I happened across this article about "Arranged Friendships". In it, the author states that she felt lonely after moving to a new state as an adult and not being able to make friends. She tried PTA, book club, etc to meet new friends without success. Then she realized that, in her home country of Iran, they arrange marriages. So why not friendships? Her experiment was successful and the idea has expanded.
In reading this, I thought to myself that it sounded vaguely similar to GLOs. We meet people for a short amount of time and then invite them into the group under the premise that, in time, a bond will form and friendships will develop. The difference, I suppose, are the membership dues portion; but I still think the premise is very similar.
I clicked through one of the related links in the article to the author's original article about "How to" nuts of bolts of how arranged friendship works. To my surprise (or maybe not), this sounded suspiciously familiar to GLO recruitment to those of us in GLOs. The second article outlines the following:
1) Come up with a plan (generate membership selection criteria)
2) Begin identifying your candidates (seeking people who fit in with the chapter)
3) Perform a commitment ceremony (pledge ceremony anyone?)
4) Utilize the power of rituals as glue (GLOs have plenty!)
5) Tap into pleasure as a sustainable fuel (doing fun things together)
6) Be honest (shouldn't we all?)
Have a read of these two articles and tell me what you make of them!
Arranged Friendships:
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/havi...111500050.html
The How-to Article:
https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/pl...al-friendships
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