Before I get into the details of the first Ozark Steemit Meetup, here's a video from all of us that answers the all-important question:

HOW AND WHEN DID YOU FIND STEEMIT?

Video featuring: @jessamynorchard, @papa-pepper, @winstonwolfe, @stellabelle, @giftedgaia, @full-steem-ahead and @starrkravenmaf
I see now the error of putting the date as 2016...I'll fix it shortly to 2017.

Thanks to @giftedgaia for organizing this, and also @winstonwolfe and him for having me on as a guest on Steemit Talk podcast which I learned is available in iTunes!

Image: @giftedgaia and myself during the podcast

@papa-pepper gave us all seeds to plant in our future gardens and he really pulled through by gifting us with Steemit mugs, t-shirts and a special drawing his kids made for me. Thanks @papa-pepper. Awesome!

The best part of meeting up was being able to talk about all things Steem related with others who understand exactly what we were saying! The second best part was the synergy and planning out the future events. @jessamynorchard, let's talk soon!

@papa-pepper mentioned the future plans of a Steemit Woodstock (Steemstock) music event to be held in Austin, Texas sometime in October and which is being organized by @riosprada. You can read about this music event here:
@riosparada/steemstock-2017-continued-4

Image: @winstonwolfe and @papa-pepper in da studio!

And other event I'm planning for the summer is a Steemit All-Day Workshop to be held at Stellabelle's Ranch which is near Kansas City, Missouri.

I'm thinking of June 2017 for the All-Day Steemit Workshop. If you're in the Midwest, and want to help organize it, teach a class, etc., contact me, or comment below. The goal of this workshop will be to introduce Steemit to those who aren't familiar with it. Plus, experience a fun day with other Steemians. The format can be any Steemian can teach a topic that can add value to newbies. For example, a crypto expert can teach a class called: How To Convert Steem to USD. A musician or artist could teach people how to create engaging posts that build community within Steemit. The mini classes could each be 30 minutes or so long, with a lot of time dedicated to the AMA format. We have a pool in my community, and I could reserve it just for our group. Other things that would be included: FREE LUNCH, some acoustic musical groups and a nature walk in the woods on our communal land. Plus, you can talk about Steemit for like 8 hours straight and others will get you.

And then the really cool dream for the future:

Image: Pixabay

At the meetup, we discussed the possibility of turning my existing community into the first Steemit Village in the world. @jessamynorchard's eyes lit up when I mentioned my dream. We were dreaming, yes, however, the community infrastructure already exists here, and I do think it's possible. Anyone who is interested in helping to create what could possibly be the most amazing place on earth, contact me.

I suspect my community would attract people who are interested in creating a real-life community which embodies the ideals of the Steemitverse.

A good community is a diverse community which means that in theory, an anarchist, a Christian and an atheist could all live side by side, as long as they have some things in common. Those things would be, I guess, Steem, technology and a desire to build something different from the mainstream. The coolest part of living here is that people have built experimental earth homes and there's plenty of communal land. This means you can start your own garden if you choose to do so in the common areas. There are also apartments here, but I'm not sure if vacancies exist right now.

It could be a meshing of both worlds: virtual and physical.

I might add that I have a bit of klout in my community because I'm friends with the elders here. They trust and respect me. I really think it's entirely possible to Steemify it. And the coolest part of living here is that you can be kind of an introvert and that is ok too. There are really no set rules about what you have to do, although you can do what you feel like doing. It's a Christian community, so about half the people are into religion. The other half aren't. There's also a community center that can be used for events, as well. But as I mentioned, it still has a religious background and everything has to be run through the board. It has definite overlap with most intentional communities and trust is gained slowly through getting to know the true nature of those who live here.

I took a selfie to replace the ones taken at the meetup because I hate having my picture taken by others. Delete the other photos and just put this one in there instead. I rarely take selfies, but here it is: