Organizational Timeline

From big moments to little milestones, this page details TCPC from the first thought it was ever thunk up, until the last moment TCPC ran its active operations! Read thorugh this page to learn all about her story from start to finish, and all the milestones we experienced along the way.

An Idea is Born! - March 2024 - May 2024

2024, March 10 - Jenni & Sam first TCPC Brainstorm Chat
Jenni invited Sam over to her house to "chat about pole and stuff," and launched TCPC with the question, "wouldn't it be cool if there was some kind of group that connected pole dancers across studios, and we could have events, activities, and collect data, and just do all these kinda things?" Sam replied, "I'm headed to Bali in just a few days, but yes let's absolutely talk more about that when I'm back."

2024, March 17 - Jenni & Abbey first TCPC brainstorm chat
While Sam was in Bali, Jenni and Abbey met over Zoom, having been in classes together in the past. During this meeting they both learned they went to graduate school to study psychometrics and work in academic research fields developing survey methodology. They got really excited about the ways to leverage data within the pole community to help support people better.

2024, April 7 - TCPC official First Meeting (Zawadi Restaurant)
Jenni, Sam, & Abbey all met up at Zawadi restaurant in Bloomington to begin discussing what making this kind of group could look like. They began talking about logos, names, values, colors, logos and more! They began taking extensive notes, meticuliously operationalizing every word they agreed on, and developing an outline for what would come to be the Twin Cities Pole Collective! - Wanna hear more about this process? Listen to our one and only TeaCPC podcast episode, where we talk about this at length!

TCPC Online - May 2024 - Aug 2024

2024, May 13 - Instagram Launched
We co-developed a starter pack of 9 different graphics to lead with, launching them all and connecting with our inner circles before mass following and connecting with the pole community at large. We wanted people to know that we had a plan and weren't operating on a whim, we were operating from a place of intention.
2024, May 20 - First 'Where you can Pole' Launched
We were extremely excited about sharing cross-studio resources, and this was our very first one! To our knowledge, the first and only resource for pole dancers in the Twin Cities about all the available studios you can attend classes or open pole at in the Metro area.

2024, May 29 - "Pre-Research" Input Form Launched (closed August 16, 2024).
We kicked off our first research initiative by asking Twin Cities polers what was important to them about their community! We received 17 responses and used these to begin developing our methodology for the TCPC Studio Profiles.

2024, June 2 - WhatsApp Community Launched!
We launched our WhatsApp Community and began hosting groupchats such as "Events & Activities," "Questions & Open Chat," "Buy, Sell, & Swap," - and more! What started out with just a dozen or so joiners has grown into 100+ people!
2024, June 21 - Initial Pole in the Park Scheduled Date, Rescheduled due to rain.
We were excited to host our first official TCPC in-person event on Friday June 21, but unfortunately the rain forced us out! Due to travel plans, we had to reschedule until late summer in August.

TCPC In-Person! - Aug 2024 - Feb 2025

2024, August 9 - Pole in the Park
The summer welcomed us with beautiful weather to kick off our very first TCPC in-person event, and it was a hit! We printed exactly 50 waivers, and only had 1 left at the conclusion of the event! We spent hours by Lake Bde Maka Ska playing around on poles, taking pictures, and celebrating summer in the best way we know how! To read more about this event, visit our Events & Projects page.

2024, October 13 - Community Geometry
Our second TCPC event happened at the Land of Lakes Pole Festival in Minneapolis Minnesota on October 13 - Community Geometry! This was a fun, community building activity where we came in with different group poses we found on social media and built them together as a large group to make cute shapes and fun content for social media. Watch our final video here!

2025, January 19 - Capturing the Collective
Our next big TCPC event was a fan favorite: a group photoshoot at Studio Raw in St. Paul. We brought in 5 stage poles, 5 photographers, and 20 pole dancers to rotate sets, snap photos, and produce thousands of images that are still being shared to feeds today!

2025, February 15 - Welcome Nicktae!
On February 15th our Infrastructure Team welcomed its first expansion: Nicktae! They joined as our Social Media Coordinator and instantly jumped in headfirst taking over the Monthly Overview, and producing other highlight reels and content for our Instagram Feed!

Growing & Heights - Mar 2025 - Aug 2025

2025, March 10 - Welcome Social & Events Committee!
In March we invited active members of the TCPC community to join the Social & Events Committee! 4 community members joined us at this time: Amber, Franny, Ophie, and Stevie! This committee was designed to meet once per month to develop the infrastructure for sustained event capacity - both small-scale events, and larger-scale productions. To read more about this committee and the contributions of so many others who made TCPC a success, visit our It Takes a Village page!
2025, March 17 - Updated 'Where you can pole'
In March of 2025, a new pole studio opened in the Twin Cities named Spinning Sirens. The addition of this studio led us to reoperationalize what we defined as "The Twin Cities" and update our Google Maps on available studios in the Metro area.
2025, April 7 - TeaCPC One & Only Episode Dropped
For TCPC's 1-year conceptual birthday, the 3 TCPC Co-founders got together and recorded our one and only TeaCPC episode detailing what went into the collective's conception, how the first year had gone, and their hopes and dreams for the future of TCPC at the time. You can listen to this episode here!

2025, May 13 - Community Resource Board Launched
We launched our Community Resource board, a place for polers to share resources about polewear brands they recommended, information on upcoming pole retreats and travel, and other relevant links the community had long wanted hosted in one location! This resource board is no longer active, but a PDF version of this list as of April 2026 can be found on our operations page.

2025, May 18 - Swap & Shop
We hosted our next larger TCPC event: our first official Swap & Shop! Polers brought in both polewear and non-polewear alike to trade, sell, and donate out their no longer needed garments! We had about 20 people in attendance, and all the unclaimed items were donated to the George Floyd Square People's Closet.

2025, June 28 - Revving on Rooftops
Another fan favorite, on June 28 we hosted our very own TCPC Videoshoot on top of a parking ramp in Minneapolis! We set up a stage pole, got our hands on some very cool cars, and local drone videographer Colin (@hays_droneguy) spent the day filming 20 different pole dancers to get their own mini content video to share on their feeds. Despite a breif run in with some parking ramp authorities, we also enjoyed time in community and developed this community collective video!

2025, August 9 - TCPC Birthday Party
To celebrate our 1-year of TCPC Programming, we hosted another huge event at La Doña Cervecería featuring freestyle dancing from any and everybody in the pole community who wanted to participate! Dancers signed up for free in one of four different freestyle vibes, and got up to 2 minutes on stage to showcase their pole skills in front of our community audience! This event was complete with some of our favorite community photographers and was a great way to end the summer.

TCPC Chapter 2 - Aug 2025 - April 2026

2025, August 25 - Shift to Chapter 2
In August of 2025, we started to notice the burnout of our infrastructure team and our inability to sustain programming at the way we had been, so we shifted into a new model of operations: Chapter 2. Chapter 2 called for individiual community members to create their own events and tap TCPC as needed for whatever infrastructure they needed support with. Chapter 2 minimized the posting rate on social media, and really operated as a "background" entity, with the goal of empowering others to take the reigns.
2026, January 30 - Clapping Cheeks for the Streets Calendar Project Launched
In January of 2026, the city of Minneapolis experienced an influx of federal agents targeting many different communities in our cities. Many polers felt moved to get involved and make a difference, and an idea was suggested to the group to develop a Community Calendar to raise funds for a community organization doing work to support those being targeted. This idea was an INSTANT HIT, so members of the TCPC community began developing committees and groups to bring this idea to life. The calendar was developed and designed from Feb-March 2026, printed & assembled in April 2026, and distributed April/May 2026. This fundraiser brought in a total of $2500, and after subtracting the cost of calendar production, $2056.68 was donated to MIRAC (Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee).

TCPC Transitions - Archival/Ad Hoc Status
- July 2026 Onwards

2026, March 2 - Co-founder agreement for Status Shift
Jenni and Sam met up and mutually agreed that they were unable to continue operating the collective sustainably or functionally from the ideological development it was founded on in 2024. They began exploring different options for what could happen next with the collective. They ultimately decided to transition the collective into an archival/ad-hoc entity - allowing the natural community to continue existing as it has evolved, while disbanding the no longer sustainable elements of the collective's initial mission and vision. For more about this decision, please visit our Evaluation & Reflection page.
2026, July 23 - Official Public Announcement
Sam and Jenni officially transitioned TCPC as a brand into its archival/ad-hoc status, publicly sharing the announcement on social media, updating the WhatsApp branding, closing most resources, and sharing the technical evaluation and reflection notice.

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