From JOIN OR DIE to JOIN 101
From the team behind the documentary JOIN OR DIE, JOIN 101 shares tools for the next American joining revolution.
Hi friends of JOIN OR DIE,
We recently found a one-line email we wrote to ourselves in March 2016:
“check in about robert putnam doc.”
It reminded us that as we head into the new year, we are also heading into the next decade of JOIN OR DIE’s journey. Many of you who receive this newsletter have been with us since the early days, when that one-line email turned into a cluster of ideas scribbled on a few scraps of paper…
…and then into a full proposal.
Others of you are some of the over a hundred people whose hands touched this film’s production…
…post-production…
…and festival and theatrical roll out.
And many of you have joined us in the past two years as partners in spreading the message of the film to communities around the world.
As we enter this new decade, we are excited to announce the next chapter of the film’s story: JOIN 101, a popular education project aimed at providing tools to spark and serve the next American joining revolution.
If JOIN OR DIE provided some answers to the “Why?” and the “What next?” — JOIN 101 is here to help with the “How?”
Throughout the coming year, on our new Join 101 Substack and website (coming in early 2026 to Join101.org), we will be posting dozens of supplemental materials aiming to deepen viewers’ engagement with the theory and practice of community building, social capital, and associational life. This includes:
Action tool kits for cultivating civic life in your city
Hours of never-before-seen interviews from our film’s featured experts
Fact sheets, charts, and summaries of various concepts in civic theory and practice
Syllabi of readings for those who want to learn more (or, even better, start community-building book and article clubs with others!)
Inspiring examples of clubs from America’s joining history to help spark ideas for bolstering a culture of joining today
…and most importantly, we will be highlighting stories from many of you — the amazing network of club founders we have met over the past years touring JOIN OR DIE!
One important note on this transition: Our community screening tour continues! We will continue using community screenings (500 and counting!) as our main tool for pulling people into this work — only now with more resources available to those who attend our screenings. If you are interested in learning more about how to bring JOIN OR DIE to your community, head over to JoinOrDieFilm.com and click Host a Screening.
We can’t thank you enough for all your support over this past decade, and are looking forward to building this next chapter together.
Rebecca Davis and Pete Davis
P.S. In honor of this ten year mark (and in anticipation of more to come!), here are ten of our favorite initiatives that the film has helped spark:
1. In Ohio, Leadership Ohio created a multi-city “Join In” tour across the state to spark joining ahead of America’s 250th.
2. In Vermont, an app to support club organizers was built.
3. In Colorado, forty men started meeting up monthly to support each other’s health journeys.
4. In Philadelphia, Join Philly was launched to build civic infrastructure for the city’s clubs (and Join ATL is bringing the model to Atlanta).
5. In Connecticut, a club directory was published in Norwalk.
6. In DC, a community calendar was organized.
7. There have been “Joining Fairs” hosted in Kingston, NY, Arlington, VA, De Pere, WI, Grosse Pointe, MI, Vermillion, SD, and many more cities around the country.
8. In Missouri, an effort to organize a new Rotary Club was launched.
9. In New Jersey, the OceanFirst foundation established a grant program specifically focused on promoting local joining.
10. In Pueblo, Colorado, a local newspaper created ClubCon, a convention and digital hub for finding local clubs and organizations.