You want to organize your community, but don't know where to start. How can you learn the best resources?

I would recommend starting with identifying the broad issue/problem, and then use a strategy called 'cutting the issue' to break it down into a problem that you/your group can realistically address. For example, the broad issue you identify might be climate change, and then you can break that down into carbon emissions from fossil fuels. So the problem you want to address is emissions from fossil fuels, which you could narrow down more to be relevant to your community ie. maybe you want to look at reducing emissions in your school.

Ill share an example from a personal experience. Problem : I noticed that there was no where available in the city for local artists to network, practice their craft and develop their stage presence. This lead my team and I to create the first international open mic series to educate, encourage and engage with international musicians in Warsaw to build a strong supportive community. Identify the issue, make a plan of action, execute something impactful.

The first ever question before organizing any type of community is ask "What's the purpose?". We all have lots of good ideas that can create an impact, but without a clear purpose or an MTP (Massive Transformative Purpose) you risk to organize one more Friday book club :D So, think first: - I can do/know how to do/passionate about ABC. - What is currently missing in this ABC that can provide value to people? - What can I do to deliver missing part of ABC to people? Try to find a unique point for your community that can deliver high-quality purpose and engagement.

What I advice is to use Buyer Persona Canvas to map out all possible stakeholders aka community members, and Unique Value Proposition Canvas as they contain customer (member) segment and an overview on benefits, pains and needs. These 2 canvases work perfectly for community goals, not only for marketing or product. You can start from asking your family members, friends, colleagues, etc. about the topic of your community to get more data on problems. Use online survey forms (Google Form is the simplest one) to reach out to people in your network. Then analyze the data you received and see how you can align it with your community purpose/goals.

If you think about bigger impact, having online community is your option (we put our community on Discord, for example). Online communities can provide you with diverse insights and feedback from different countries. Of course, if you have an issue to solve locally, go local in hybrid mode. Why hybrid? You can start from your city/town face-to-face meetups, but updating people from your region/state online, growing members and the network. Joining existing groups can be a good idea if you want to act as an active member with new ideas and activities, and/or cross-promote communities and groups.

Connect with community profs and peers to share knowledge and experience. Believe me, there's room for everyone. As mentioned, you don't need to reinvent the wheel because there are many practical things that have been already done. But you can collaborate and co-create to improve or adapt them. Learn from other people's mistakes to avoid falling into the same trap, ask for help and advice - community is about people at every level!

Start with a roadmap and KPIs, it will give you numeric overview on your work. Basic things you need to check regularly (for example, monthly/bimonthly) are: - community engagement (number of active members, frequency of participation, etc) - membership growth (# of new members joining, retention rate, trends on demographics) - community satisfaction (gather feedback) - achievements of goals (short-term and long-term goals, social change) - media and public relations (visibility, SM engagement) Once you see there's something amiss or doesn't work as you wished, adapt your strategy to mediate a problem. Sometimes it can require time. Remember, you can't achieve 100% in a one day!

If you don't have fun while developing a project with your community, you will lose the drive to deliver the best experience. This will be detrimental down the line and slowly appear in your efforts and work. Enjoy it, or don't do it at all. Best way to stay passionate, is to be around others with the same vision who feed one another that enthusiastic energy.