Not for money: organizing a community of interest
Hello, dear habrachiteli!
This article presents thoughts and a brief squeeze of your 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 gathering people. The club began out of the blue by 3 people, and before that they were not even very familiar with each other. Now we have a good material base, allowing to hold competitions in various small 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 earn their hobbies, and this is not the case described here.
2. Your profit is communication with new, interesting people who are in tune with you on the same wavelength. And with the people with whom in your normal life, you probably would 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 - the 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 like-minded people and rally around your business, then it will not work. You should be shoved from 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 own resource where you are the rightful 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 without real need not to distribute authority for moderation, management, access to closed resources. Picking up something is usually harder than giving.
7. Try to make sure that in the event of your sudden departure the community can continue to live on. At a minimum, keep accounts from all the necessary services for the work of your community to a reliable person.
8. All developments concerning agreements, contacts of the right people should be stored in a place where they will be available to the organizers.
9. To develop - we need a team of organizers. The more developed and interchangeable it is, the better. Sooner or later, pull 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 is always necessary to be morally ready for this.
11. The team may consist of volunteers who take on part of the work of organizing events, etc., as well as organizers - people express a desire to engage in the development of the club on an ongoing basis for some long enough time.
12. To get into the team of organizers should be an opportunity for any member of the community. The main criterion - this person must take over and carry a certain part of the work. This is quite hard work, not Ponte.
13. Regularly gather org. group and discuss current issues and issues for further development.
14. People in the org. group can come and go, for various reasons - this is a normal process. The main thing is to constantly have 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, that, you see, not bad!
16. We are all different, with our own individual set of cockroaches in my head. Learn the mantra "We are not all gingerbread," and repeat it more often to be more tolerant of the people with whom you do one thing.
17. In addition to the organizing team, there are participants who are happy to participate in events, but they don’t want to or cannot organize the organization. They are the ones for which you are doing all this, and it is necessary, for the feeling of belonging, too, to give them the opportunity to invest in development (at least 100 rubles for hosting). You do one thing.
18. Try to follow the moral climate of the resource on which you communicate (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 them to help them leave. Try to avoid srachey, 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 are taken out. Otherwise, a pair of trolls can block any process.
')
21. In order for your club to live and develop it needs money and other tangible assets. Ways of obtaining them are different - collecting membership dues, voluntary donations from members of the club, receipts from sponsors, advertising revenues, etc.
22. Immediately ashore, discuss that any donations of any tangible assets are money, equipment, etc. remain in the club in any scenario in the relationship between the club and the donor.
23. An important psychological point is that none of the organizers, including you, should receive any direct financial gain from the activities of your club.
24. Try to provide as many convenient ways as possible to transfer money to you. Electronic payment systems, transfers by bank transfer, the ability to transfer them to someone from the organizers or proxies in different parts of the city, etc. - the more convenient your teammates to transfer money to you, the more people will be able to do it.
25. It is highly desirable to record all receipts and expenditures of money with documentary evidence.
26. If the club needs something, feel free 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 you demand for the nose.
27. Do not hesitate to take any proposed assistance, material, monetary - in general any. Many find it easier to allocate money for the development of the club than, for example, spend time preparing events. And on the contrary, it is easier for someone to come and help.
28. All proceeds and collected funds are usually allocated for the development of the club and operating expenses - hosting, equipment purchase, etc.
29. All funds that funds are collected by the whole world for a specific project must be as open as possible, documented, and be made publicly available.
30. Spending money on operational issues of organizing events is better not to shine, so as not to feed the trolls. However, one must be prepared to recapture if people have questions.
31. When planning an event, the costs of which are shared among the participants, always try to raise funds for it with a small margin. Your goal is not to go to zero when organizing - but to make everything qualitatively. Surplus money, if it is formed, will go to the club development fund.
32. Make sure that your club’s acquired hard work is not lost. To do this, you need to 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 you for what you are preying on the rest. Be ready for this and be ready to respond with arguments on their assaults.
34. Perhaps your decisions will be unpopular with some part of your community. Try to explain your point of view and argue it, but it is impossible to do what suits absolutely everyone. Learn the mantra "I am not a carrot to please everyone," and in severe cases use it. In such cases, the support of your org is also very important. groups.
35. Officials: decide for yourself which legal form of organization to choose for yourself. With the organization is easier to work with other organizations and state. authorities, but it will require resources for its services. Do not procreate essences unnecessarily.
36. And may you succeed!
I hope that this experience will help you if you decide to create a community around your hobbies. It could be shooting, RC-modeling, breeding hamsters - I think that a lot of the above can be useful.
If this article causes interest, I can tell you in more detail and with examples about the development of our club.
upd: the logo of the club as removed from the Lebedev's high precepts. :)
This article presents thoughts and a brief squeeze of your 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 gathering people. The club began out of the blue by 3 people, and before that they were not even very familiar with each other. Now we have a good material base, allowing to hold competitions in various small 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 earn their hobbies, and this is not the case described here.
2. Your profit is communication with new, interesting people who are in tune with you on the same wavelength. And with the people with whom in your normal life, you probably would 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 - the 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 like-minded people and rally around your business, then it will not work. You should be shoved from 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 own resource where you are the rightful 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 without real need not to distribute authority for moderation, management, access to closed resources. Picking up something is usually harder than giving.
7. Try to make sure that in the event of your sudden departure the community can continue to live on. At a minimum, keep accounts from all the necessary services for the work of your community to a reliable person.
8. All developments concerning agreements, contacts of the right people should be stored in a place where they will be available to the organizers.
Team of organizers
9. To develop - we need a team of organizers. The more developed and interchangeable it is, the better. Sooner or later, pull 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 is always necessary to be morally ready for this.
11. The team may consist of volunteers who take on part of the work of organizing events, etc., as well as organizers - people express a desire to engage in the development of the club on an ongoing basis for some long enough time.
12. To get into the team of organizers should be an opportunity for any member of the community. The main criterion - this person must take over and carry a certain part of the work. This is quite hard work, not Ponte.
13. Regularly gather org. group and discuss current issues and issues for further development.
14. People in the org. group can come and go, for various reasons - this is a normal process. The main thing is to constantly have 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, that, you see, not bad!
16. We are all different, with our own individual set of cockroaches in my head. Learn the mantra "We are not all gingerbread," and repeat it more often to be more tolerant of the people with whom you do one thing.
17. In addition to the organizing team, there are participants who are happy to participate in events, but they don’t want to or cannot organize the organization. They are the ones for which you are doing all this, and it is necessary, for the feeling of belonging, too, to give them the opportunity to invest in development (at least 100 rubles for hosting). You do one thing.
18. Try to follow the moral climate of the resource on which you communicate (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 them to help them leave. Try to avoid srachey, 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 are taken out. Otherwise, a pair of trolls can block any process.
')
Tangible assets: equipment, money
21. In order for your club to live and develop it needs money and other tangible assets. Ways of obtaining them are different - collecting membership dues, voluntary donations from members of the club, receipts from sponsors, advertising revenues, etc.
22. Immediately ashore, discuss that any donations of any tangible assets are money, equipment, etc. remain in the club in any scenario in the relationship between the club and the donor.
23. An important psychological point is that none of the organizers, including you, should receive any direct financial gain from the activities of your club.
24. Try to provide as many convenient ways as possible to transfer money to you. Electronic payment systems, transfers by bank transfer, the ability to transfer them to someone from the organizers or proxies in different parts of the city, etc. - the more convenient your teammates to transfer money to you, the more people will be able to do it.
25. It is highly desirable to record all receipts and expenditures of money with documentary evidence.
26. If the club needs something, feel free 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 you demand for the nose.
27. Do not hesitate to take any proposed assistance, material, monetary - in general any. Many find it easier to allocate money for the development of the club than, for example, spend time preparing events. And on the contrary, it is easier for someone to come and help.
28. All proceeds and collected funds are usually allocated for the development of the club and operating expenses - hosting, equipment purchase, etc.
29. All funds that funds are collected by the whole world for a specific project must be as open as possible, documented, and be made publicly available.
30. Spending money on operational issues of organizing events is better not to shine, so as not to feed the trolls. However, one must be prepared to recapture if people have questions.
31. When planning an event, the costs of which are shared among the participants, always try to raise funds for it with a small margin. Your goal is not to go to zero when organizing - but to make everything qualitatively. Surplus money, if it is formed, will go to the club development fund.
32. Make sure that your club’s acquired hard work is not lost. To do this, you need to find a good, responsible supply manager and a place where your equipment can be stored.
Different issues
33. There will always be several inadequacies that will unreasonably try to present you for what you are preying on the rest. Be ready for this and be ready to respond with arguments on their assaults.
34. Perhaps your decisions will be unpopular with some part of your community. Try to explain your point of view and argue it, but it is impossible to do what suits absolutely everyone. Learn the mantra "I am not a carrot to please everyone," and in severe cases use it. In such cases, the support of your org is also very important. groups.
35. Officials: decide for yourself which legal form of organization to choose for yourself. With the organization is easier to work with other organizations and state. authorities, but it will require resources for its services. Do not procreate essences unnecessarily.
36. And may you succeed!
I hope that this experience will help you if you decide to create a community around your hobbies. It could be shooting, RC-modeling, breeding hamsters - I think that a lot of the above can be useful.
If this article causes interest, I can tell you in more detail and with examples about the development of our club.
upd: the logo of the club as removed from the Lebedev's high precepts. :)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/137137/
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