Junction (युज्) is a concept inspired in part by Benjamin Franklin’s Junto and intended as the smallest unit of any communal practice or enactment of the principles of Rapid Expedition (rExpd). As such, junctionCommand would serve as a hub and provide an iterative template for Junction’s ready and rapid proliferation.
- Junction
- The act of joining, or the state of being joined.
- A place where two things meet, especially where two roads meet.
- The boundary between two physically different materials, especially between conductors, semiconductors, or metals.
- (nautical) The place where a distributary departs from the main stream.
- (radio, television) A point in time between two unrelated consecutive broadcasts.
- (computing) A kind of symbolic link to a directory.
While any of Junction’s hypothetical nodes would draw off of and develop ideas from or related to rExpd, it is not of any necessity that they deal directly with the core concepts or even with it at all by name. However, we might reasonably assume that most if not all such nodes would have at least one ambassador engaged in some direct manner with rExpd.
That being said, Junction should embody and enact those principles developed within the frame of rExpd, regardless of how wittingly any of its members might do so. Furthermore, Junction would be a distinct and defined sort of club with its own criteria and bylaws for membership, and those would be formulated directly through rExpd.
The first and most crucial criterion Junction must enforce is that its members engage in a strength-training regimen so long as they wish to remain members. This would require proof in the form of a training log, perhaps following the prescribed fitRep syntax standard. They would be allowed to perform this training in any way they wish but would need to be able to demonstrate a continued increase in total bodily strength–most easily and readily demonstrable under a barbell–or else account for their failure to progress. Members could be subject to audits–which would only be done with a barbell and with reasonably advanced notice depending on the member’s experience level–or interventions–requiring monitored/mentored training at regular intervals–or simply suspension if the member demonstrates no will or desire to correct the issue. Suspensions would then only be overturned by demonstrating that one’s training progress has resumed.
To avoid confusion and difficulty, members should be provided with information available through rExpd.fit to maximize their chances of success. Following the pranaBindu model of articulation, this would consist firstly of basic barbell training which alone would keep a member well within good-standing.
This isn’t to say that the only physical prowess a member must develop would be strength, as the group’s regular activities would include martial arts training. The absolute minimum the group must do would be to train in Jiu-Jitsu, as per the pranaBindu model. Resources for such would also be available through rExpd.fit.
As Jiu-Jitsu has its own specific physical demands beyond strength, it would behoove any Junction node to engage in other minor physical activities to achieve a reasonable level of conditioning for that training. Examples of such activities which might be prescribed would be group stretching and bicycle rides (runs would be acceptable but discouraged, with the possible exception of formation runs), and in the case of bicycle rides, members would be expected to perform some basic maintenance beforehand (which should ideally be a group facilitated activity).
Beyond this, more extracurricular activities could be amended but not required (hikes, rock-climbing, swimming, rowing, or fencing, for instance; whereas high-impact sports would be discouraged in consideration of the group’s training requirements). However, physical activity is neither the focus nor the purpose of Junction, rather it is both a filter and a catalyst for unit cohesion.
Like Franklin’s Junto, members of Junction should be required to prepare topics for discussion within the group as well as to prepare an essay on any topic they wish with some regular frequency (resources for writing such an essay would be available through rExpd.pub). rExpd and its many branches could be seen as guideposts for the subject-matter or even directly inform what subjects might be discussed; however, again, direct engagement with rExpd is not requisite, and so any topic at all could be discussed.
Each group would also be required to maintain a repository containing a log of their activities and whatever else they might wish to record or share. They would, however, be required to publish at least one of their member’s essays with some regularity. That essay need not be the original and could undergo revision by the group or whosoever the author or group might, at their discretion, employ to the task.
The group would also select a book at regular intervals for its members to complete and set aside time to discuss at each meeting. This book would ideally come from a central reading list that they would have opportunity to contribute to if they so desire. It is advisable, also, that the group or any of its members produce some piece of writing regarding each book throughout reading or upon completion.
The group should also select a course of study at regular intervals. Resources regarding such courses would be made available through rExpd.edu.
Already, most of the group’s activities have skill-building aspects, from proper fitness and fighting techniques to bicycle maintenance to writing and publishing. Nevertheless, regular workshops on other useful skills, or deeper dives into skills already utilized, should be scheduled regularly to develop a more well-rounded and generally competent membership. These workshops could be lead by the group’s own members, or else resources could be pooled in order to book experts in such fields. If a skill requires regular training (like the requisite Jiu-Jitsu training), it should be trained on a regular basis but as an extra-curricular pursuit (regular meetups at a rifle-range, for instance).
Members can either set up shared facilities in order to practice these skills or host workshops, or else they can rent space short-term, but most ideally might they rent or buy space permanently.
The first and most obvious priority for any Junction node would be to acquire training space in which weight-training equipment could be housed and shared. This space should also at least be large enough for impact matting and for Jiu-Jitsu training to be done on that matting. Those two things alone should be enough to comfortably facilitate any functional Junction node, but other considerations like bicycle maintenance, Internet access, comfortable conferencing, should also be addressed in the furnishing of such a space.
Such a space would also not be precluded from facilitating other sorts of skill-building which might require equipment to be purchased and made available long-term (various tools and equipment to learn and make use of).
The function of the central command entity, here, would be firstly to inform and guide would-be nodes in the most current standards and criteria and secondly to verify whether or not prospective or operating nodes meet those standards and criteria. Originally, Command would be comprised mainly of rapidExpedition contributors and collaborators, at the discretion of its founders, as well as perhaps the earliest members of the first node or nodes. From there, it would be discretionary up to a point in which junctionCommand might, for instance, develop itself as a DAO of some sort to ensure its continued existence and smooth operation.
Otherwise would Command act as a hub for all things related to Junction, producing features on different nodes and their activities as well as other news and developments related Junction and its operations. Weaponize! could perhaps, in part, serve this role in coordination with Command, and indeed could Weaponize! be seen as the primary means of introducing the Junction concept to a broad readership.