🏖 The clock is ticking Rosieland Retreat!
Thanks to our Rosieland Sponsors...
🔍 Continuous Community Clues
- Are your events wasting people's time?
- Do this instead of a survey
- Ask the same question in many different locations
- Conversation is important, but constant conversation is dangerous
- We can all learn to pass the mic
➿ The Two Loops Framework and the death of the dominant community industry
This Two Loops Framework feels relevant for where the community industry is going through changes. The dominant system is dying and the new emerging system is starting to form.
We can see this in spaces that don't truly care about our industry and the people who have supported them along the way.
For example, Commsor who have raised $66m and still don't have a product. We can perhaps accept this in the startup world and laugh it off, but along the way, they basically abandoned the Community Club in favour of whatever they are building now. With no explanation or conversation about the change or where they are heading.
This is what we would refer to as 'boy math'.
Boy math is how startups get billion-dollar valuations but never make a profit.
— M A U R A (@mauraball) September 27, 2023
There is no care or respect for the community people that helped them grow along the way. No explanation. Nothing. Nada. It's all about GTN (Go-To-Network) now, but nothing has been communicated to the community about the change. How much longer can they hide behind corporate marketing? They certainly can't hide behind their Glassdoor reviews.
Then there's Carrie (and others) talking (again) about their trauma of CMX and a complete lack of acknowledgement.
It's scary to stand up, I get that. I'm focusing on what is already out there. These are not really my story to tell, but it's important and it impacts our community industry, which I care about deeply.
Right now is a great time to listen and contemplate the community care we can provide for one another.
“Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but we don’t have to do anything else. We don’t have to advise, or coach, or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen. If we can do that, we create moments in which real healing is available. Whatever life we have experienced, if we can tell our story to someone who listens, we find it easier to deal with our circumstances.” — Margaret Wheatley
We can dismiss all of this as 'part of life' or we can make good and intentional decisions with information that matters. I look forward to what emerges in the next wave of community.
💟 Symbols, Heroes and Rituals
Drew Pontikis explores community culture, where symbols, heroes and rituals stood out for me:
- Symbols are ‘words, gestures, pictures or objects that carry a particular meaning’ to those who are members of the community.
- Heroes are considered ‘persons, alive or dead, real or imaginary, that possess characteristics highly prized by the community’ and are therefore considered role models.
- Rituals are things that a community might do that don’t necessarily have to serve any real purpose, but ‘are considered socially essential’.
🗞 New Community Roles in News
The world of journalism and community embraces community more than we may realize. Source: Jennifer Brandel
"UW Madison professor of journalism, Sue Robinson, recently published How Journalists Engage: A Theory of Trust Building, Identities, and Care. In it, she names the new roles and skill sets that those working in journalism need to invest in so that information can be used and trusted. They include:
- Relationship Builder
- Community Collaborator
- Community Conversation Facilitator
- Professional Industry Networker
But these roles and the trust-building, human, actual-experience and dialogical side of civic information creation and sharing cannot happen without investment."
Twelve appears to be a magic number of members for the SMALL GROUP
The Small Group by James Mulholland
Twelve appears to be a magic number of members for the SMALL GROUP. Although The Cambridge Apostles (so named because, like Jesus’ followers, there were twelve of them) were one of the few groups that stuck explicitly to this number, The Junto Club, The Inklings and The Bloomsbury Group all had approximately twelve core members. Homebrew is the only real outlier with about 750 members, although it was still small enough in practice for members to meet in one another's garages."
📝 Other interesting reads this week:
Open Indie
Rosie Sherry
Ben Werdmuller
Katerina
I only share a selection of what I find each week in this newsletter. Paid members can access the full archive of links and resources and support my work along the way.
