Wakeful Club

The first rule of Wakeful Club is that we meet at 08:00 every morning, except saturdays. The second rule of Wakeful Club is that we meet in the mornings.

You can only get to the meeting if you're awake and get up before it happens. Your attendance only counts if you show up dressed, ready to go forth and do things, rather than return to bed. All that has to happen at the meeting is that we check who attends. If you come to the meeting, and you already signed up as a member, you'll get an equal cut of the fees paid for that meeting. If you miss the meeting, as a member, you must pay the constant fee before the next meeting.

If you're too scared to put money in it, sign up as an associate. Come to a meeting, and you get an abstract point. Miss a meeting, and you lose one. Members and associates can see your score, for your glory or shame, depending on how well you do.

Wakeful Club is inspired by some mix of Beeminder, "accountability buddies", and my own struggles to get up at a sensible time.

§ Corollaries

If you like Wakeful Club, you might think of it as an incentive scheme to make people get up early. If you dislike Wakeful Club, you might think of it as people gambling against each other.

On days when few members show up, most members pay the fee, and it's split between those few who arrive. Thus you're especially rewarded for coming when most others fail. Inversely, when most members show up, their reward is small.

Wakeful Club should meet a moderate distance from where its members sleep. It should be far enough that the walk to get there makes sleep inertia wear off, such that members who attend will stay up after the meeting. It should be close enough that getting up is the main factor for whether a member can attend. With a meeting site too far away, weather, the hassle of a long walk, or other complications could lead members who did get up to still get penalised.

If you travel, for more than a day, far from the site of a Wakeful Club you're in, you'll almost surely miss the meetings during your travels. To compensate, members may excuse their absences, if they declare it at least several days in advance. They are then exempt from paying the fee on those days, and preclude themselves from collecting others' fees for those days.

I run an instance of Wakeful Club among my neighbours. If you live near me, join it with the online form. If you live further away, find or start your own Wakeful Club.