Although an organizer will normally try to attract as many members to his/her group as he/she feels comfortable with, be sure to identify and weed out members who are continually inactive. If they don't contribute to the group and don't tend to attend events, then maybe you need to consider whether those members are valuable enough to retain. At the end of the day, it's up to you, as the organizer, to establish your criteria for selecting and retaining members.To make sure you your group is a success and well attended, here are some tips:
- Print out and distribute some business cards/group fliers to anyone you think is a good fit for your group. Give them to your assistant organizers and any willing members so they can distibute them too.
- Make sure your group description is comprehensive and interesting as it the main reason why prospective members will choose to join your group. This is especially important for private, invitation-only groups, since this is the only thing a prospective member can see.
- The more personalized your contact is with your members, the more they'll feel part of the group and the more active they will be. Ensuring that every member feels important and involved in the group will guarantee their active participation in the group. Your group should feel likean extended family - so post personal welcome messages to new members or send your members personal emails when appropriate.
- It's also important to get to know all of your members personally so that you can determine what their needs and interests are, and then cater to them as best as possible.
- Just because you are the organizer, that shouldn't mean that you have do everything yourself. Make sure you appoint assistant organizers and delegate tasks to them so you can concentrate on the major tasks. For example, your assistant organizer can be responsible for security issues or for monitoring which members are active or not. Don't be afraid to ask for help from your members too.
- What do you do, as the Organizer, to get people to RSVP, show up, events? For a group to flourish, it must offer a range of activities and regular events for members to participate in. Events that you organize don't have to be related to your group-related topic.They can include family events, fitness events, hikes, beach walks,etc.
- Only by communicating regularly with your group members will you ensure that they stay active and involved between events. Encourage members to circulate emails.The closer they feel to each other online, the easier it will be for them to venture out to an actual event.
- Whatever the topic and composition of your group, it is always a good idea to ensure that all messages and emails circulated within your group are polite, cordial, and diplomatic. Any major bones of coontention can always be resolved in person at group events.
- If you really want people to RSVPand show up to events, try to make sure that your events occur on a regular, predictable basis. That way, members s look forward to coming to each event and the consistency helps keep the group growing. Members know if they miss an event one month there will always be another next month.
- Recommendations to organizers to help create a successful event include :
- Preparing well for events. For example, check out your venue in advance, make sure it is big enough, ensure it has the right atmosphere. Is it too smokey? How much does it cost to hire out? Can you play your own music? Making friends with the bar manager and staff so that they know how many of you are coming and when is always useful. Ring up and confirm a few days before the event. to make sure there is ample food and drink and enough space. Be sure to introduce people to one another and get people mingling,
- Be an active organiser. It is the organizer's responsibility to reply to members' messages, post new topics of conversation, encourage your members and reply to emails as soon as possible. Be sure to read members' feedback and respond to it where necessary. Displaying your photo so people know what you look like is always a good idea.
- Be enthusiastic ! If the organizer is willing and able to attend to his/her group, then his/her memberswill want to come along.
- Enjoy yourself !- If you as the organiser are having fun and talking to as many people as possible then others will enjoy themselves too. Remember that the whole point of creating a group is to meet new people and not to be an administrator.
- A good tip is to create a separate mail account to receive Citycita group mails with your signature so people can always contact you.
- A good way to ensure your group is successful right from the start is to encourage members from similar Yahoo/MeetUp/Google groups to switch over to your Citycita group. This gives you a head start over organizers who have to build their groups from scratch. If you have already created a Yahoo/MeetUp/Google group, then simply move them over to your CityCita group.
- The quickest way for members to become disenchanted with your group and for your group to die is if people RSVP for events, then do not show up and don't call or e-mail later to apologize or explain. If this happens then send out a warning message to ofending members and, if necessary, remove them from your group membership if this continues.
- Remember that you can always use other sites or media platforms to publicize your group and its events. For example, you can post your events to Craigslist. You can also publicize your events on websites that are relevant to your group. Why not submit details of your group (event) to your local newspaper too ? By fola
