The person behind the stationery.
I’m Tristan, a single dad of two. I work in public education, with a focus on students with disabilities. I’m also the person who started The Society of Undersocialized* Parents.
This all started with one humorous post to Front Porch Forum. I thought I might get a few new friends out of it.Apparently, people took the joke rather seriously.
Now the Society is more than a serious joke.
The wish for a few new friends turned out to be widely shared. The Society gives it a place and a time: a table, an evening, an outing, and some other parents who would like to be there.Stationery, name tags, and an unnecessary degree of administrative ceremony are also provided.
Selected previous lives
A somewhat varied route here.
I’ve been a stay-at-home dad and spent a decade working as a clinician with youth and families in public mental health.
During my work in Graduate Medical Education, I created the world’s first knowledge assessment tool in population health.
I’ve also been a roadie and instrument technician for a famous musician, built a vegetable oil refinery to run a car on dirty fryer grease, and rehabilitated a 19th-century home.
When life allows, I enjoy woodworking and DIY projects of all sorts.
There have been other roles along the way.This is the abbreviated record; the full version would require another sheet of paper.
None of these experiences have anything to do with the SUP.
My working life does, however, involve far too much time with Microsoft Excel. That may have something to do with how I wound up organizing occasions to speak to actual people.
And now, the Society.
Here, my work is to give parents specific, welcoming occasions to make friends of their own, and to keep those occasions happening.
You don’t need a particular family arrangement or an interesting résumé. Parents of young children, older children, and grown children all belong. Come alone if you like. There will be no formal introductions.
Tristan
Founder & Presiding Secretary