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Welcome back!

As your Yes Theory Community Managers, we have been lucky to connect with so many of you over the years through our social media channels, in person at meetups, and now through this community newsletter. We love showcasing your stories and experiences in the Facebook group, on the @YesTheoryMeetups Instagram, and in the Yes Fam of the Week section below.

Your stories are very special to us. This is why we created a dedicated form (click the yellow button!) for you to share the stories that are important to you and how you think we at Yes Theory would fit into them. Perhaps there's a special organization that you want to bring our attention to, like the Apex Protection Project, or maybe there's an unusual or unique place you would like us to explore!

This is an ongoing form that is always open so please don't feel rushed when it comes to sharing your ideas or feedback. We're looking forward to reading all of your suggestions and getting in touch with you when we're ready to learn more about them!

Ready for another fun week with meetups from 3 different countries?

🍁Friendsgiving

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

The Toronto Yes Fam decided to celebrate with a classic Friendsgiving tradition that has been done within the community across the world. This year, the event was filled with long-time community members but they were also joined by newcomers. With SPARK becoming an essential tool for many meetups, you enjoyed a couple of rounds of questions to connect and played other games to get to know each other better.

We are looking forward to seeing the US Yes Fam organize their thanksgiving meetups!

“Friendsgiving was the first ever Yes Fam meetup organized by me and organizing it again after 3 years, reminded me of all the struggles I went through that time. And this year, with the help of all the new friendships made here in Yes Fam Toronto, it was quite easier which made me feel very grateful for what I have. Seeing everyone happy, enjoying and supporting each other was very heartwarming.”

- Sanchay, India/Canada

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🍻 Saturday Night

It’s a Saturday night in Budapest, and what is the best way to enjoy it?

Well, according to the Hungarian Yes Fam, it’s the best time to go grab a drink with friends and enjoy some nachos. Your original plan was to do a pub crawl together, but after pulling out SPARK, you decided to find a quiet place to talk and connect. There is no better place to connect than sitting in a garden and enjoying the peacefulness of the night.

“This is my third meetup with YesFam and with visitors coming from abroad to Budapest, it was an amazing experience to see the Hungarian community committed. And seeing people who came to budapest from the country side showed more this commitment. It is always the best feeling to meet with people with the same interest and the same mentality. It was a blast!”

- Laura, Lebanon

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🏖️ Fun in the LA sun (and snow)

Over the past month we have highlighted Yes Fam meetups in celebration of the Project Iceman film premieres. After wrapping up the European leg of their tour in England, the Iceman Premiere Team hopped across the pond and held their first North American premiere at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles.

We saw the fantastic LA Yes Fam come out in full force to support the event before and afterward. This included getting meals together, matching tattoos, and organizing a beach day. What we love most about these meetups is seeing all the new faces! We hope that these activities have inspired you to stay connected with each other in the community.

“The experience was amazing; I love this community so much. I had been wanting to go to a YesFam meetup for awhile and am glad I finally got to experience one! Everyone was so kind and I feel like I just gained a lot of new friends. 💙”

- Maya, USA

Every week we go through the beautiful stories that the community shares in our Yes Theory Fam Facebook group to highlight someone living the "Yes Theory".

🗺️ Travel has its good and bad

Many times, travel is something that is glorified without sharing the obstacles that many face when embarking on adventures. Farhan shares with us the truth about travelling, he shared with us some of the challenges he’s had to face when travelling the world. However he does explain to us that even with all the down sides, he wouldn’t trade his experiences since he focuses on all the good things he has experienced while on these jouneys.

New York City, NY, USA - Pre-premiere plans (29th of October)

Taupō, New Zealand - Community Trip (18th to 21st of November)

Message us on Instagram (@yestheorymeetups) about your upcoming meetups so they get added to this list!

A few weeks ago we asked you guys to send in questions you wanted us (Dora and Maryam) to answer to get to know us better. So here are our answers!

Q: How did you end up at Yes Theory?

Dora: I joined the Yes Fam Facebook group in May 2018 as soon as Yes Theory posted about it on their Instagram, I was a fairly new subscriber at the time so I was excited to connect with other community members. This was the first I was joining a community like this but really got excited to make connections with people. I attended my first meetup 2 weeks after and since then became a super active member, both in person and online. After a few months, my engagement caught the team's eye, and asked me if I'd be interested in becoming a volunteer to help manage the Facebook group. I was shortly after joined by Maryam and later that year we got brought on officially onto the team. I probably wouldn’t be here 3 years later if I didn’t love the community as much as do!

Maryam: I began by volunteering as a moderator on the Yes Theory Fam Facebook group. I reached out to Yes Theory's manager at the time to express my interest in supporting the online community and bringing more representation to the team. He connected me with Dora who interviewed me for the role and here we are three years later! So much of what I have been able to do as a Community Manager is because of this incredibly engaged and enthusiastic community. Thank you to everyone reading for making this all possible. 

Q: What are your biggest goals for the year?

Dora: My personal goal for the year has been to focus on myself more by either doing fun activities by myself, traveling alone, or just disconnecting when I don’t need to be online. In terms of Yes Theory, my goal for the year was to get this newsletter running. With it now being up for 3 months, I am excited to see how I will be able to expand on what we share with you!

Maryam: While playing SPARK earlier this year I expressed a desire to attend more meetups and connect with other Yes Fam in person. Since then I have traveled to countries such as Germany and Belgium where I attended community-organized events and met so many wonderful people who I am very lucky to now call friends. I have also been able to enjoy a special sense of community more locally thanks to the Toronto Yes Fam who I got to spend time with at the largest meetup ever! My second biggest goal this year is to touch my toes.

Q: Have you ever been on any out-of-the-ordinary adventures?

Dora: I wouldn’t per say call my adventures “out of the ordinary”, but I have always enjoyed going on trips by myself or travelling to meet Yes Fam around Europe. There is always an ongoing joke with me where people would need to ask “where is Dora?” or I have a friend who would ask me “why are you paying rent”. I am a big fan of traveling by bus since it’s a great way to save time when taking a night bus so I have definitely had my fair share of adventures take place thanks to Flixbus. Travel is always something that I try to make time for, but with now doing a masters program, it’s a bit more difficult to take spontaneous trips.

Maryam: Over the summer I attended my first FiYESta in Hamburg, Germany, and shared a hostel room with a group of strangers. Our random placement as roommates led to many strange and special adventures, one of my favourites being a 10-hour FlixBus to Ghent, Belgium where we stayed in a Star Wars-themed room featuring an infamous climbing wall. Later in my travels, I was hosted by two of them in Amsterdam, the Netherlands where they took time out of their busy schedules to show me around the city and feed me classic Dutch treats like bitterballen, kibbeling, poffertjes, stroopwafel, and tompouce! Food is definitely the way to my heart. Admittedly I was worried that these special connections would fade over the summer, but I recently visited Scotland and two of them flew in to explore Glasgow and Edinburgh with me! The best part? It felt like no time at all had passed. Strangers truly are friends you haven’t met yet.

With the newsletter being such a success, we are interested in seeing how we can expand on the current content we are sending to you. What are things you would to see? If you have ideas, reply to this email with what you would like to see!

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See you next week!