Perhaps you are just coming out and want some sort of alternative to the bars and clubs, or you’ve recently moved to Calgary and don’t really know anyone, or you have been kicking around the community for a while but just want to round out your social life a bit more...what do you do?

Calgary’s GLBTQ community has any number of recreational and social organizations, but most of them are targeted at one specific area, be it sports, rodeo, drag, campus activity, etc.

Calgarians Networking Club has been resurrected by past-president, James Faulkner, and is now operating under the auspices of the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Association (GLCSA, soon to be known as OutLink).

"CNC folded a few years back," said Faulkner. "But I still get approached by people wondering if it is still active and there was clearly a need for a group like CNC."

Faulkner was interested in starting it up again to meet that need, but wasn’t interested in running it again so he approached Tamrin Hildebrandt, Executive Director of GLCSA.

"There was this misconception in the community that the old CNC was a businessperson’s network," he said. While the current CNC, like the old organization, does have several business types involved, the premise is broader-based than that," he added.

"The group is about social interaction, about meeting people on a social level. It’s very casual and we encourage people to mix at our monthly meeting and talk to people they don’t know. People have a tendency stick to talking to those they know, understandably, so we try and create an atmosphere that is conducive to mixing."

"It’s not a dating service," he is quick to point out. "Although if you meet someone you kinda like, that’s cool."

The group meets the first Thursday of each month from 5pm-7pm at Money Pennies (1742 – 10 Ave SW).

"There is a $5 drop-in fee for non-members and that money goes directly to GLCSA to pay for the food. And what’s left over goes towards various GLCSA programs," said Tamrin Hildebrandt.

The group brings in various speakers each month to talk about their respective organizations, some of the issues affecting the community, or other items of interest to the membership.

"So far we have had Tamrin talk about GLCSA, Gary Courtney to talk about the upcoming OutGames, a lawyer in to talk about equal marriage benefits, and an architect talking about personally designed homes," Faulkner said.

"We have bit of a mixer to start off the evening, with our guest speaker talking for about 10 or 15 minutes at 6:30, followed by a Question and Answer period. And then, depending on how long that lasts, some more social time and the evening wraps up at about 7pm," said Faulkner.

The current membership is at about 40 people, with an average of between 15 and 20 showing up any given evening.

"It’s a good mix, actually," said Faulkner. "We have members ranging from university students to retirees and everyone in between. We have realtors, architects, oil and gas types, credit counselors, even a couple of clergy."

The group hopes to attract more women as the ratio at the moment is tilted in favour of the men.

"We do have a couple of women members who have been involved since the start. Sure enough, the one week they don’t show up, a couple of more women will and wonder where all the women are," chuckled Faulkner. "But everyone gets along really well. It’s a very casual and comfortable atmosphere."

It was decided to move the group under the auspices of GLCSA for several reasons: GLCSA already had the infrastructure in place to manage such a group, having already coordinated several different groups ranging from queer youth, to TG/TS support, to coming out groups.

"We wanted to show the community that GLCSA is not just there for those in crisis or in need of support," said Hildebrandt. "GLCSA is very involved in community and offers, or could offer, so much more than crisis intervention and support, as important as those are."

The group has a pro-rated membership fee of $25 per season. It also puts out a newsletter.

"The season membership actually saves you about a 35% reduction in cost," says Faulkner, and includes getting the newsletter, free admission to the monthly social and food. Drinks are through a cash bar.

Come out, meet new people, and see what else the CNC has to offer you.