Community Clubs Platform

Build a community clubs platform modeled on BuildIRL, a club management platform created in San Francisco (est. 2025) by Saumya Gupta and Colton Heward-Mills (founders, vision, and design) with Michael Li (lead developer), Kiran Prasad, and Erin Beachkofski — open-sourced in 2026 and stewarded by the Relational Tech Project. It's a place where organizers start real-world clubs and neighbors find their people. The platform handles the unglamorous parts of running a club — applications, dues, member emails — so leaders can spend their energy on actually gathering. It should feel celebratory and personal, like being welcomed into a club run by a friend, not like enterprise membership software. Everything points toward meeting in real life.

Core Features

Discover Clubs

• A public discover page — "Find your people, build meaningful connections" — with searchable club cards by name and location.
• Every club gets a warm public profile: photos, a tagline, "Who We Are," "How We Hang" (when, where, and how often they meet), values, FAQs, and member count.
• Visitors can follow a club they're curious about without committing. And if nothing fits: "Don't see what you want? Build one!"

Joining Is an Application, Not a Checkout

• Clubs offer membership tiers — free or paid (monthly, quarterly, and so on) — each describing its benefits and what the contribution makes possible, in plain words.
• The application flow is encouraging from the first screen ("Let's see if we're a fit!"): the club's own custom questions, an opt-in toggle to share your email with club leads, then payment details with a reassurance: "Don't worry — you won't be charged until you're officially in."
• Club leads review every application personally. Clubs are curated communities, not open signups.
• Acceptance is a celebration: confetti, "YOU'VE BEEN APPROVED!", and a shareable "proud member" page with the new member's name and face that doubles as an invitation for friends to apply.

Club Leadership Tools

• Start a club in under a minute: name, location, web address.
• A management dashboard in plain tabs: edit the public page, set up membership tiers, write application questions, review pending applicants (read their answers, accept or decline), and see active members.
• Connect a payment account (e.g., Stripe) so dues go straight to the club; members can change tiers or leave anytime — easy exit is part of trust.
• Communication: customizable acceptance, decline, and farewell email templates, plus one-off email blasts to all members.
• Sign in by emailed one-time code, no passwords. Email sharing with leads is opt-in; profiles show only what members choose.

Neighborhood Remix Ideas (from Sunset IRL, Josh Nesbit's Outer Sunset remix of BuildIRL)

• Not everything is a "club": let groups pick a type — crew, club, pod, block network, one-off, seasonal — each with sensible defaults for privacy, size, and dues. The tone to set: "You don't need permission to gather."
• "Start something — three people and a date": starting a group should take a minute, not a board meeting.
• Campaigns: any group — or the neighborhood itself — can rally toward a goal (a bench fund, zine printing) or a founding-member drive ("5 neighbors needed to launch"), with a public progress bar everyone can watch.
• A community calendar across every group, and gatherings with simple RSVPs ("yes / maybe / no").
• A quiet live activity ticker — "🌿 Maria joined the Mahjong Club" — so the neighborhood can feel its own momentum.
• A second payment rail: alongside automated dues, let groups choose person-to-person payments (Venmo/Zelle links that the steward marks as received). Dues are a commitment ritual, not a transaction — "the steward saw your Venmo and said thanks at the next gathering" is a feature, not a shortcut.

UI / UX Guidelines

• Style: warm and a little bold — beige background, strong black borders with hard offset shadows (a friendly zine-print feel), a lilac accent, celebratory illustrations at milestone moments.
• Typography: a geometric display font for headings (e.g., Unbounded), a clean sans for body (e.g., Work Sans). Let each club pick its own theme fonts and colors so its page feels like its own.
• Tone: exuberant and human — "YOU ROCK!", "Let's Do This!", confetti at the finish line. Joining is "applying," dues are "contributions," and every approval is a moment.
• Mobile-first: most people arrive from a link a friend shared.

Example User Stories

• A newcomer searches clubs in her city, follows two, applies to a run club, and gets the confetti welcome two days later.
• An organizer starts a supper club, writes three application questions ("What would you cook for six strangers?"), sets a $10/month tier, and approves her first eight members from her phone.
• A new member shares his "proud member" page in a group chat; two friends apply through it that week.
• Three neighbors on 47th Avenue start a block network in a minute — no dues, just a name and a first date — and it shows up on the neighborhood calendar that night.
• A club rallies toward "50 members by December 1" with a public progress bar showing that dues cover the meeting space.