Men’s Circle BCN

A new structure for creating more trust, value and commitment

Brief introduction

Dear Men’s Circle BCN member,

The BCN Men’s Circle has been running for approximately 9 months now. Starting with just
two attendees in its early days, the group has now expanded to around 70 members with an
average of 10 people attending the weekly Open Sharing Sessions. This is an amazing
achievement and we want to thank you all for showing up, sharing and supporting other
members in their struggles and journeys to becoming better men. It has been a remarkable
growth.

As in life, with every new phase come changes. As the community is growing and sessions
are more frequented by visitors, we need to think together how we can maintain the intimacy,
trust and value of the sessions, and the community as a whole. This document has been set
up to inform you of some changes we want to make to the structure of the Men’s Circle BCN,
the value it offers to its members, and how it offers this value.

In this document you will find a draft proposition for the future of the Men’s Circle. It is still a
draft that gives you a first impression of the road that we think is best for the community.

We ask you to carefully read this document and fill out the questionnaire that is attached at
the bottom, so we can involve you in the process and design a structure and offering that is
well aligned with the needs and desires of you, the members.

Thanks for investing time in this. This will be of tremendous value to us (the organisers), the
community and your own personal journey.
Men’s Circle BCN
What is it?
An inspiring space where men get together to connect, share, learn and above all grow into
more complete and fulfilled men.

Mission
To provide men with the tools, resources and support to accelerate them in their growth

Objectives
● To create higher level of trust and intimacy in sessions so people can share more
freely
● To broaden the value offered to members
● To bring in the element of growth in the group

How will we achieve this?

In parallel to the current Men’s Circle Open Sharing Session on Tuesdays we will form a
Men’s Circle Closed Community. The Closed Circle represents the members with high
involvement and commitment towards themselves, the community and other members. The
Closed Circle will be a community of the most active and committed members, and offer
additional value compared to Open Circle. This will include:

● Closed Sharing Circles: smaller groups of 6-8 people that run for a predefined
period of time. During this period no new people can enter the group. This will enable
more trust and intimacy among the members to share more deeply with people you
know and trust.
● Growth Clubs: closed groups of 4-5 people that learn and grow together over a 5
month period.
● Social activities: Bimonthly social activities

Closed Sharing Circles

The Closed Sharing Circles will be very similar in set-up as the Open Sharing Circles, with a
few key differences:
● Groups will consist of 6-8 people
● Groups will meet every one or two weeks
● Groups will remain the same over the period they run. No new people can enter.
● Groups will run for 3 months (during these months no new people can join the Circle)

We believe this will create the level of trust and intimacy required for real vulnerability and
sharing in the group. Also, with less people in the group each person has more time to share
and receive support.

Growth Clubs
Growth Clubs are spaces for self-directed learning and growth in group form. Growth Clubs
consist of 4 members (peers or learners) and a facilitator (optional), and runs for 5 months.
The members define their own learning and growth goals, and pursue these goals over the
course of the period. The idea behind a Growth Club is that with the feedback, support and
accountability provided by the group, an individual can learn and grow faster. The program
and sessions of a Growth Club are structured to facilitate this accelerated growth.

The Men’s Circle aims to include Growth Clubs as part of the offering to the Closed Circle
members. Within a Growth Club each person is working on personal goals that he has set
for himself. A Growth Club can therefore bring together people with different goals and
aspirations, or can be focused on a specific topic/thematic. These could include:

● Dating & Women

● Masculinity
● Mindfulness
● Social skills
● Business
● Child-Parent relationships

During a Growth Club you will set goals for yourself that gradually push you out of your
comfort zone and create growth within the areas you most need it, with support of a group. It
is a very powerful way to overcome obstacles and ensure the growth that you desire.

We will start a Growth Club Pilot in January which runs for 3 months. This is a great way to
get introduced and experience the workings and benefits of a Growth Club.

Social Activities
The third value offered to members of the closed circle are social activities. Several
members have expressed the desire to have social activities outside of the weekly Sharing
Circles to bond and connect with fellow members. We will offer two social activities per
month announced at the beginning of each month. These social activities can include:
● Picnics
● Drinks
● Dinners
● Hiking
● Games (pool, darts, bowling, …)
● Morning ocean dips
● Mini-retreats
● City exploration
● Etc.

Commitment
Being part of the Closed Circle requires a higher commitment than being a member of the
Open Circle. Some guidelines will be set for this, e.g. to attend on average at least two
Sharing Circle sessions a month.

Growth Club’s are high commitment clubs, where you commit to attending the monthly or
bimonthly progress meetings, and between meetings you commit to achieve the goals you
set for yourself. These are great spaces to grow fast.
There is no requirement for attending Social Activities, but since these are fun we highly
recommend you to attend these and bond with fellow brothers.

Pricing
Open Circle is free of charge and open for anyone to attend.

Closed Circle fee: 20 EUR/month. This gives access to the Sharing Circles and Social
Activities.

Growth Clubs: 50 EUR/month per person + 50 EUR/month deposit. A deposit is charged for
the Growth Clubs to ensure commitment of the members. If you attend all sessions you will
receive the deposit back at the end of the period. Every session you miss, or failing to
accomplish any of the goals you set out to do, will cost you 25 euro.

The idea of charging money is not to make money. The main motivation for charging money
is simple, paying members are committed members. It is a way to ensure that the members
signing up to Growth Clubs are committed and motivated to grow, because ultimately what
we want are committed members. All income generated from Closed Circle (minus costs for
paying facilitators, if necessary) is set aside to either cover expenses for sessions (drinks,
space rental (if needed), etc.) or used for social activities. The money will get back to you in
some way. Nobody on the organising team is earning money from this.