The Junto

We might be compelled to think that our network on Friday mornings is something new and different. In the context of what is currently available and accessible in Dublin then yes it is. However some recent research has pointed me towards Benjamin Franklin, who in 1727 convened the first meeting of a dozen friends and associates who would meet every week for the next thirty years. "I had form'd most of me ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement", which he called the JUNTO. In the days before formal education, learning came not from teachers or textbooks but from one's social network. . The Junto was part mutual aid society, part social fraternity, part academy, it's motivation was self - improvement, the wish to do good that would also bring them advantages or even profit.

Juntos are not the only precursor to what we do each week. Napoleon Hill in his odd but long lived book Think and Grow Rich, Hill advocated what he callewd the Master Mind - a collection of people aspiring to help each other think and grow rich. Richard Boles in What colour is your parachute advocated the Job Club as a means of support and inspiration for Worksearchers.

The social network or club is not a new thing, however what we can learn is that the collective will and mind can achieve great things. People have used networks and clubs for a long time to support their goals and interests. One word of warning though, ask your self are you a Radiator or a Drain!