About the club · The Party & the Lodge
Nobody Sets Out Alone
Each Expedition sets out with a party, everyone on the same morning, each on a course of their own. Around them is the Lodge, where members share what they've been through and write back to each other.
You become like the people you spend your days with. Out here, they're people who are trying things.
- Your party
- Everyone who sets out with you
- The Lodge
- Where members talk
- What's shared
- Only what you choose
- Who answers
- People, mostly. Kip sits in.
In the Lodge
Someone Tells a Tale, and People Write Back
I finally stopped waiting to feel ready. Sat in the car, engine off, hands shaking, and just started before I could talk myself out of it. A month ago I’d have called that reckless. Turns out “ready” was never coming, and the starting is what makes it come.
Rosa, I keep a note stuck to my desk that just says “go while you’re scared.” Your post is the whole idea.
Oh, I needed to read this today. “Go while you’re scared” is going straight on my dashboard. Thank you.
An example of a Lodge exchange. The real ones stay between explorers.
Sharing
How far each thing you write travels · you choose, every time
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Keep it as a Field Note
Only you and Kip read it.
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Tell your Expedition party
The people who set out with you, and nobody else.
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Tell the whole club
Every member can read it in the Lodge, and Kip may pass it on.
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Leave my name off it
For a tale you want told but not signed.
Nobody can tell you whether a room is the right place to say a tender thing. You decide that, one tale at a time, and what you told your party stays with your party: nothing is ever opened up later to people it wasn't written for.
From the campfire
What It's Like Out There
I really like the emails and feel happy when they come through. I read them, don't skim. The 'Around the Campfire' section is my favorite. I enjoy reading other peoples' stories as if we are all relating to each other. It feels intimate and friendly.
T. Benson
I'm grateful for this expedition, for the inspiration and encouragement I received from everyone else who joined, and I look forward to what we all do next! x
T. Benson
The club's common room
What's in the Lodge
The tales. Every Trail Tale you're allowed to read is on the table, what's new to you first, and dealt so that no one voice fills the room. You answer a tale where it lies.
The departure board. Before each Expedition, everyone's plan goes up as a luggage label, and the party writes on each other's before the ship sails.
The notice board. For conversations that aren't tales, and for asking the club for a hand when you need one.
Kip. He sits in, and writes to the club about each Expedition as it goes. The last word on a tale almost always belongs to a person.
Inner Isles Explorers Club
Questions About the Party & the Lodge
- Do I have to share anything?
- No. Field Notes are private, and sharing is a second step you take on purpose, when you want to.
- Who's in my party?
- Everyone who sets out on the same Expedition as you, each sailing for an Isle of their own. You'll meet their labels on the departure board before the ship leaves.
- What if someone is unkind?
- Any note can be reported, and a person at the club reads every report. The community guidelines say what the club expects of everyone in it.
Something else? Email [email protected]. Matt reads every note.
The next Expedition
The December Expedition sets out Tuesday, December 1.
Join the Club
Four weeks on one part of your life, with a party of fellow explorers and Kip, and every Expedition after it.
Or see what a month is like first, on the Crossing.
Not sure it's for you? Talk it over with Kip first.
Membership is $50 a month or $500 a year, with a 75-day refund. Nobody loses their place here because of money: makes it half, or free.