Dear Colleagues,
As I sit down to write this first email of our Year of Transformation I can’t help but reflect on the remarkable journey we’ve been on together over the last decade. In 2014, we launched the Functional Forum with a simple yet powerful vision: to bring together functional medicine practitioners in a way that was engaging, educational, and empowering. It was the early days of a movement—a movement that aimed to shift the trajectory of healthcare.
How the Functional Forum Communities Took Off
In 2014, the first Functional Forum was held, and soon after, the idea of local meetup groups took root. We were inspired by the realization that practitioners—whether new to the field or veterans—needed more than just education; they needed community.
They needed a local support system that could encourage them, share best practices, and foster collaboration.
By 2015, with the collaboration of the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), our meetup idea started to gain traction. What began as a handful of passionate groups grew rapidly, and by 2017-2018, we had an astonishing 400 meetup groups around the world.
This was a testament to the hunger for change among healthcare providers, the desire to connect, and the power of community to inspire collective action.
But as incredible as this achievement was, it also became clear that the decentralized nature of the effort—while empowering—was a massive logistical challenge. Anyone could start a group, and while we provided a central listing, organizing and managing this network was complex and time-consuming.
A Pandemic and a Pivot
Like so many others, the pandemic forced us to reevaluate our approach. With in-person gatherings halted, we decided to reinvent the Functional Forum Meetup model. We hoped to harness technology to create a more coordinated and scalable platform that would make organizing meetups easier for practitioners while allowing us to maintain a sense of global community.
In 2020, we relaunched the meetup initiative, this time leveraging new software that we believed could streamline the process, facilitate communication, and bring cohesion to what had been a somewhat fragmented network. We envisioned a global network of local gatherings that could be connected by a central platform, fostering knowledge sharing and collaboration like never before. It seemed like a great idea—one that, in theory, would make it easier to activate local communities around the world.
But the reality was different. The technology we selected didn’t meet our expectations. It fell short of fostering the kind of vibrant, easy-to-manage, and fully interactive network that we envisioned. We found ourselves caught between the complexities of software and the dynamic, human nature of community-building. The energy that had driven the early days of Functional Forum—the grassroots, locally-driven passion—wasn’t being adequately supported by the technology.
It became clear that what was needed was not just a better technological solution, but a new direction—one that harnessed the strengths we had developed over the years while recognizing the shifts that had taken place in the world of healthcare, politics and beyond.
A New Vision for 2025 and Beyond
The last few years have seen dramatic changes in the “salutogenic” landscape. The pandemic brought health—and the limitations of our current systems—into sharp focus. People are searching for more holistic, personalized, and integrated approaches to healthcare. They want to go beyond symptom management to wellness, prevention and longevity.
With big changes coming politically, but also much uncertainty and dysfunction, it became clear that local efforts and networks needed to be the focus.
The future lies not just in supporting practitioners with functional medicine training, but in creating larger networks that connect the broader wellness ecosystem. We saw the potential to bring together functional medicine doctors, gyms, chiropractors, health coaches, nutritionists, educators, and even local organic food producers.
This is the next stage of our journey: building on the coherence created within the functional medicine community to make connections with other health-focused services.
Imagine a local health ecosystem where your county’s functional medicine doctor, fitness trainers, homeschooling parents, organic farmers, and health educators are all interconnected, working together toward a shared vision of community wellness. It’s an idea that goes beyond education—it’s about creating true, systemic change, grounded in local collaboration and sustainable health practices.
This is why we’ve made the decision to sunset the Functional Forum Meetup technology infrastructure in 2025. We’re letting go of the software, but not the vision. Instead, we’re embracing a broader mission that integrates local health efforts into something far bigger. The focus now shifts from simply providing content and training to practitioners to actively fostering a community-led, county-by-county movement that will bring holistic health to the forefront of everyday life.
Launching a New Era
In early 2025, we will kick off this new phase with two major events. In January 2025 I will be heading to Healthy Tennessee for a two day event bringing together the organizations ready to enact local change. On April 5th I will be hosting the Healthy El Dorado Expo where we will connect organizations to the community itself in El Dorado County, CA.
These gatherings will serve as both a celebration of what we’ve achieved and a launchpad for the future. They will bring together not just functional medicine doctors but a diverse range of health and wellness professionals, entrepreneurs, farmers, educators, and community leaders who are committed to creating a healthier, more sustainable world.
This is the moment to move beyond silos and embrace the kind of integrated, community-driven health networks that can truly transform lives. This approach is more than the next step—it’s the natural evolution of what we’ve been building together.
I have already started sharing our process for building Healthy El Dorado Expo in the Facebook group previously called “Functional Forum Meetup Hosts” and now called Your Healthy County Leaders with 1100+ people inside. If leading a local community resonates, please join us and watch some of the videos I’ve created in the last month.
Looking Back with Gratitude, Looking Forward with Hope
I want to take a moment to thank every single one of you who has been part of this journey so far. From those who attended the first Functional Forum gatherings in New York to the hundreds of meetup leaders who volunteered their time, passion, and energy to create local communities, and to the practitioners who stayed connected even when it was difficult—I am deeply grateful. You have shown that it’s possible to create change from the ground up, and that a shared vision can inspire a global movement.
But our work is not done. If anything, it’s only just the beginning. The challenge now is to build on the coherence built over a decade and harness the national momentum and go even bigger—to use what we’ve learned and the connections we’ve made to create decentralized networks that are more directly impactful to the community than ever before.
As we prepare to sunset the old and welcome the new, I invite you to join us on this next phase of the journey. Let’s come together, not just as practitioners but as a community of change-makers, dedicated to creating a future where health and wellness are truly accessible to all.
Thank you for being part of the story so far. I can’t wait to see what we’ll achieve together next.
In health and community,
James Maskell
Founder, Evolution of Medicine
