Timeline: our first year

April

Antinormality Club soft launches, with the aim of recruiting 10 members in 3 months.

May

Within two weeks of launching, 30 people have applied to join the club. We abandon plans for further launch promotion and focus on supporting our growing membership.

We publish our guiding principles, including our commitment to learning, accountability and collective liberation.

June

Our launch meetings are held, in which members explore their hopes and needs for the space.

We develop our club agreement, outlining how we’ll make the club a place where everyone can belong.

July

We trial our monthly meeting structure, which combines themed discussion with open space to give and receive support.

August

We take a break from meeting, so we can invest in developing the systems and policies we need to support collaboration.

This includes launching a new email platform and building an online space where members share resources, access all meeting documentation, and input into future development.

September

Monthly meetings resume. We launch three collectives to share out the work of running the club: facilitation, organisational development, and communications.

October

We trial our first action space, for members who want to take collective action to transform our mental health system.

November

We are invited to write about the club for Asylum, the radical mental health magazine, and our article is chosen as a featured sample.

We hold our second action space meeting and agree to work on a shared manifesto for change in mental health.

December

Through word-of-mouth alone, Antinormality Club now has over 90 members in 11 countries.

We publish a blog sharing our learning from the year and a collaborative zine exploring our experiences of the club.