For finding awesome people, the BurningMan community has been the most effective for me, YMMV! For maintaining quality relationships, e.g. with my late wife, the most effective thing was studying NVC together with a small group of friends. We would take 1-2 weeks to explore each chapter of Marshall Rosenberg's "Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life" along with Lucy Leu's "Nonviolent Communication Companion Workbook". We would practicing what we were learning during the week and meet 1 evening per chapter to discuss our experience. This became an annual practice with a revolving group of participants.