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People. People are the "humanists" in transhumanists, the active agents that work to bring about desired changes like the alleviation of suffering, cures for diseases, extended quality and quantity of life, emerging technologies, and productive discourse on the ethics of all this technological change.

If you want to start a local transhumanist club, your first concern will be about how to bring like-minded, open-minded, and even critical people together. What follows are resources that may help for this admittedly difficult first step.

Keep in mind that it is up to you to do the legwork. If you are interested in starting a local club, the weight will fall upon you, at least at first. If you have suggestions on how h+ can help you with this first step, please let us know by writing to hchapters@hplusclub.com.

Meetup screenshot

Search for people interested in transhumanism or other topics already signed up on Meetup.com using the site's handy search tool.

Meetup.com and other events sites are designed specifically for this task. For example, Meetup.com costs US$72.00 every six months for a leader to create and maintain up to three separate clubs. Clubs and people are matched by interest, so begin your search for potential club members using the handy search tools on Meetup.com and other services. Search your local area for people (and other existing clubs) interested in topics like transhumanism, artificial intelligence, cryonics, futurism, bioethics, cybernetics, nantech, emergence, neuroscience, even space exploration. You can also try group services like Yahoo! Groups, Google Groups, and even craigslist (their "groups" and "events" sections might indicate other interested parties in your area.)

Discussion forum are another category of sites to gage interest and find potential club members. Websites like Immortality Institute, the Methuselah Foundation, Alcor United, the Cold Filter, and many more are available for networking and announcing your desire to start a club. The first h+ chapter - h+ Tucson - had its start with a personal message between two Tucson residents on the Immortality Institute forum.

A local community club and a university club might be very different. For example, the former may include a wider demographic of residents, perhaps skewing slightly older, while the latter may skew much younger. However, reaching out to local universities and schools, no matter what type of club you turn out to be, may be quite worthwhile, and you may discover a latent interest there. Consider posting flyers (follow the school's requirements) on campus, placing an add in the school's newspaper, or set up a Facebook or Myspace Group (these currently tend to attract a lot of college students.)

h+ Flyers

Flyers are helpful for drawing new members to your meetings. H+ Gallery has many flyers for sharing, printing, and inspiring.

Flyers elsewhere in the community may also be useful. Are there bulletin boards at the local libraries or bookstores, trendy coffee shops or health food shops, gyms or elsewhere? Flyers around the University of Arizona worked very well for h+ Tucson, though I have to admit it was one of our least favorite marketing attempts because of the time and legwork required. Still, even a few flyers posted quickly and occasionally might lead to a few new members. If you need ideas, h+ Gallery has a specific section for flyers. You can even use many of them; some have template files you can download, add your own information, and then print out.

Even if you do not find anyone to join your club right away, you may consider starting up your web presence immediately, so that any local people searching for just your type of club find you. H+ of course offers a free club website setup using WordPress, and we can always do that right away, even before you are sure you will have even that first meeting (the nice thing about modern web technology is how fast it is to put up a website, AND how fast it is to take it back down.) You can also start up your club on Meetup.com while waiting for people to sign up, create your group for free on Yahoo! or Google Groups, or, if you have your own mad website skills, put a site up yourself. The point is, get something out there for people to find. The club might not start up right away but at least there will be a web presence available for the curious to stumble upon.

Make a meeting easy for people to attend, and you will be surprised by the turnout. If at first there are few if any members, just hold on. It took over a year for h+ Tucson to increase attendance beyond a handful of members. Even if you do not hear from people right away, consider taking the time to find a good location and set up that first meeting. Pick a date, put out notice wherever you can think above, including all the websites and locations mentioned above, and then hold the first meeting. Maybe no one will show up. Maybe people will stop by to see what things are like.

H+ will continue to work on making this process faster and easier, for leaders trying to start a club, and for local people looking for others interested in the same topics. Best success with your continued efforts!