✦ Community Gatherings ✦

Find — or Start — a Group Gathering

Browse upcoming group sessions across every tradition, or host your own and invite others to join. Free to browse and organize — you only pay when your gathering is led by one of our AI or human teachers.

🔧 Developer: this hub is a full UI/UX prototype, meetup.com-style. Events live in localStorage (see mst_group_events_index + mst_group_event_*) so they're only visible in this one browser. To make it real:
1. Give the events index a real table/API — GET /api/events?tradition=&medium= — and replace loadAllEvents() below with a fetch.
2. Replace createHostedEvent()'s local save with POST /api/events.
3. Swap the hardcoded AI_TEACHERS / HUMAN_TEACHERS lists below for a live pull from the real teacher directory (the data behind portals.html) so the "Host a Gathering" form always offers current teachers. (Done for this prototype — the lists below are already generated from portals.html's real Portal 1 / Portal 3 rosters. Re-generate them the same way if that roster changes.)
4. Decide the organizer-fee question below (there's a working toggle in the host form, currently informational only — wire the $5 fee to real checkout once you've decided, or flip the default to free).
5. Push new RSVPs/new events to everyone browsing in real time (websockets or polling), the way Meetup does.
6. ⚠ "The avatar shows up in Zoom" is not built and is a separate, nontrivial project — today avatar-renderer.js only renders the avatar inside our own session.html page; nothing pushes it into an actual Zoom call. To make that real you'd need either (a) Zoom's Video SDK to add the avatar as a bot participant, or (b) a virtual-camera pipeline (rendering the avatar to a virtual webcam device) so people can select it as their camera source inside Zoom. Until one of those exists, the realistic near-term version is what's built below: the avatar lives in our own Live Session Room, and the group — whether on Zoom or in person — keeps that room open on a shared screen or device.

Host a Gathering

Set it up, share the link, and watch the roster fill in — like creating an event on Meetup.

Gathering Title

Who's Leading It

Choose an AI Avatar

Choose a Human Teacher

Choosing "Open — any available teacher" posts the gathering publicly so a matching human teacher can claim and confirm it.

Date

Time

Format

Location

Group Size

Suggested Donation for Participants (Optional)

Joining stays free — this is just a suggested amount shown on the gathering page, collected however you and your group prefer (cash, Venmo, etc.), not through this site.

Organizer Access

$5 organizer fee Reserves your slot and cuts down on spam/no-show listings. This is separate from — and in addition to — the AI avatar or human teacher plan you'll need for the group itself. Free to host No charge to create or list a gathering.

Prototype only — not charged yet. Participants join free; you can optionally suggest a donation on the next screen. See dev-note above.

Your Name

Your Email

✦ Group Gathering ✦

Group Session

See who else is coming, then reserve your spot — visible to your teacher and every other participant, like a Meetup event page.

🔧 Developer: this page is a full UI/UX prototype of group RSVPs, but the roster is currently stored in localStorage — visible only within this one browser, not shared between real people on different devices. To make it real:
1. Give each group event a row in a database (teacher, tradition, date/time, medium, capacity).
2. Replace loadEvent() / saveEvent() below with GET /api/events/:id and POST /api/events/:id/rsvp.
3. Push new RSVPs to everyone already viewing the page in real time (websockets, or simple polling) so the roster updates live, the way it would on Meetup.
4. When a "Group" booking comes in from teach-with-us.html, look up whether a matching upcoming event already exists for that teacher/date/time before creating a new one, so multiple people's bookings actually converge on one event instead of each creating their own.

← Browse all gatherings ← Back to Human Teacher portal

Find — or Start — a Group Gathering

Host a Gathering

Group Session

How The Avatar Joins

Who's Coming

You're On The List

Where Would You Like to Begin?