Hello, Skagit River Valley!

Catalyst Guild Public Journal | October 28, 2026

Well, here we are!

I'm Tiaria Graves, and I'd like to introduce you to something I've been working on called Catalyst Guild.

You may have noticed the rather elaborate medieval appearance of our new website. I have a particular fondness for the idea of guilds, although my interpretation of what a guild ought to be might have gotten me into trouble with a few guildmasters in the Middle Ages.

I suspect that's still possible today.

I've spent a good deal of time thinking about how people develop their abilities, how we recognize those abilities in one another, and what happens when someone has something useful to contribute but doesn't fit neatly into the positions, qualifications, or institutional structures available to them.

That question has become increasingly important in my own life and work.

People are extraordinarily complicated. We have interests, experiences, talents, limitations, ambitions, and circumstances that change throughout our lives. Yet we tend to organize opportunities around relatively fixed descriptions of what people are supposed to be qualified to do.

I think we're overlooking an enormous amount of human potential.

And I want to do something about it.

So, what's Catalyst Guild?

At its simplest, I'm developing a way for people to find one another, learn together, put their abilities to work, and create things that are useful to their communities.

I'm particularly interested in people who develop capabilities across several disciplines. I've been calling this approach Community Generalism. It grows out of my own work, but I suspect there are quite a few people around the valley who would recognize themselves in it.

The Guild is also an experiment in building community infrastructure. I want us to become capable of helping people get projects started, develop practical expertise, organize resources, and eventually incubate enterprises and organizations that can stand on their own.

The idea isn't to make everybody dependent on Catalyst Guild. Quite the opposite.

I'd consider it a rather satisfying accomplishment if some of the work I'm doing eventually became unnecessary because other people and organizations had developed the capacity to do it themselves.

What have I actually built?

That's a fair question.

The website is now live at catalystguild.org, and it contains a growing collection of ideas and projects. Some are in active development. Others are still being researched or designed.

You'll find them represented in an area called Etchings. Among them are ideas for sharing community resources, developing local knowledge infrastructure, supporting creative experimentation, and helping people find collaborators.

I've also been developing the administrative and technical systems that might make this kind of organization practical. Much of that work involves experimenting with AI as an assistant for research, design, coordination, and the rather considerable amount of recordkeeping that comes with trying to develop several interconnected ideas.

AI can accomplish a surprising amount of work under human direction. It can also be remarkably enthusiastic about explaining things in ways that no human being would ever actually say to another human being.

We're working on that.

And what about the Guild House?

I'm glad you asked.

The Guild House is intended to become a place where people can meet, talk, exchange ideas, discover shared interests, and begin doing things together.

At present, however, what we have is a Welcome Desk on the website. It provides a few ways to introduce yourself and compose an email to me.

That's useful, but it isn't a functioning gathering place yet.

Next week's work will focus on exploring how we can begin having conversations with one another directly. A message board is one possibility. I'm keeping the design open until I've considered what would actually be useful.

Eventually, I'd like the Guild House to have both an online community and opportunities to gather in physical spaces around the Skagit River Valley. People should be able to participate regardless of whether they can travel to a gathering.

And I think the people who become involved ought to have a meaningful part in deciding what the Guild House becomes.

Why am I telling you about all of this now?

Because I don't see much value in waiting until everything is finished before inviting people to participate in its development.

A lot of what I'm doing is experimental. I expect some things to work, others to fail, and quite a few to turn into something different from what I originally imagined.

I'd like to document that process here in the Public Journal. I'll share what we're trying, what we're learning, and how things are changing.

More importantly, I'd like to get to know people who are interested in the same questions, even if they have entirely different ideas about the answers.

What are you working on? What would you like to learn? What could you teach somebody else? Is there something you've wanted to do but haven't had the people, equipment, or circumstances to make it possible?

I'm interested in hearing about it.

For now, you can find me through the Welcome Desk at CatalystGuild.org.

We don't have the Guild House ready for visitors quite yet.

But we do have a doorbell.

Tiaria Graves Founder and Organizational Developer Catalyst Guild