Take the number of years you’ve been in the group…”

From Olle, a tip about making events that include everyone, especially newcomers:

There were at least two new faces at the meetup, and I had been given a hint by Morgan about the article Breaking Cliques at Events. In it, a method for reminding people that the longer they’ve been in a group, the more responsibility they have to welcome newcomers to it: “Take the number of years you’ve been in the group. That number is how many new people you say hello to at a meetup.”

Most groups I’ve been a member of give little thought to this, adopting a “it was hard for me to become a part of the group, so don’t expect a free pass, newbie” attitude. That’s not a good way to run a railroad.

Comments

Clark's picture
Clark on October 11, 2018 - 11:25 Permalink

Most of the MeetUps I have been to of late suffer from this problem as well. The most successful groups I have joined spend significant effort incorporating newcomers with methods similar to what Eric Holscher's suggests.

Ton Zijlstra's picture
Ton Zijlstra on October 11, 2018 - 16:57 Permalink

In community stewarding having pathways both for increasing and decreasing my level of engagement fluidly are important. This is a nice example.