Our department is in the early stages of a multi-year effort to nurture a culture that values active learning. We focus on the change process, including specific, pragmatic ideas from the literature on grassroots leadership and systemic change. We briefly review Wenger's work on cultivating communities of practice and use Wenger's evaluation of communities to substantiate the value of our community at present. This lens sheds light on the progress made so far and documents the early value small communities of practice can generate during initiatives to diffuse active learning more broadly to their departments. Connecting the narrative of our efforts to literature allows other departments to think about navigating power dynamics and cultivating change on their own campuses. The literature helps to structure the narrative and provides research-based guidance for others.