Support
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Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Check out support events happening today here. These are in-person gatherings where you can meet fellow enthusiasts and participate in activities right now.
Discover all the support events taking place this week here. Plan ahead and join exciting meetups throughout the week.
Absolutely! Find support events near your location here. Connect with your local community and discover events within your area.
Support Events Today
Join in-person Support events happening right now
Volunteer Night @ The Warehouse
Volunteer with us refurbishing donated bicycles to help us get them back out in the community! This event is open to both new and existing volunteers. No mechanical experience is necessary.
Note: The warehouse location is in the alley behind 1502 Mt Vernon Ave. Enter through the gray door next to a roll-down garage door. If you drive to the location, be sure to park in the street, not in the alleys or parking lots surrounding the warehouse. And wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty with bicycle grease!
Please be aware that volunteers under 18 need a parent or guardian to accompany them to their first volunteer experience and sign a liability waiver, while volunteers under 16 need a parent or guardian to accompany them at all times while volunteering with Vélocity.
Doubles Volleyball - Competitive
BB/A level @Bluemont Park
Doubles Volleyball - Competitive BB-A level @Bluemont Park
Let's get together to play some fun A level Doubles games at Bluemont.
Format: Doubles
COST: FREE
Court Type: Outdoor grass
Minimum Skill Requirements: BB-A level (click [here](https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/1PojSi4qdlRsv1msCHhvpQ43iDc4FfzQwpWCc3kafVMY/mobilebasic) for details)
Attention:
1. This event is not always on a first come, first served basis. Those who can bring a net and ball, may get priority over others on the waitlist.
1. Since skill levels are self-reported, some attendees may not meet the expected level in reality, so we encourage you to choose a partner you can enjoy the game with, and since this is a competitive event, it is okay if you make a strong team and win all the games.
1. Since people arrive at different times, each group of
1. Players will set up and claim a net as they arrive, and may continue playing without rotating until all nets are set.
———
Smiley Social documents:
[Group Rules](https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/1HrG35p_0M08leRvCp8XWG3CMkr_GL928XFabl5T6Dvg/mobilebasic)
[Liability Waiver](https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/1W2mq-7m99lmvd7gdWYaSUFtvVg4UGnzV6koafAbHmco/mobilebasic)
[Volleyball Levels](https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/1PojSi4qdlRsv1msCHhvpQ43iDc4FfzQwpWCc3kafVMY/mobilebasic)
Data Viz Happy Hour
RSVP on luma! https://luma.com/dc2-xbhs
The workshop got rescheduled so we're doing a happy hour instead!
\-\-\-\-
* **Date and Time**: Monday June 15th, 2026, 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
* **Location**: El Rey, 4201 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22203
\-\-\-\-
Data Visualization DC is a part of Data Community DC, Inc, a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to advancing data practitioners in the national capital area.
Location
El Rey
4201 Wilson Blvd Suite 150-160, Arlington, VA 22230, USA
Profs & Pints DC: A Deep Dive into the Declaration of Independence
[Profs and Pints DC](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“A Deep Dive into the Declaration of Independence,”** on the origins and impact of America’s founding document, with Denver Brunsman, chairman of George Washington University’s history department, lecturer at Mount Vernon, and noted scholar of early American history and the American Revolution.
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-deep-dive-declaration](https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/dc-deep-dive-declaration) .]
The celebration of our nation’s 250th anniversary will take on much deeper meaning if you take time to fully understand and appreciate the document that declared our independence from England and gave rise to the American experiment.
Learn essential lessons about the Declaration of Independence from Denver Brunsman, an incredibly engaging speaker who has built a big following among Profs and Pints fans in and around Washington D.C.
Professor Brunsman will start by discussing the Declaration’s background, composition, and philosophical underpinnings.
You’ll learn how by 1776 American colonists had resisted British policies for thirteen years and endured open warfare with Britain for more than a year. We’ll look at how this imperial crisis influenced the Declaration’s primary author, Thomas Jefferson, as well as the larger Declaration Committee and the Second Continental Congress.
In recent years, scholars have focused particularly on the previously underappreciated grievance section of the Declaration. Rather than simply being an afterthought to the more famous preamble (“all men are created equal”), the grievances followed a logical order that carefully presented the case against King George III and the British Empire for a “candid world” to consider. Professor Brunsman will fill you in on how that list of grievances rallied Americans and other nations to the cause.
A document both timeless and of its time, the Declaration quickly soared beyond its humble origins as a committee report to become synonymous with American independence and an inspiration for rebellion elsewhere. Dr. Brunsman will consider the place of the Declaration in American life, from the eighteenth century to today, and how the document helped shape much of American history while influencing “the course of human events” throughout the world.
The talk will close with customary toasts from the American revolutionary era. Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: From an idealized Jean Leon Gerome Ferris painting of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams drafting the Declaration of Independence.
Support Events This Week
Discover what is happening in the next few days
What Is Progress? Knowledge Aggregation, Living Textbooks, and the Automation
Title: What Is Progress? Knowledge Aggregation, Living Textbooks, and the Automation of Scientific Discovery
Date: June 20 2026 Noon - 14:00 EDT
Summary: Our collective knowledge infrastructure — the textbooks, professional training resources, and literature syntheses that define what professionals across disciplines believe to be true — is quietly accruing a structural liability. Compounded confirmation bias, stacked citation-by-citation into the foundations of formal knowledge, means that breakthroughs can take decades to reach the classrooms, clinical workflows, and decision-making frameworks where they matter most. Meanwhile, the deepest friction is rarely acknowledged: before any field can build meaningful consensus on "why" or "how" a phenomenon occurs, it must first establish honest, consolidated agreement on "what" has actually been observed. That prior step is routinely skipped, assumed, or fragmented across siloed literatures that never cross-pollinate.
This talk introduces a framework called "Knowledge Aggregation" — with two distinct but complementary ambitions. The first is descriptive transparency: algorithmically mapping what has been said, measured, and documented across a problem space, without imposing causal interpretation or narrative. The second traces the boundary between empirical observation and explanatory claim, building systems that can separate the "what" from the "why/how" — because consensus on mechanism cannot be meaningfully constructed until consensus on phenomenon is first established.
Both ambitions are now within reach. By composing tools already at our disposal — large language models, classical NLP pipelines, public data repositories, and engineering-grade automation frameworks — it becomes possible to model knowledge itself, rather than merely imitate individual experts. One concrete expression of this is automating the writing of living textbooks: compressing the lag from bleeding-edge discovery, through replicated evidence, all the way to professional training resources. But the deeper aspiration reaches further — toward automating the discovery of scientific insights that have never previously been conceived, by systematically surfacing hypothesis combinations that no single siloed researcher would have had the cross-disciplinary vantage point to even ask. Drawing on ongoing systems biology and computational research — with ME/CFS research demoed as a use case for what siloed, fragmented knowledge infrastructure costs in practice — this talk maps the conceptual architecture, the real-world friction, and the data science toolkit for building it.
Speaker: As a systems biologist at heart, Sam specializes his biomedical research on interactions and connections in biology - rather than just one domain of expertise. He wears many hats and collects skill sets across disciplines, with degree studies and industry experience acquired across Chemical Engineering (BSc), Bioinformatics (MSc), Systems and Synthetic Biology (M2), Biomedical Sciences (MSc), and beyond. Even more important to him than niches or fields of work, comes down to the synergistic approaches that allow us to move beyond reductionism. The notion that a question can only allow for one answer, is inherently reductionist. By resisting many norms in science and engineering which can get overly reductive, his current role as Principal Investigator of Research for DMV Petri Dish (501(c)(3) non-profit local to the DMV region) embraces computational frameworks that aide scale-up and automation - not only around the processes which already exist with established workflows, but also taking a keen interest in attempting and accomplishing ambitions which have never been perceived to be possible previously. Sam carries a passion for the synergy of computational biology - fused with wet lab validation. This way, one can build a beautiful knowledge base in the theoretical sense, and then test to see if said computational prediction might actually be able to stand in the real world with wet lab validation. Translational modeling starts to become possible once biological experiment design can be iteratively looped alongside computational model design, optimization, and analysis - empowering the design of a better wet lab experiment, followed by a better computational model, back and forth until science is done!
(Del Ray) Sunday 1st Shift: Customer Service Help (12pm-2pm)
Sign up to help with customer service at our Del Ray shop! **If this is your first time doing customer service at our shop**, **please direct message Elizabeth here via MeetUp** so she can ensure someone can be there to orient you.
**What you'll do:**
* greet customers
* manage customer traffic
* help customers find basic bike parts in our store
* direct customers to the mechanics if they need a bike repair
* help customers find a bike that fits them
* set customers up to test ride bikes
* work the register to conduct customer payments
**Qualities of a good volunteer for this role:**
* customer service oriented
* willing to work outside most of the shift
* able to work on their feet most of the shift
* comfortable working in a faced-paced environment
* open to a steep learning curve with a rewarding experience the more times you volunteer
* excited to learn about Velocity Bicycle Cooperative and become part of our volunteer team that keeps our wheels turning!
**What to Bring/Attire**
* A water bottle & snack
* Wear comfortable shoes and clothes appropriate for the day's weather
* Sunscreen and a baseball hat if it is sunny
**Age Requirements:** If you are under 18, you must bring a parent/guardian with you to the orientation to sign the waiver.
Recovering from Religion VIRTUAL Support Group
**GO TO EVENTBRITE FOR LINK TO MEETING:**
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/recovering-from-religion-virtual-support-group-meeting-registration-159506756001?aff=oddtdtcreator
This is an RfR-wide event, not tied to any particular local chapter.
The Virtual Chapter Recovering From Religion support group will meet the the 1st Sunday of each month at 6 PM Central Time AS WELL AS at the 3rd Saturday of each month at 9 AM. This meeting will be held virtually via Zoom. Attendees are welcome to share, but may also decide to remain anonymous if they so choose.
The primary focus of a Recovering From Religion support group is to provide ongoing and personal support to individuals as they let go of their religious beliefs. This transitional period is an ongoing process that can result in a range of emotions, as well as a ripple effect of consequences throughout an individual’s life. As such, the support meetings are safe and anonymous places to express these doubts, fears, and experiences without biased feedback or proselytizing.
We are here to help each other through this journey.
There is no cost to attend this support group but, if you feel so inclined, donations can be made at www.recoveringfromreligion.org/donate
If you find you need to talk with someone before the meeting date, RfR has a hotline and online chat for that express purpose. Call (844) 368-2848 to speak with someone. Go to www.recoveringfromreligion.org and click on the green chat bubble in the lower left corner of the site to chat online.
If you are in need of professional help, we can offer the Secular Therapy Project to provide options to connect with a professional therapist. All therapists have been thoroughly vetted by our organization and offer only evidence-based and non-religious treatment. Connect with them at www.seculartherapy.org.
Like what RfR does? Why not volunteer! There are quite a few options. Head over to www.recoveringfromreligion.org/volunteer for more info.
(Del Ray) Saturday 1st Shift: Customer Service Help (10am-1pm)
Sign up to help with customer service at our Del Ray shop! **If this is your first time doing customer service at our shop**, **please direct message Elizabeth here via MeetUp** so she can ensure someone can be there to orient you.
**What you'll do:**
* greet customers
* manage customer traffic
* help customers find basic bike parts in our store
* direct customers to the mechanics if they need a bike repair
* help customers find a bike that fits them
* set customers up to test ride bikes
* work the register to conduct customer payments
**Qualities of a good volunteer for this role:**
* customer service oriented
* willing to work outside most of the shift
* able to work on their feet most of the shift
* comfortable working in a faced-paced environment
* open to a steep learning curve with a rewarding experience the more times you volunteer
* excited to learn about Velocity Bicycle Cooperative and become part of our volunteer team that keeps our wheels turning!
**What to Bring/Attire**
* A water bottle & snack
* Wear comfortable shoes and clothes appropriate for the day's weather
* Sunscreen and a baseball hat if it is sunny
**Age Requirements:** If you are under 18, you must bring a parent/guardian with you to the orientation to sign the waiver.
(Del Ray) Sunday 2nd Shift: Customer Service Help (2pm-4pm)
Sign up to help with customer service at our Del Ray shop! **If this is your first time doing customer service at our shop**, **please direct message Elizabeth here via MeetUp** so she can ensure someone can be there to orient you.
**What you'll do:**
* greet customers
* manage customer traffic
* help customers find basic bike parts in our store
* direct customers to the mechanics if they need a bike repair
* help customers find a bike that fits them
* set customers up to test ride bikes
* work the register to conduct customer payments
**Qualities of a good volunteer for this role:**
* customer service oriented
* willing to work outside most of the shift
* able to work on their feet most of the shift
* comfortable working in a faced-paced environment
* open to a steep learning curve with a rewarding experience the more times you volunteer
* excited to learn about Velocity Bicycle Cooperative and become part of our volunteer team that keeps our wheels turning!
**What to Bring/Attire**
* A water bottle & snack
* Wear comfortable shoes and clothes appropriate for the day's weather
* Sunscreen and a baseball hat if it is sunny
**Age Requirements:** If you are under 18, you must bring a parent/guardian with you to the orientation to sign the waiver.
Open Shop Hours
We will have open shop hours for anyone to bring their bikes to work on or need help fixing your own bike.
We will also have bikes that need to be fixed so you can learn if you like.
We will need everyone to sign in when arriving and sign out when leaving so we can keep track of volunteer hours and shop times.
Suggested donation of $15 per hour for use of tools and space would be appreciated. Thank you!
Support Events Near You
Connect with your local Support community
Smart Search + AI: An Outcome-Driven Journey from IDP to a Suite of AI
Over a billion documents processed. Millions of Veterans impacted. Hundreds of thousands of employee hours saved. Faster decisions. Greater accuracy. More benefits in the hands of our disabled Veterans.
We created Smart Search, the world’s largest consumer of Amazon Textract, right when GenAI began reshaping what’s possible. Since then, we’ve built a suite of AI‑driven solutions that transform this data into real, measurable outcomes—accelerating benefits decisions for our Nation’s Veterans.
Join us for a focused conversation on how an outcome‑driven approach to AI is helping us boost accuracy, streamline workflows, and deliver faster results for those who have served.
This is a follow up to the AWS re:Invent 2023 "Intelligent Document Processing with Gen AI for Public Sector" presentation.
About Speaker: Cameron Williams is a Senior Technical Project Manager and cross-functional technical leader at Booz Allen Hamilton with 15+ years of experience architecting and evolving scalable, cloud-native systems, from greenfield development to complex enterprise modernization. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronw711/
**THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: https://www.franklin.edu/
**DIRECTIONS**
Franklin University
Fisher Hall
300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215
Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8
Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map.
NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct.
**Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?**
Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com
Brain Tumor Support Group
**Welcome to the Brain Injury Alliance of Kentucky’s Support Group.**
*\*\*This meeting has been moved to the 4th Monday of each month.*
This group is a safe space for **survivors of traumatic and acquired brain injuries**, as well as their **families and caregivers**, to find support, share experiences, and connect with others who understand the journey.
Whether you're newly injured, a longtime survivor, or supporting a loved one, you’ll find comfort, information, and encouragement here. Our professionally facilitated groups offer a confidential, compassionate setting for healing, learning, and growing together.
Join us to discover the power of community—because no one should walk this road alone.
*All survivors of ABI/TBI and those who care for them are welcome.*
\* This meeting is for persons with brain tumors and their guests.
\*\* This is a hybrid meeting. For those meeting in-person dinner is served at 5:45pm. Online begins at 6:30pm.
Stop Guessing: A Product Person's Guide to AI Adoption
## 🤝 Host Information
A co-hosted event by ProductTank Columbus & Women in Product Columbus
💡 About the Workshop
AI adoption is stalling across organizations — not because of a lack of motivation or tools, but because it's fundamentally a behavior design challenge.
This hands-on workshop applies proven Behavior Design models and methods to help you move from a vague organizational wish to boost AI adoption to 3-5 concrete, testable interventions you can act on starting tomorrow.
Whether you're a product manager, on a product team, or just someone trying to get AI to actually stick at work, you'll leave with a clear picture of what's worth focusing on, what to ignore, and how to drive real, sustained adoption — no guesswork required.
🛠️ What to Bring
Laptop: Fully charged and ready to go.
AI Assistant: Have your favorite AI assistant pulled up. (Dom will be using Claude, but feel free to use whichever assistant you prefer!)
🍕 Logistics & Perks
Food & Drink: Pizza and drinks provided!
Parking: Plenty of free spaces available on-site.
###
Losing Weight in Columbus - Saturday morning Metro Park at Scioto Audubon Park
Join the weight loss in Columbus group at the Scioto Audubon Park for an in person meeting. We'll meet to chat casually, talk about goals and enjoy one of Columbus's wonderful parks.
We'll meet at one of the outdoor shelters, which is covered in case of rain, is close to some walking trails, and there's also a climbing gym that people can try out (my favorite past time) if people are interested.
Let's meet and see where we can take things!
AWS Columbus: Smart Search + AI: An Outcome-Driven Journey
Title: Smart Search + AI: An Outcome-Driven Journey from IDP to a Suite of AI
Register at the Columbus AWS meetup: [https://www.meetup.com/columbus-aws-amazon-web-services-meetup/events/313426379/](https://www.meetup.com/columbus-aws-amazon-web-services-meetup/events/313426379/)
Over a billion documents processed. Millions of Veterans impacted. Hundreds of thousands of employee hours saved. Faster decisions. Greater accuracy. More benefits in the hands of our disabled Veterans.
We created Smart Search, the world’s largest consumer of Amazon Textract, right when GenAI began reshaping what’s possible. Since then, we’ve built a suite of AI‑driven solutions that transform this data into real, measurable outcomes—accelerating benefits decisions for our Nation’s Veterans.
Join us for a focused conversation on how an outcome‑driven approach to AI is helping us boost accuracy, streamline workflows, and deliver faster results for those who have served.
This is a follow up to the AWS re:Invent 2023 "Intelligent Document Processing with Gen AI for Public Sector" presentation.
About Speaker: Cameron Williams is a Senior Technical Project Manager and cross-functional technical leader at Booz Allen Hamilton with 15+ years of experience architecting and evolving scalable, cloud-native systems, from greenfield development to complex enterprise modernization. https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronw711/
**THANK YOU** *Franklin University* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Franklin University*, please visit their website: https://www.franklin.edu/
**DIRECTIONS**
Franklin University
Fisher Hall
300 E. Main St, Columbus, OH 43215
Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jxjBA2hUmS5qrvhq8
Parking is FREE! Please park in Lot C in front of Fisher Hall. See attached map.
NOTE: Map the address only. When mapping with Google Maps it may use the Fisher Hall at OSU, which is NOT correct.
**Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?**
Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com
Father/Son Men's Group (Bi-weekly)
Join us every other Wednesday during the summer at 5:30pm at Blendon Woods Inclusive Playground. Starts Wednesday June 17th.
**Agenda**
5:30-6:15 Kids Play & Dad's Meet
6:15-6:45 Snacks & Father/Son Men's Group Circle
\- Simple intro Round
\- What are Dad & Son working on?
\- Various Topics for Fathers and Sons\(What does it mean to be a man? Etc\.\)
6:45-7 Close. Go get food or keep playing.
Mario will lead this group and hold the space. Generally, it is a laid-back, open group that can be modified to accommodate those who show up. If people want to go get dinner after, we can :) It's all about making friends and building a positive community.
Mario has led men's groups for several years, sponsored by Speak Your Mind, an Ohio Non-Profit organization with a focus on men's mental well-being. Click here to learn more about SYM: https://linktr.ee/taketimespeakyourmind).
All events are non-denominational and donation-based. No one will be turned away for their beliefs or financial position.
Suggested donation is $5 per family per meeting (Covers the cost of meetup).
**Donation link**: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/angels-for-angels/speak-your-mind
**Liability Waiver** to fill out before your first event (Required). This covers the non-profit in the event of any accidents. https://form.jotform.com/242207035182144
Contact Mario with any questions: 808-855-8831
Address: 4265 E. Dublin Granville Road Columbus, OH 43081
Follow signs to the back of the park (Inclusive Playground)
Battle of the personal agents
Join the Columbus AI community for a special event.
**Battle of the Personal Agents** is your chance to see what people are actually building with AI agents and personal automation systems. Whether you’re running OpenClaw, Hermes, or a completely custom solution, bring your agent and show the community how it works.
We’re interested in real-world implementations: the problems your agent solves, how you use it day-to-day, how it’s hosted and managed, how you built it, and why you’ve chosen to keep using it. Live demonstrations are encouraged, so be prepared to show your code, architecture, workflows, and your agent performing real tasks.
This is less about polished presentations and more about sharing practical experience, comparing approaches, and learning from one another. If you’d like to present, please contact Chris Slee (via meetup) before the event so we can allocate enough time for everyone’s demonstrations.
Come ready to show what you’ve built, discover what others are doing, and maybe find a few ideas worth taking home.
Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus.
Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.linkedin.com/company/transformlabs/)
Sign up also accessible via [Transform Labs Luma](https://luma.com/transformlabshq)



























