Open vs Closed clubs

I touched on the Open vs. Closed groups topic in "Finding the right members for your IPC,” and I want to expand on my thoughts in this post. In that post, I describe the basic differences between the two modes, and my argument why IPCs should remain closed. This post also supposes that at some time during the life of your IPC, there might be a call to loosen up membership requirements and open it up to the public. Here, I strengthen my argument to the contrary and provide some logic to present members to advocate for an open group.

The truth about open groups

In "Finding the right members for your IPC,” I describe the difference between closed and open groups like this: “Open groups allow anyone to join, and closed groups makes an allowance for an organizer or moderator to ask the potential members questions before allowing them in.” Collecting as many members as possible is alluring for many groups. I admit with my gaming group, at one time there seemed to be a certain cache and clout for sporting large numbers of members. But with big numbers come big headaches; problem members, lurkers, scope creep and bloat.

Problem members

Problem members are the biggest problem that face an open group. This is part of the reason why most groups become closed groups in the first place. In my experience, problem members express themselves in some notable ways: 1) they tend to be awkward socially and express this awkwardness in either aggressive or inappropriate ways, 2) they attempt to force their vision of the group on everyone else, or 3) they’re outwardly antagonistic with club leadership or certain members who did not provoke such treatment. Although you need to treat problem members carefully, you also need to show them the door as quickly as possible. If not, these members will quickly erode your confidence and the you member’s enthusiasm. In future posts, I’ll address how to deal with problem members.

In a closed group, these members are filtered out for the most part. Sure, you’ll get the person who puts up a good front to get in the group, but these people are rare and can be dealt with through the by-laws.

Lurkers

I mentioned lurkers in “Attendance - what should you expect from your IPC members?,” but I’ll expound on this more here. Lurkers are not inherently bad, and in online groups kind of acceptable. Lurkers want information, but they’re not the types to share or participate. As I said in my post, lurkers tend to be takers, but not givers. They do not help the group to grow and evolve, instead they watch, and even then, very occasionally. In an IPC, lurkers are deadwood. If you’ve run an online group, lurkers are the largest sector of membership. In my gaming group, lurkers comprised upward of 60-75% of the membership. For an IPC, this would spell disaster.

Lurkers are still an issue in closed groups, but not the extent of an open group. But they do make more of an impact in a closed group where members are filtered on their willingness to participate in the club’s activities. This where you need to add in by-laws that establish minimum attendance to mitigate members who want to lurk.

Scope Creep

As I mentioned in the problem members section, one of the issues mentioned was forcing an alternate vision of the group on members. This is the extreme version. The other version is a softer, gentler turn when folks come in that aren’t quite sold on the club’s mission, but who aren’t problem members. They want to expand into things not within the club’s scope, but that some club members have an interest in. My gaming group didn’t have an issue with this, but I’ve heard the problem from other club organizers.

For example, there might be a case where some of the Atlantic Philatelist Club members are interested in knitting. They want to schedule events that include that activity because they know some members who share the same interest. Allowing this will cause scope creep, because other members will want to want to add their own outside interests. This has a couple of simple solutions; a gentle but firm No, and offer alternative out-of-club solutions.

Bloat

Membership bloat is related to lurking. Some people walk away from the club without quitting, which causes deadwood. No controls on member intake will allow bloat to happen. Again, this an issue in open groups that cause the group to appear larger and more active than it is. This can be considered deceptive by potential members who are expecting a vibrant club.  This is something that a closed group can remedy from the beginning by careful editing of inactive or non-compliant membership.

Conclusion

While an open club allows the public to come and join, and closed group also helps to assure a level of quality that is usually lacking in an open group. I recommend not falling into the trap of opening your group for anyone to join. You owe it to members to put a check on member quality.

Attendance - what should you expect from your IPC members?

When people join a club, it’s reasonable to assume that they want to participate in activities that the club presents, become better informed about the club’s topic, and to meet people with the same interests. But, in the online world, it’s easy to join a group and walk away from it or watch it from a distance, becoming a ‘lurker.’ In the context of group membership though, lurkers are takers, not givers. They’re not interested in contributing to the group and helping it evolve. They very occasionally watch it from the virtual sidelines. If you’re new to an online group, lurking is usually acceptable at first, because it’s assumed that you’re catching up with the group’s conversations. However, it also comes with the promise that as a good member, they’ll start posting intelligent and insightful questions or comments in ongoing threads to encourage more conversation and idea-sharing.

But in a face-to-face club such as an IPC, the lurker’s role is more than just passively observing from the sidelines. They’re a factor that can be fatal to its success. Lurkers contribute to membership bloat. Bloat represents inflated membership numbers.  Bloat deceives new participants into thinking that the group more active than it really is. It fools the group managers into thinking if they do something novel, they can get those members to participate. The truth is:  they’re deadwood, and they’re not going to show up, no matter what you do.

What do you reasonably expect from members to participate in the club? How do you encourage participation?

Reasonable expectations

Assuming you are defining the minimum membership guidelines for your IPC (refer to “Finding the right members for your IPC”), start with reflecting on the purpose of your IPC (refer to “Why create an informal private club”). Invariably, part of the reason for your IPC is to encourage people with the same interest to associate. It’s reasonable to expect members to get out and associate. If a member isn’t participating, they’re not contributing to the club.

Granted, you don’t know folk’s schedules, so thinking that members are going to go to every club function is unreasonable. As an IPC leader, you offer opportunities. Every member should have the opportunity to join an activity. So, what is a reasonable attendance rate? I personally have considered using a 25% marker. If I’m offering 32 events during the year, I think it’s reasonable to ask members to attend at least eight of those events. This way, if some programming is not interesting, members can fall back on other suitable activities within the club, and not be in danger of running afoul of the club’s guidelines.

Set up the expectation that members don’t have to attend all events, but that they can pick and choose what they want to attend. Use empathy and be alert. There might be good reason that a member cannot hit the minimum number of events (new parenthood for instance). On the other hand, the problem may not be the members, but with what you’re offering. Both of these scenarios need you to use judgment on how to proceed.

Encouraging participation

You should consider a variety of events that are suitable for your IPC. When you’re first starting out, pick out at least three different event types. I suggest starting out with a casual meet (refer to “Adding aCasual Meet to your IPC”), and branching out from there, guiding on the needs of your IPC. If you’re finding that people are not enthused about what you’re offering, be open to member suggestions, and be very willing to act on them if they are reasonable. Also, surveys are great to see where your member’s interests are now. Be cautious that you use surveys sparingly, maybe no more than once every other month, and no more than ten questions. Also, if you act on someone’s idea, it gives them a sense of ownership in the club.

Being an enthusiastic leader and event host also helps. People thrive off excitement and a positive atmosphere, so set yourself up for success. Talk to people, make introductions, and be part of the event. Don’t nervously buzz around like a busy body, or overly structure your event. Allow for some organic flow and progression around your event. This helps to make your events memorable, and sets up the desire for repeat attendance.

Conclusion

Be reasonable with your members. You’ll need to create some structure and set expectations, but keep the bar low enough to where participation is fun and not an overbearing hassle. Use good judgement if members run into participation obstacles, or if your events are not as appealing as they should be.

Adding online activities to your IPC

The question of taking your IPC online with a chat, messaging, or web meeting application might come up at some point. While online activities might save time and effort, they’re not always the best solution for every activity. Bear in mind, most established clubs are based on social interaction. You go to personally meet people who you want to associate with. The club pre-screens people to make it easier for you to associate. Our fictional Atlantic Philatelist Club will make sure that all members have a certain amount of knowledge about stamps and postal history, while my HP Lovecraft literary and gaming club will insure that members are knowledgeable about Lovecraft’s works. This leads to the question, when is it appropriate for activities to be hosted online, like a chat, messaging, or web meeting application?

I’ve always looked at online activities as a filler of sorts, especially when your IPC is growing and developing more programming. Workshops and educational presentations come to mind, maybe as a follow-up to a live presentation. You can be very creative with what you put online, but I would caution that this shouldn’t eclipse your in-person activities. In-person activities are your IPC’s main purpose, which is to allow people to connect personally. This is very apparent with professional and social IPCs, where personal contact is the primary purpose. Other types of IPCs would benefit on various levels by keeping the membership engaged between in-person events. Also, committee meetings can be made easier by scheduling them online, or at least using them to fill-in in case members cannot meet in-person.

Whatever you decide, consider carefully how you’re going to integrate online activities in your IPC, or why you’re not considering them at all. Above all, using online connections should be looked on as a tool that benefits your IPC, but not as a crutch. Whether you deploy that tool is strictly up to you. My next post will cover what application to use, if you go this route.

Book review: The Project 50 (Reinventing Work)

I’ve almost made it a hobby to read career improvement and self-help books, and I’ve found some of Tom Peter’s ‘50’ books to be some of  the most useful. Although they look like they’re written and laid out by someone who was dropping massive quantities of speed, the ‘50’ series of books are packed with some good information. Although written 1999, most of the information presented in the books is still good. For creating and managing IPCs, The Project 50 (Reinventing Work) is the most pertinent of the series.

The Project 50 is a book of 50 action items to take when developing, selling, implementing and finally exiting your project. Or as Peter’s puts it, your ‘WOW!’ projects. Although I get the impression this book is directed at IT professionals, most of the information can be ported to conceptualizing and creating an IPC. Your ‘WOW’ project is the IPC that you’re creating.  The information that he writes about, particularly with creating, selling and exiting the project relates to IPCs for the most part. The implementation section probably isn’t as useful for IPC purposes, but is worth a read through anyway.

Conclusion
If you can get over the layout and high-energy writing, Project 50 is an inexpensive ideas book for getting your IPC moving forward. I recommend reading it through for IPC and career ideas. As of this post, Amazon has it in stock for around $5-6 US dollars.

My IPC Journal - The HP Lovecraft IPC Concept and Approaches

In “My IPC Journal - Statement of Intent for a new IPC” post last week, I decided to go all in and create an IPC. This one has been on my mind for the past couple years, but I’ve never acted on it until now. In that post, I outline some issues to think through as a first step. Also, on the heels of that post, I wrote “Writing a statement of intent for your IPC.” This post was about writing a formal statement of intent. To start off my IPC journey, I’ll use the list in “Writing a statement of intent for your IPC” and begin fleshing out my IPC. I’ll also discuss the rationale used to come that solution.

Overall reason for starting the IPC

Here I want to make sure what I’m thinking about has relevance, and it’s not some lark. My first step is to articulate the description and reason for my IPC.  Since this is a local HP Lovercraft, or more aptly ‘Lovercraftian,’ fan club, my proposed description and reason goes like this:

The proposed HP Lovecraft literary and gaming club will engage in social activities that promote and explore Lovecraftian themes in literature, movies, radio, and gaming. The club will provide a comfortable place for aficionados to discuss and exchange ideas, as well as engage in a wide array of activities. The club will also help promote a higher understanding or Lovecraft’s work, as well as the derivative works based on his writings.

At this point, if you’re starting any IPC, you may want to do some ‘market research.’ This research could range from the very informal, i.e. drop the idea to some friends and check interest, to very formal, i.e. identify interested people and conduct a survey and interviews.  My research has been very informal.

Also, by no means are you trapped by this description you’ve written. Although I’m dubbing in ‘HP Lovecraft literary and gaming club,’ as a starting name, this descriptive title will eventually change to fit the final goals of the club, and probably be a lot more creative.

IPC goals

When I wrote my proposed description and reason, I also included the club’s goals. You can do this, or keep the two separated. Either way is acceptable. If you’re looking at forming a more in-depth club, like a professional or charity -related club, you may want to keep your club’s reason/description and goals distinct. When you create goals, I recommend using bullet points. So, if I created separate goals for my Lovecraft IPC, they could look like this:

• Creates opportunities for social activities that promote and explore Lovecraftian themes in literature, movies, radio, and gaming
• Provides a comfortable place for aficionados to discuss and exchange ideas
• Engages in a wide array of activities

Again, you’re not trapped by this list and you can add to them at any time.

Anticipated Activities

This can be another bulleted list. Never shy away from these type of lists, and use them wherever appropriate. Think of the main activities you’ll be hosting (or recommend hosting). Think of this as a starter list. As your IPC grows, you want to make sure there’s room for other member’s ideas. For the HPL literary and gaming club here’s my starting list of activities:

• Discussion group about a Lovecraftian theme.
• Movie or Radio night
• Monthly casual meets for new members
• Arkham Horror board gaming night (or day)
• Call of Cthulhu (or other RPG) tabletop roleplaying night
• Short story reading and social night

Activity and organizational road map

This one will put your planning skills to the test, but I recommend making it as simple as possible at first. Using the activities mentioned in Anticipated Activities, organize a month for your group. I don’t recommend doing a full year of the present calendar year just yet. You’re only establishing the activities at a high level. This is how I define my starting activities for a typical month and special events:

Every month

• Week 1: Casual Meet
• Week 2: Discussion group/Story Reading/Movie night
• Week 4: Game night

Quarterly

• Week 3: Social night

I’m not putting in too much detail right now, and this will change as members join and events are shifted for maximum effect. Also, not too much to allow for member input and growth. Additionally, this is what I can personally handle right now.

The organizational aspect should also be simple, since you don’t know who or how many are joining. You’ll want to anticipate an organizational meeting six to nine months from the start of your IPC. For the first year you can schedule a general meeting open to all members. Here, you’ll outline your vision of any steering boards or any other member organizations.

• Six months from official start - Week 3 – Organizational meeting

Ideal members

This one is tricky. You want to attract people who are deeply interested in what you’re offering, but at the same time you’re not going overboard in describing the perfect member. Nobody is going to be perfect. Instead, you want to define the minimum attributes that would make a member to your IPC. With the HPL literary and gaming club I want to attract members with these minimum attributes:

• Has read at least three of Lovecraft’s defining works, including:

1. The Call of Cthulhu
2. The Dunwich Horror
3. At the Mountains of Madness
4. The Colour Out of Space
5. The Dreams in the Witch House

• Has read works related to HP Lovecraft’s writings.
• Can commit to attending four club events or activities during the year.

My goal here is to make sure members know the literary works and are willing to commit attending club functions, but not so detailed as to eliminate perfectly fine potential members. The member description can be refined as needed.

Conclusion

I’m assuming everyone will have a different approach to their own clubs, and everything described in this post can be adjusted as needed. You’ll probably want to revisit this information when the club is just accepting members to see if certain aspects aren’t clear to you or potential members.

Writing a statement of intent for your IPC

This post comes on the heels of yesterday's post "My IPC Journal - Statement of Intent for a new IPC." This had me thinking about writing actual statements of intent. Why would I want to write one? And if I figured that out, what would go into it?

Why write a statement of intent
One of the best ways to quiz your way through some problems is to write it down. An IPC statement of intent is just that - your attempt to logically look at your idea. If you can articulate it, you can act on it. Also, if what you've written makes sense, you can move on to other steps, like defining your membership and IPC strategy. I suggest writing it down, and leaving it for a couple days. Then pick it up and re-read it. If still makes sense, go on to the next steps. But, if there are gaps in your logic, deconstruct it and rewrite it. Then wait a couple of days, and revisit. If you cannot articulate the idea, then you need to think about viable it is in the first place.

What goes into a statement of intent
A statement of intent is your initial vision and starting ideas for your IPC. It's a working plan or vision that you're starting out with. This will be part of the foundation that you'll use to develop your IPC's strategy. (Refer to "Creating a strategy for your IPC") Here's a list of topic's you'll probably want to cover:

• Overall reason for starting the IPC
• IPC goals
• Anticipated activities
• Activity and organizational road map for the first year
• Description of your ideal member (Refer to "Finding the right members for your IPC")

All this will be subject to change, but the goal is to get this information down where you (and eventually others) can see and edit it.

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