Benefits
- Experience being heard and seen by other men who do not belittle what you’re up to, what you feel, or what you think.
- Create and re-create your purpose on an ongoing basis.
- Be held accountable for who you say you want to be.
- Explore what it means to be a man.
- Confidentiality: what is shared in the group, stays in the group.
Background
I have run a successful Men’s Group (see above) for over two years, across 47 meetups and counting.
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It was a lot of work, at the beginning… because I was reading several long guides and trying to get all the details down across all of them… just to run a single meeting.
— A Circle of Men? 172 pages. — Men’s Group Field Guide? 71 pages. — Men’s Group Leadership? 63 pages. (All reviewed at bottom of this page)
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I did also find short guides… but they were TOO short. Like… nothing to go off at all. (Talk Club sounds great… you meet up with just a single question in mind. But I personally still wanted a little more to go off of.)
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So I read through these long guides. And it wasn’t just casual reading. It was studying; cross-referencing; writing; planning.
I felt anxious starting my group. But I knew I had to and so I pushed through.
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But… once I finally got it rolling… I realized it wasn’t difficult at all; and that there could have been much less effort and anxiety in getting it going in the first place.
That’s why I put together these Quick Start materials.
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These materials have been forged through both my studies and experience. (With significant collaboration from the great men who are in our group.)
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Starting a men’s group need not be stressful. It can, in fact, be quite stress-relieving. For you… and for unknown men in your area, some of whom are quite lonely, desperate, and depending on you to kick this off.
If you made it this far, we hope that you give it a shot…
Quick Start Materials
Quick Start Materials:
Carefully developed by Men Are Great World
- Meeting Outline – Template
Fill in the [brackets]; print enough copies for everyone; and you’re set to run your meeting! This straightforward and succinct template can be used for every meeting indefinitely!
- Meeting Outlines – Completed
Get your group off to a great start with these optional full meeting instructions. Nothing to fill in or change (unless you feel like it).Included: 8-week intro playbook…. 8 distinct outlines to kickstart your first 8 gatherings; plus “Tom’s Fav’s”… 3 bonus outlines of Tom’s favorite Men’s Group sessions he has run. — All outlines tested and proven in Men’s Group, for fostering personal growth and meaningful connections.
- Practical Matters for the Initial Leader(s)
How is the meeting best run? When should we meet? Where should we meet? What should I write to attract potential members?
(Optionally) Check These Guides Out Too:
To stay well-rounded, it can be beneficial to check out what other Men’s Group guides say in addition to our own materials.
In particular, most men’s guides are much more detailed… and provide way more options… than anything that we have created.
(We have purposefully avoided getting into nitty gritty details and options on our own materials… because we believe… starting a men’s group… can falsely start to seem overwhelming or even impossible… when you get too into all that. Not to mention, that it’s better to keep things simple anyway.)
That all said, you may wish to skim through, or read fully… 1 or 2 other guides out there. Perhaps you will find a practical nugget of wisdom in them; or perhaps you will even decide that their guide should be the main one you use, and you can use ours as the backup for a nugget of wisdom.
It’s very much optional, but if you feel inclined, here are a few options, all created by men with plentiful experience in running men’s groups 🤓. I have read all of these myself; they are great, but in each there are also at least a few things I slightly disagree with.
- A Circle of Men
by Bill Kauth / ManKind+ classic and well-tested;
– says you should aim to keep your group to similar age and interests (huh? it’s better to have plentiful diversity)
- Men’s Group Field Guide
by Brett Churnin
+ created by the well-rounded and dedicated man… who also runs the powerful Men’s Group facebook group… and has given presentations on men’s groups… etc.+ this guide was instrumental in teaching me personally how to run a men’s group
– sometimes he doesn’t send his guide right away when you request it… (and his men’s group directory is also no longer updated)… busy man nowadays.
– a couple items are accidentally not inclusive of gay/bi men… such as the “Well Being” supplemental material, which assumes that romance only occurs in “relationship to women.”
- Men’s Group Leadership
by Paddy Murray+ Thorough; Paddy has lots of experience… he also is a leader in the aforementioned Men’s Group facebook group.
– Occasionally a little hippie dippy… but only occasionally. For example, “the person to be healed lies down in a comfortable position and other men sit or kneel around him and put their hands on him and offer energetic and compassionate healing…” Then again, maybe a little hippy-dippy is good sometimes 🙂
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Noteworthy, though I have less experience with them:
- ManKind Project is a well-established org that has men’s groups running through them, and which also provides some guidance on starting one.
- In the UK, Andy’s Man Club has a lot of men’s groups. But as far as I can tell, they do not offer training to start your own.