It's unusual when you're starting out - or even when you've been in busy many years - to have a supportive community of others working through the same challenges, and that's exactly what the EBC provides. There are enough members that a good handful are likely to be in the same trade and understand its idiosyncrasies, but also lots of others in aligned trades so the sources of inspiration aren't limited by a single, dominant perspective. At the same time it's small enough that it feels intimate and supportive and there's real potential to find individual buddies or small groups for peer support. Best of all, there is a broad set of shared, anticapitalist, antiracist etc values among the membership and in the gentle facilitation of the community.