The important thing in community building is to create an environment and activities that gather together people, and give them opportunity to communicate and share. So community building is about certain lifestyle features.
Here is our experience with petanque - a French game with balls.
Petanque is a great game, because:
1. There is not great physical effort, so even children, people with disabilities and older people can play it.
2. This is a very social game - people can talk and drink beer or juice while playing.
3. It is easy to learn game with simple rules (but not simpler than they should be).
We started in 2008, and we were just two enthusiasts, but year after year we involved more people. We even participate in tournaments. It is a great example how people who don't know each other become closer and create friendships. From two in the beginning to twenty now - we created a community of people, who have made connections, have build a network and eventually some of them have started some side projects. :)
We have fun.
We play in different seasons, on different terrains. Only snow and hard rain can stop us.