there was not an existing Kindred in my area. I was in contact with one heathen in my area by e-mail, but did not know him very well yet. We set our first Meetup at an Applebee's, and me and the one heathen I knew met a few weeks beforehand to discuss what we wanted to build and how we wanted to build it. We made sure that first meeting was positive, energetic, and organized. We figured no one would come back if we the first meeting was boring or disorganized.
PROMOTE THE MEETING
You have to do more than just set a meeting. You need to promote it. Put up signs at book stores and coffee shops, post it on message boards where you might find interested parties, and do everything you can to let everyone you know. In all of our promotional materials we made it clear we were looking for Tru Heathens, and that this was not Wicca or Wicca-tru. We made it clear we wanted to honor the Northern European Gods, our ancestors, and the Vaettir...
AT THE MEETING
At the first meeting, we made our goals very clear. We made it clear where we were headed and how we wanted to get there. We took down everyone's phone number, name, and address. We gave out handouts about Asatru and a list of good books to read. And we had fun, having great conversations about Asatru and the gods.
A SEPERATE WEBSITE
While Meetup.com is a great tool, we wanted our own website. Something that would set the tone for what we were building...and something with an active message board and losts of heathen resources. And when we eventually shut our meetup.com site down, a conventional website would be much less expensive to run.
EVENTS...LOTS OF EVENTS
If you are building a Kindred, you have to get to know the other people. You have to talk to them on the phone, e-mail them, visit their homes, invite them over to your home, etc. And Events are another good way to make sure the potential Kindred is getting together fairly often. We had Havamal study groups. A symbel at a park. A faining in one of the member's homes. And we got together for dinners and holidays. Honoring the Gods, our ancestors, and the Vaettir are a major part of being a practicing Heathen. So we did this frequently, and still do.
OFFER CLASSES AND/OR WORKSHOPS (Swain's idea, and a good one!)
Many people have not heard of Asatru or Heathenry...or they have a mistaken or distorted view of what it is. By offering classes and workshops on Asatru 101, the Gods, the Ancestors, the Vaettir, and the Runes...you can educate people about Asatru and raise interest in Asatu in your area. You could simply give a talk on what it is about Asatru that appealed to you. This can be done before the formation of the Kindred to lay the groundwork and find potential Kindred members, and it can be done once the Kindred is formed...to grow your Kindred and educate the public. These classes can be offered at local coffeeshops, new-age book stores, and even community colleges in your area. Anywhere someone will listen.
INVOLVE YOURSELF
We also involved ourselves in each others interests. One of our members likes to hunt. Many of the potential kindred members went hunting with him. One of our members plays bass in a band. We went to his shows to listen to the band and support him. If you like these people enough to form a "family" with them, then you should be willing to make the time to hang out with them, and learn about what interests them. They will in turn, learn about what interests you. And over time...you'll find you have a lot of common interests...or develop a lot of common interests.
ELIMINATE THOSE YOU CAN'T CALL FRIEND
To form a Kindred...take Oaths...symbel together, and mingle your Wyrd...you have to see the other people that are involved as interesting, talented people of worth. If they are "broken" people, with bad character...then have the fortitude to eventually eliminate them from the picture. This sounds harsh...but you are forming a "family." A "broken" person may be the very thing that destroys your efforts. This isn't about choosing people that are exactly like you...or people that always agree with you. Its about choosing to ally yourself with Heathens of worth.
TALK ABOUT WHERE YOU STAND
Talk about where you stand on your beliefs. Explore each other's POV on various topics, including controvertial topics. What topics are you unwilling to compromise about? What topics bring about disagreement within your potential Kindred? What will the Kindred stand for, and can everyone that is involved support those views? What are you going to just agree to disagree about, and will that be workable? All of these questions are important to ask, because you don't want something unspoken popping up six months later and tearing a big hole in your group.
DON'T RUSH IT
There will be a temptation to rush into forming the Kindred. Or to move too fast. Especially newbies like me will want to move way too fast. Slow it down. Get to know each other. Make sure its right. We waited six months to form our Kindred. We thought that was about right, but make up your own mind based on your situation. But just take you time, and make it right.
READ THE LORE
As a Kindred we all read the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda during the time we were forming the Kindred. We were all focused on the Lore. And this was also a good goal for all the newbies...and encouraged them to get a good foundation set by reading the Lore. Most everyone read a lot more than just the Lore...but that was the minimum.
COME UP WITH A STATEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING
Write some things down. Some basic rules. Will decisions be made by a leader, by a majority vote, or by a consensus vote? How will new members be considered, mentored, and eventually accepted into the Kindred? Will there be titles or positions within the Kindred, and will these positions have responsibilities? What will they be? Some people call it By-Laws...I liked calling it a Statement of Understanding. Whatever you call it, writing one and then coming to an agreement on its contents can avoid problems later.
MAKE IT HAPPEN
From day one, we said, "We are going to do this, and nothing will stand in our way." That served us well. When roadblocks popped up, we worked around them or drove right through them. We were not willing to accept failure, and this was important to our success.
I'm sure others have more advice, different advice, and possibly advice that comes from much more experience and wisdom. I just wanted to post our experience from our POV, in case anyone could benefit from it. I could add more, but that's enough for now...
More in-depth information on how to start a Kindred can be found at this link:
tinyurl.com/4gg9de
Mark Stinson
Jotun's Bane Kindred
Kansas City Area
www.heathengods.com
CREATE A MEETUP.COM SITE
Its a little expensive at about $20 a month, but its easy and convenient for those that aren't very web-savy. It allows you to set up events...add an "About" page...and it sends out automated reminders etc. It also ranks very high on Google and Yahoo searches. So if a solitary Heathen is looking for a group in your area, and does a search, they are sure to find you. And the final plus I can think of, is that often there are Heathens waiting for someone to start the meetup.com site. When I started mine, there were 18 heathens waiting for a meetup site here in Kansas City. Did they all pan out? No way. But of the five members of our Kindred, three of them found us from the Meetup.com site. Now that our group is established, there may come a time when we pull the Meetup site down. But it has served us well, here at the beginning.
SET UP A FIRST MEETING
I knew zero heathens in my area, and there was not an existing Kindred in my area. I was in contact with one heathen in my area by e-mail, but did not know him very well yet. We set our first Meetup at an Applebee's, and me and the one heathen I knew met a few weeks beforehand to discuss what we wanted to build and how we wanted to build it. We made sure that first meeting was positive, energetic, and organized. We figured no one would come back if we the first meeting was boring or disorganized.
PROMOTE THE MEETING
You have to do more than just set a meeting. You need to promote it. Put up signs at book stores and coffee shops, post it on message boards where you might find interested parties, and do everything you can to let everyone you know. In all of our promotional materials we made it clear we were looking for Tru Heathens, and that this was not Wicca or Wicca-tru. We made it clear we wanted to honor the Northern European Gods, our ancestors, and the Vaettir...
AT THE MEETING
At the first meeting, we made our goals very clear. We made it clear where we were headed and how we wanted to get there. We took down everyone's phone number, name, and address. We gave out handouts about Asatru and a list of good books to read. And we had fun, having great conversations about Asatru and the gods.
A SEPERATE WEBSITE
While Meetup.com is a great tool, we wanted our own website. Something that would set the tone for what we were building...and something with an active message board and losts of heathen resources. And when we eventually shut our meetup.com site down, a conventional website would be much less expensive to run.
EVENTS...LOTS OF EVENTS
If you are building a Kindred, you have to get to know the other people. You have to talk to them on the phone, e-mail them, visit their homes, invite them over to your home, etc. And Events are another good way to make sure the potential Kindred is getting together fairly often. We had Havamal study groups. A symbel at a park. A faining in one of the member's homes. And we got together for dinners and holidays. Honoring the Gods, our ancestors, and the Vaettir are a major part of being a practicing Heathen. So we did this frequently, and still do.
OFFER CLASSES AND/OR WORKSHOPS (Swain's idea, and a good one!)
Many people have not heard of Asatru or Heathenry...or they have a mistaken or distorted view of what it is. By offering classes and workshops on Asatru 101, the Gods, the Ancestors, the Vaettir, and the Runes...you can educate people about Asatru and raise interest in Asatu in your area. You could simply give a talk on what it is about Asatru that appealed to you. This can be done before the formation of the Kindred to lay the groundwork and find potential Kindred members, and it can be done once the Kindred is formed...to grow your Kindred and educate the public. These classes can be offered at local coffeeshops, new-age book stores, and even community colleges in your area. Anywhere someone will listen.
INVOLVE YOURSELF
We also involved ourselves in each others interests. One of our members likes to hunt. Many of the potential kindred members went hunting with him. One of our members plays bass in a band. We went to his shows to listen to the band and support him. If you like these people enough to form a "family" with them, then you should be willing to make the time to hang out with them, and learn about what interests them. They will in turn, learn about what interests you. And over time...you'll find you have a lot of common interests...or develop a lot of common interests.
ELIMINATE THOSE YOU CAN'T CALL FRIEND
To form a Kindred...take Oaths...symbel together, and mingle your Wyrd...you have to see the other people that are involved as interesting, talented people of worth. If they are "broken" people, with bad character...then have the fortitude to eventually eliminate them from the picture. This sounds harsh...but you are forming a "family." A "broken" person may be the very thing that destroys your efforts. This isn't about choosing people that are exactly like you...or people that always agree with you. Its about choosing to ally yourself with Heathens of worth.
TALK ABOUT WHERE YOU STAND
Talk about where you stand on your beliefs. Explore each other's POV on various topics, including controvertial topics. What topics are you unwilling to compromise about? What topics bring about disagreement within your potential Kindred? What will the Kindred stand for, and can everyone that is involved support those views? What are you going to just agree to disagree about, and will that be workable? All of these questions are important to ask, because you don't want something unspoken popping up six months later and tearing a big hole in your group.
DON'T RUSH IT
There will be a temptation to rush into forming the Kindred. Or to move too fast. Especially newbies like me will want to move way too fast. Slow it down. Get to know each other. Make sure its right. We waited six months to form our Kindred. We thought that was about right, but make up your own mind based on your situation. But just take you time, and make it right.
READ THE LORE
As a Kindred we all read the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda during the time we were forming the Kindred. We were all focused on the Lore. And this was also a good goal for all the newbies...and encouraged them to get a good foundation set by reading the Lore. Most everyone read a lot more than just the Lore...but that was the minimum.
COME UP WITH A STATEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING
Write some things down. Some basic rules. Will decisions be made by a leader, by a majority vote, or by a consensus vote? How will new members be considered, mentored, and eventually accepted into the Kindred? Will there be titles or positions within the Kindred, and will these positions have responsibilities? What will they be? Some people call it By-Laws...I liked calling it a Statement of Understanding. Whatever you call it, writing one and then coming to an agreement on its contents can avoid problems later.
MAKE IT HAPPEN
From day one, we said, "We are going to do this, and nothing will stand in our way." That served us well. When roadblocks popped up, we worked around them or drove right through them. We were not willing to accept failure, and this was important to our success.
I'm sure others have more advice, different advice, and possibly advice that comes from much more experience and wisdom. I just wanted to post our experience from our POV, in case anyone could benefit from it. I could add more, but that's enough for now...
More in-depth information on how to start a Kindred can be found at this link:
tinyurl.com/4gg9de
Mark Stinson
Jotun's Bane Kindred
Kansas City Area
www.heathengods.com
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