February 2, 2012 at 13:43Not for money: organizing a community of interest
Hello, dear habrachitateli!
This article presents thoughts and a brief squeeze of their experience about organizing a community of interest. It was written on the experience of the creation and development of the Ural Regional Rifle Club - a non-profit community of people who are passionate about weapons, shooting and everything connected with it.
The community has existed for more than 4 years, we regularly hold various events - shooting competitions, festivals, just gather people. The club started out of the blue with 3 people, and before that they weren’t even very familiar with each other. Now we have accumulated a good material base that allows us to hold competitions in various shooting disciplines, and most importantly - the experience that I want to share with dear readers.
All of the following - my IMHO, with pleasure in the comments I read about your experience and answer questions.
1. Community organization is not done for money, it is done for the soul. This will require you to invest both material and others - your time, strength and nerves. Few people manage to make money on their hobby, and this is not the case described here.
2. Your profit is communication with new, interesting people who are tuned to you on the same wavelength. And with people with whom in your ordinary life you most likely would simply not have met. It is also a great opportunity to try and develop your managerial, leadership and communication skills.
3. It is highly desirable to clearly understand what you want to achieve - mission, strategic goals, objectives. Based on this, build the further development of your community (club, association).
4. Everything is done for people. If you cannot gather and rally like-minded people around your business, then nothing will work. You should be harassed by your topic, and with this you should infect others.
5. Take care of the site where you will communicate. This can be done on existing resources, but there you directly depend on factors that you have no influence on (bad moderators, the impossibility of independent development). The best option is your resource, on which you are full owners. It should be able to create closed sections for communication. After creating the site, immediately fix the rules of communication on it and stick to them.
6. Try not to give out real authority for moderation, management, access to closed resources without real need. Taking something is usually more difficult than giving it.
7. Try to make sure that in the event of your sudden departure, the community can continue to live on. At a minimum, leave the accounts of all the services necessary for the work of your community to a reliable person.
8. All best practices regarding agreements, contacts of the right people must be stored in a place in which they will be available to the organizers.
9. To develop - you need a team of organizers. The more diverse and interchangeable it is, the better. Sooner or later, pulling everything into one person will not work at the right level.
10. However, still be prepared to do all or most of the work yourself. Most likely, this will not happen, but it’s always moral to be prepared for this.
11. A team can consist of volunteers who take part in the organization of events, etc., as well as organizers - people express a desire to develop the club on an ongoing basis for some quite a long time.
12. To get into the organizing team should be an opportunity for any member of the community. The main criterion is that this person should take over and carry a certain part of the work. This is quite hard work, not show-offs.
13. Meet regularly with org. group and discuss current issues and issues of further development.
14. People in org. a group can come and go, for various reasons - this is a normal process. The main thing is that there is always a viable backbone of the organizing team.
15. At some point in time you may not be in it, because people's hobbies and interests change over time. But your business will live on, which, you see, is not bad!
16. We are all different, with our own individual set of cockroaches in our heads. Learn the mantra "We are not gingerbreads here," and repeat it more often to be more tolerant of people with whom you are doing the same thing.
17. In addition to the organizing team, there are participants who are happy to participate in events, but do not want to or cannot organize. They are the ones for whom you do all this, and you need to give them the opportunity to invest in development (at least 100 rubles for hosting) for a sense of ownership. You do one thing.
18. Try to monitor the moral climate of the resource you are talking to (your forum, blog, etc.). If you build it on the principles of openness, friendliness, then this atmosphere will support itself.
19. There are always inadequate people. In a good atmosphere of openness and friendliness, they usually do not live, but sometimes it is worth helping them to leave. Try not to let scrappers, they are destructive and badly affect the moral climate of the community.
20. Democracy - does not work. All strategic and serious tactical decisions are first sucked inside the org. groups, and only then they are carried out. Otherwise, a pair of trolls can block any process.
21. In order for your club to live and develop, you need money and other tangible assets. There are different ways to get them - collecting membership dues, voluntary donations from club members, income from sponsors, advertising revenue, etc.
22. Immediately ashore, discuss that any donations of any tangible assets - money, equipment, etc. remain in the club in any situation in the relationship between the club and the donor.
23. An important psychological point - none of the organizers, including you, should receive any direct financial profit from the activities of your club.
24. Try to provide as many convenient ways as possible to transfer money to you. Electronic payment systems, wire transfer, the ability to transfer them to someone from the organizers or proxies in different areas of the city, etc. - the more convenient it is for your teammates to transfer money to you, the more people will be able to do this.
25. It is highly desirable to record all income and expenses of money with documentary evidence.
26. If the club needs something - do not hesitate to ask its members about it. In most cases, you can at least save a lot by using the connections of your comrades. Also do not hesitate to ask for help and third-party organizations - no one will give for demand in the nose.
27. Do not be shy to take any help offered, material, monetary - generally any. It is much easier for many to allocate money for the development of the club than, for example, to spend time preparing events. And on the contrary, it’s easier for someone to come and help.
28. All proceeds and collected funds, as a rule, are directed to the development of the club and operational expenses - hosting, equipment purchase, etc.
29. All funds collected by the whole world for a specific project should be as open as possible, documented, and made publicly available.
30. It is better not to shine spending money on operational issues of organizing events, so as not to feed the trolls. However, one must be prepared to ward off if people have questions.
31. When planning events for which expenses are shared between participants, always try to raise funds for it with a small margin. Your goal is not to go to zero during the organization - but to do everything in a quality manner. Surplus money, if formed, will go to the club’s development fund.
32. Make sure that the property of your club acquired through overwork is not lost. To do this, find a good, responsible supply manager and a place where your equipment can be stored.
33. There will always be several inadequacies that will unreasonably try to present to you because you profit from the rest. Be prepared for this and be prepared to respond reasonably to their arrivals.
34. Perhaps your decisions will be unpopular with some part of your community. Try to explain your point of view and argue for it, but it is impossible to do what suits everyone. Learn the mantra "I am not a carrot to please everyone", and in severe cases, use it. In such cases, supporting your org is also very important. groups.
35. Official: decide for yourself which legal form of organization to choose for yourself. It is easier to work with an organization with other organizations and state. bodies, but it will require resources for its services. Do not produce entities unnecessarily.
36. And may you succeed!
I hope this experience helps you if you decide to create a community around your hobby. It can be shooting, RC-modeling, breeding hamsters - I think a lot of the above can come in handy.
If this article is of interest, I can tell you in more detail and with examples about the development of our club.
upd: the club logo, as it does not correspond to the high precepts of Lebedev removed. :)
This article presents thoughts and a brief squeeze of their experience about organizing a community of interest. It was written on the experience of the creation and development of the Ural Regional Rifle Club - a non-profit community of people who are passionate about weapons, shooting and everything connected with it.
The community has existed for more than 4 years, we regularly hold various events - shooting competitions, festivals, just gather people. The club started out of the blue with 3 people, and before that they weren’t even very familiar with each other. Now we have accumulated a good material base that allows us to hold competitions in various shooting disciplines, and most importantly - the experience that I want to share with dear readers.
All of the following - my IMHO, with pleasure in the comments I read about your experience and answer questions.
Organization Issues
1. Community organization is not done for money, it is done for the soul. This will require you to invest both material and others - your time, strength and nerves. Few people manage to make money on their hobby, and this is not the case described here.
2. Your profit is communication with new, interesting people who are tuned to you on the same wavelength. And with people with whom in your ordinary life you most likely would simply not have met. It is also a great opportunity to try and develop your managerial, leadership and communication skills.
3. It is highly desirable to clearly understand what you want to achieve - mission, strategic goals, objectives. Based on this, build the further development of your community (club, association).
4. Everything is done for people. If you cannot gather and rally like-minded people around your business, then nothing will work. You should be harassed by your topic, and with this you should infect others.
5. Take care of the site where you will communicate. This can be done on existing resources, but there you directly depend on factors that you have no influence on (bad moderators, the impossibility of independent development). The best option is your resource, on which you are full owners. It should be able to create closed sections for communication. After creating the site, immediately fix the rules of communication on it and stick to them.
6. Try not to give out real authority for moderation, management, access to closed resources without real need. Taking something is usually more difficult than giving it.
7. Try to make sure that in the event of your sudden departure, the community can continue to live on. At a minimum, leave the accounts of all the services necessary for the work of your community to a reliable person.
8. All best practices regarding agreements, contacts of the right people must be stored in a place in which they will be available to the organizers.
Organizing team
9. To develop - you need a team of organizers. The more diverse and interchangeable it is, the better. Sooner or later, pulling everything into one person will not work at the right level.
10. However, still be prepared to do all or most of the work yourself. Most likely, this will not happen, but it’s always moral to be prepared for this.
11. A team can consist of volunteers who take part in the organization of events, etc., as well as organizers - people express a desire to develop the club on an ongoing basis for some quite a long time.
12. To get into the organizing team should be an opportunity for any member of the community. The main criterion is that this person should take over and carry a certain part of the work. This is quite hard work, not show-offs.
13. Meet regularly with org. group and discuss current issues and issues of further development.
14. People in org. a group can come and go, for various reasons - this is a normal process. The main thing is that there is always a viable backbone of the organizing team.
15. At some point in time you may not be in it, because people's hobbies and interests change over time. But your business will live on, which, you see, is not bad!
16. We are all different, with our own individual set of cockroaches in our heads. Learn the mantra "We are not gingerbreads here," and repeat it more often to be more tolerant of people with whom you are doing the same thing.
17. In addition to the organizing team, there are participants who are happy to participate in events, but do not want to or cannot organize. They are the ones for whom you do all this, and you need to give them the opportunity to invest in development (at least 100 rubles for hosting) for a sense of ownership. You do one thing.
18. Try to monitor the moral climate of the resource you are talking to (your forum, blog, etc.). If you build it on the principles of openness, friendliness, then this atmosphere will support itself.
19. There are always inadequate people. In a good atmosphere of openness and friendliness, they usually do not live, but sometimes it is worth helping them to leave. Try not to let scrappers, they are destructive and badly affect the moral climate of the community.
20. Democracy - does not work. All strategic and serious tactical decisions are first sucked inside the org. groups, and only then they are carried out. Otherwise, a pair of trolls can block any process.
Tangible assets: equipment, money
21. In order for your club to live and develop, you need money and other tangible assets. There are different ways to get them - collecting membership dues, voluntary donations from club members, income from sponsors, advertising revenue, etc.
22. Immediately ashore, discuss that any donations of any tangible assets - money, equipment, etc. remain in the club in any situation in the relationship between the club and the donor.
23. An important psychological point - none of the organizers, including you, should receive any direct financial profit from the activities of your club.
24. Try to provide as many convenient ways as possible to transfer money to you. Electronic payment systems, wire transfer, the ability to transfer them to someone from the organizers or proxies in different areas of the city, etc. - the more convenient it is for your teammates to transfer money to you, the more people will be able to do this.
25. It is highly desirable to record all income and expenses of money with documentary evidence.
26. If the club needs something - do not hesitate to ask its members about it. In most cases, you can at least save a lot by using the connections of your comrades. Also do not hesitate to ask for help and third-party organizations - no one will give for demand in the nose.
27. Do not be shy to take any help offered, material, monetary - generally any. It is much easier for many to allocate money for the development of the club than, for example, to spend time preparing events. And on the contrary, it’s easier for someone to come and help.
28. All proceeds and collected funds, as a rule, are directed to the development of the club and operational expenses - hosting, equipment purchase, etc.
29. All funds collected by the whole world for a specific project should be as open as possible, documented, and made publicly available.
30. It is better not to shine spending money on operational issues of organizing events, so as not to feed the trolls. However, one must be prepared to ward off if people have questions.
31. When planning events for which expenses are shared between participants, always try to raise funds for it with a small margin. Your goal is not to go to zero during the organization - but to do everything in a quality manner. Surplus money, if formed, will go to the club’s development fund.
32. Make sure that the property of your club acquired through overwork is not lost. To do this, find a good, responsible supply manager and a place where your equipment can be stored.
Miscellaneous questions
33. There will always be several inadequacies that will unreasonably try to present to you because you profit from the rest. Be prepared for this and be prepared to respond reasonably to their arrivals.
34. Perhaps your decisions will be unpopular with some part of your community. Try to explain your point of view and argue for it, but it is impossible to do what suits everyone. Learn the mantra "I am not a carrot to please everyone", and in severe cases, use it. In such cases, supporting your org is also very important. groups.
35. Official: decide for yourself which legal form of organization to choose for yourself. It is easier to work with an organization with other organizations and state. bodies, but it will require resources for its services. Do not produce entities unnecessarily.
36. And may you succeed!
I hope this experience helps you if you decide to create a community around your hobby. It can be shooting, RC-modeling, breeding hamsters - I think a lot of the above can come in handy.
If this article is of interest, I can tell you in more detail and with examples about the development of our club.
upd: the club logo, as it does not correspond to the high precepts of Lebedev removed. :)