An Army of Normal Folks - Experimenting With Local Chapters

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

For Shop Talk, we explore the idea of potentially experimenting with a few local chapters of the Army this year. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney with An Army of Normal Folks. Welcome to Shop Talk number 57. Welcome into the shop. Hey Alex, how you doing? I'm doing great, Bill. You looking at anything in particular or just hanging around taking up space? I need to buy some cigars before I go on a two week trip. How about that?

That that's a good call. Yeah, that's a good call. They're back in the humidor. You can pick them out in a minute today. Our body. We're shop talk number 57. We're going to talk about experimenting with local chapters and we hope to inspire and encourage some of you guys to get involved. So Alex and I are going to have a little chat in front of you guys with talking about experimenting

with local chapters, an idea that I think some of you might be interested in. So we'll do that right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. In 2012, 16-year-old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice. The call was horrible. I replayed over my head all the time. For years, Brian's family kept asking questions while a culture of silence kept the case cold. Snitches get stitches. Everybody knows it. Still, they refused to give up. I would ask my husband, do you want me to just let this go? He said, no, keep fighting. I told her I would never give up

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Following their story has led us to lucrative contracts, failing safety standards, and secretive political relationships. As we ask, why were those men left to die? This is Pipeline. Episodes are released weekly. Search for Pipeline on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everybody, welcome back to the shop number 57, experimenting with local chapters. As everybody knows that listens to regularly, Alex Cortez, our producer is a wonderful guy

and he does a beautiful job preparing me for all the interviews and doing all the work and getting all the guests into a studio here in Memphis and all that we do. But he's also kind of nuts. And you are your little nuts. And he has come up with an idea that seems to be getting some traction with a lot of listeners. And so we're going to toss it out there for some of you to consider as well so shop talk number 57 Alex is screaming with local chapters what in God's green earth is going between your ears I hate these kind of episodes where I have to talk a lot but bless your heart here we go you know not everyone's

won an Oscar and is you know a paid speaker and like yeah but I keep getting these emails about how people feel sorry for you because I pick on you too much. So now's your redemption time. Oh man. All right. So as you guys know, most of our impact to date has been by people listening to the podcast, consuming the content on social media, our email lists, and then deciding to take action

on your own. But what if we can do more than that, too? And so the idea is to launch local chapters where army members can get together in a community and take action together. And as some folks are probably familiar with, there has been a huge decline of civic clubs like this in the country. I was going to say, it almost feels like the Optimist Club or the Moose Club or something.

Yeah. Is that what you're idea? Rotary Lions Club. Rotary Lions, all those things. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're not trying to do exactly what everybody else has done. So that's not the point of it, too.

And bigger picture in the country, some people probably know about Robert Putnam's book, Bowling Alone. Have you ever actually read it, Bill? No. You need to, though. It very much relates to it. I know. I know you got a lot on your plate right now. Yeah. Yeah, we can't talk about that on read it, Bill? No. You need to, though. It very much relates to. I know. I know.

I know you got a lot on your plate right now. Yeah. Yeah, we can't talk about that on the air, right? No. OK. But go ahead. Mr. Putnam's book. His idea was we used to be in all these bowling leagues

together, and now we are not. We bowl alone. And the decline of associations in America, like Alexis de Tocqueville talked about a democracy in America, like Alexis de Tocqueville talked about a democracy in America. So having these local chapters can reinvigorate that. But what I think could be really cool is,

imagine here in Memphis, just take an example, and you have all these Army members here. What if we got together and did stuff together? Once a month. Once a month? And maybe chose a story of one of our guests that we highlight. And once a month, everybody meets. And then they get together and do one of those things.

So I got a whole plan here. Now you're just riffing off the cuff and going over. I'm following you. I know. You're right, though. Yeah. That's a good idea. Is that right?

Yeah. I'll give you a fun example. So two months ago, Ben and Jess Owen who we featured on the podcast They are taking this huge abandoned building. I don't think heard about this and they're making a new recovery center No, it's like a because for everybody listening if you hadn't heard the episode These guys were addicts and they have now these guys were addicts and they have now started buying the very trap houses that they were doing drugs in and all nefarious kind of activities

and they're turning them into Hope houses. Hope houses. From dope houses to hope houses. So what you're saying now they bought a whole building? Yeah, so it's basically and they're being given it and they still gotta raise money and stuff but it's like a huge medical complex that's been abandoned for like 10 years in Memphis.

Where? In South Memphis. No kidding. Yeah, it's really cool. And so they had a cleanup day, because it's been abandoned for 10 years, and I went and there was like 150 people there on a Saturday just cleaning it up. And honestly, the energy you felt doing that with all

these people who feel like part of the, actually Ben calls it the Owen army. He's got his own, you know, army of normal folks going on. I hope you're listening. Come up with your own stuff. It's ridiculous. But anyway, the energy you felt there was amazing. I mean, and so, you know, what if we could do that in communities across the country? So we're actually thinking about calling that type of thing army activations. So you have these army activation days that type of thing, army activations. So you have these army activation days that maybe you'd start with with once an order and once a month. Yeah.

And then maybe every week when you do something, you go to bootcamp. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I don't know. Maybe not, but maybe not. Most of us. It would be a horrible idea.

Most of us have J OBS's. Yeah, that's true. All right. So the second thing we're especially excited about is giving circles. So do you remember this with Wendy Steele's episode with Impact 100? So the way I put it is, say you give $10 to something, say you give $100 to something, so you give $1,000 to something, even $10,000 to something, you probably really aren't making that much of an impact. You have no idea where the money is going.

You're basically just giving it to their existing stuff. You don't really get any reporting back, but if you can make a hundred thousand dollar gifts, you can actually do something pretty transformative, you know, with it. And so what if there was a whole army of normal folks who got together and each gave ten dollars a month and collectively can make $100,000 gifts in their community. And you basically would have all the nonprofits get together and pitch their ideas on what to do with $100,000.

And then each donor gets to vote on where the money goes. Exactly. And some people could still give $1,000 in the giving circle or $10,000, but setting an even lower threshold of $10 a month and really building this grassroots army. That's kind of interesting. Yeah. I think it's pretty exciting. As being a giver, you get a vote on the proxy of what that pool of

money raised goes to do. Yeah. And you can choose from any of our guests things or come up with something else. And as normal folks, you get to do something really transformational in your community too. It's cool. Yeah. So we, we especially see that as a big area given, you get to do something really transformational in your community too. It's cool. Yeah. So we especially see that as a big area, given,

so the model's out there in the country. There's people doing this. But if you go on the street, and I've tested this out, 90% of people have never heard of giving circles. I've never heard of them. Yeah. Well, you mean you did do an episode on it. I know.

Before Whitney Steele, I'd never heard or even considered or fathomed those things. Yeah, and I love Wendy's model too, but also it's only for women only. So we're thinking here is obviously including men too and setting an even lower threshold rather than $1,000. People can join at $10 a month. So by having local chapters,

you hopefully inspire a giving circle inside each chapter or maybe all of the chapters cumulatively are a giving circle. Each chapter will have their own giving circle. Okay each chapter has own giving circle and then each chapter meets once a month like the the Optimist Club or whatever and their meeting is engaging in the community once a month, and it's not the same thing every month. It's a different thing that they pick, and obviously they've got a lot of episodes

of an Army normal boat to come up with ideas to pick from or come up with their own. So another part of it that we're thinking about too is called, we're calling it imitation and innovation. So think about all these models that we featured that are still not in most cities So back on my feet the homeless running clubs is still not in Memphis. Sleep in Heavenly Peace is still not in Memphis I mean axe housing that you're excited about the episodes actually not out yet still not in Memphis And so there's all these models that are out there that are still missing for most of our communities

And what if we can come together as local Army members and figure out how can we bring these models here? And these local chapters. Exactly. That's a really cool idea. And we're thinking about potlucks too, as we've recently talked about in ShopLux. Potlucks just have to be part of every chapter.

I know. Because it's awesome. Yeah. Referring back to an earlier ShopDoll. Yeah, mentorship matching is something else we're thinking about too. So trying to set a cultural norm that each of us should be mentoring at least one other person, you know, out there and we can help facilitate that through a lot of our local partners. So do you envision

like these chapters to have like a president and a secretary and a treasurer and it's like a club but it's an army and normal folks club and specifically getting together to do these four or five initiatives you've talked about. That's right, Bill. We really, what you really need though to do any of these things is one strong leader. I mean, there needs to be somebody

who really owns it in a community and drives it, right? I mean, you're Memphis, you're running, you know, big business, you know, I'm in Oxford, like it can't be us from a distance really running this. There needs to be someone in a community who's really gonna, I mean, you know this from coaching too, right?

I mean, you need somebody who's gonna lead the thing, you know, at the end of the day. And do the work and recruit and grow it. Yeah. But you can see how, if you got it off the ground and grow it and you got 50, 100 people together from each community or under 50 people each community, then you actually could do some really good stuff. And you're investing basically a day.

And you can start, you know, small and scale it over time. Right. So you start with the giving, you know, circle. And what's cool about that too, is, uh, you know, so many people are busy, but everybody can get $10 a month, right? So you could make this impact even just doing that. So even if you just started the giving circle and did an army activation once a quarter, I mean, start small and then you can build in, you know,

more of these things over time. Can the local chapter identification cards that everybody's gonna have to carry have my picture on it? I mean, it seems a little arrogant, but. No, we would destroy it before it ever started. Who wants to carry around a card with my bug on it? Yeah, your fat redheaded self. So anyway, we have four people already

who are interested in doing this in their communities, but we'd love to hear from more folks if you're interested and I'd love to connect on it. We're probably gonna start with three this year, so we'll have to choose that, but hopefully it's 10 next year, and then hopefully it just keeps scaling to one point. There's hundreds of these chapters around the country.

So it's literally growing the army, and each chapter is a little platoon of the army. And I could see this eventually growing into having an annual convention where everybody from the chapters come and they share best practices and ideas and how this bottom-up service works. And yeah, it's kind of cool. It makes service more fun too.

I mean, you feel like family doing this together. You're part of something. I'm sure as you felt coaching and part of Sigma Nu Fraternity, right? I mean, those bonds are, there's nothing like it. No, they're a, that's awesome. So, shock talk number 57, everybody. We're going to start experimenting with local chapters.

And if that sounds interesting to you, i.e. you want to start and lead one or just join one. Email Alex, right? army at normalfolks.us. Why is it not Alex at normalfolks.us? I don't know. I've had other email addresses from, you know, my day jobs, but... Well, you can email me and I'll send it to them or just email army at normalfolks.us and you can carbon copy me or leave me out of it whatever but these these local chapters or sound like something Alex is pretty pretty intent on creating and it makes a lot of sense thanks Bill that's nice you say yeah it really does and look at all the talking

you did I didn't even make fun of you once. I think you did. Did I? Yeah, you said I was weird at the beginning. You are weird, but I'm weird too. Weird and goofy and all those things actually are terms of endearment. I actually like to say we're all messed up in our own way.

There's a more vulgar version of that that I say too, but we won't do that. I'm messed up as a soup sandwich, so nobody gets it over on me yeah so that's it everybody shop talk number 57 we're gonna experiment with local chapters and listen feels like something you might want to be a part of something you might want to lead something you've got a group of friends that you could get together and start one email Alex at army at normal folks dot us share this information with friends

and let's see if we can't turn this little podcast this little movement we got into tangible gatherings of people making impacts in their community. That's Shop Talk number 57, everybody. Let's think about joining some local chapters and actually moving the needle and having impact. Anything else, Alex? That's it. Let's wrap this baby up. Alright. We'll see y'all next week. In 2012, 16-year-old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice.

I would ask my husband, do you want me to stop? He was like, no, keep fighting. After nearly a decade, a breakthrough changed everything. This is Cold Case Files files Miami stories of families who never stopped fighting. Listen to cold case files Miami on the I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts from I heart podcast before social media before cable news there was Alan Berg he was the first and the original shock chuck that scratchy reverent kind of way talking to people I'm Jake Hanrahan, journalist and documentary filmmaker. radio app, apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Resilient favela life and much more. All real, completely uncensored.

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In 2022, a group of divers were sucked into an oil pipe and trapped deep beneath the sea. They could have been saved, but they weren't. Following their story has led us to lucrative contracts, failing safety standards and secretive political relationships. As we ask, why were those men left to die? This is Pipeline. Episodes are released weekly. Search for Pipeline on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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