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.

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.

My IPC Journal - Statement of Intent for a new IPC

I've decided to do it. Since I've been writing about IPCs for nearly three months, it's high time for me to put words into action. I intend on designing and journaling a new IPC concept that I've had knocking in my brain for a while. My wife and I already have a social IPC that is growing (refer to "Our first Salon" for additional details), but we want to keep most of the details to ourselves since privacy is part of what we offer to the membership. The IPC I have in mind will be more open, and hopefully instructive to you. I'll discuss my approach, as well as any successes or failures I encounter.

As I mentioned in "The Beginning," my experience with group formation includes creating and organizing a local role play gaming group that now has around 1400 members. Also, I'm a huge fan of the writings of HP Lovecraft and related writers. My core concept is to create a local IPC of 'Lovecraftian' gamers and literary fans. There's a lot of possibility with this group, plus a sizable fan base to choose from.

Starting from the beginning, I need to figure out the following issues before my move to the next step of creating my new IPC:

• The basic reasons for creating my IPC in the first place (Refer to "Why create an informal private club?")
• Type of members I want to attract ("Finding the right members for your IPC")
• How I'm going to recruit those members ("Basic ideas for recruiting members to your IPC")
• The IPC's focus ("What should be the focus of my informal private club (or IPC)?")

Next week, I'll explain my rationale relating to each of these initial steps, and report on my progress. Also, I'll provide any amendments and additions to previous posts.

Basics of IPC Leadership

© Can Stock Photo / DGLimages

Creating an IPC is one thing, leading it is something entirely different. Taking up the mantle of leader isn't a job for just anyone, but it isn't a talent, either. It's a combination of skills and action that makes a leader. You need to cultivate these skills in order to bring your IPC to a place where it can leave and breathe on its own. What skills do you need in order to be an effective IPC manager?

Interpersonal Skills and Vision
Relating and communicating with your members are the skills to have if you manage an IPC. You've got to be a clear communicator and a great listener. But, the greatest skill to have is to be able to ask questions, of yourself and of your membership. A club is about doing things together, and great clubs are responsive to the needs of its members. Many times you'll need to suss out the information you need. Questions are a good way of getting people to speak about their experiences with the club and what their ideas are in regards to activities and planning. Good leadership isn't about forcing people to see your vision; good leadership is about incorporating other's ideas coherently and meaningfully into your vision. These are the course corrections you'll make while moving toward your own vision.

Flexibility
As I mentioned above, good leadership is about incorporating other's ideas coherently into your vision. You need to be flexible in the way you see your vision coming together. To me, long range plans rarely work out exactly the way you planned them. Instead, you need know where you're going, but be flexible about how you get there. Things may not pan out in your overall plan, so you need to plan for changes. If you absolutely hold on to a plan of your devising, chances are very high you will eventually fail. On the other hand, you have to be open to change or risk feeling that your IPC is tainted because it didn't follow your plans exactly.

Organizing
While the club is growing, you need to guide members into areas that will enable growth. Finding volunteers to host events, or club members to serve on committees is a large part of what you'll be doing. Good leadership skills makes this task easier. You'll be serving as head to a lot of meetings until the club has a functioning governance structure. You'll be doing most of the pulling, but it'll be worth it as you see the club grow. So you need to have in mind what the club should look like as a independently governing structure. Refer to "Organizing your IPC Membership" for more information about club organization,

Letting go
Eventually, you'll need to step down so others can shine. The ship you call your IPC is sailing in the direction you set. Good leadership also involves knowing when to let go. This is not to say you can't serve on committees or host events, but it is saying that you're not a control freak dictator, either. This can be a difficult things to do, but as a leader, it's also your job to cultivate other leaders so you can let go. People have the desire to refine and make better, and allowing new leadership in the mix will help the club grow in ways you didn't ever
expect.

Setting up the programming for your IPC

Once you have your IPC up and running with a handful of events planned and completed, you’ll want to put more meaning or organization behind what the IPC is offering its members. If you’re wanting to be creative, coming up with the club’s event offerings is one of the most creative opportunities you can enjoy. This is also an opportunity to steer the IPC in a meaningful direction. As with any club activity or action, creating the club’s programming should be performed by the club’s steering committee. If the club is large enough to support it, a separate Activity or Programs committee could also be created to handle creating and managing club programming.

If you’re the only one creating the programming, you’ll need to have a calendar on hand. At this point I’ll tell you not to over-commit yourself. If you don’t have assistance, you need to figure out how much you can do and still have a quality product. If you want to expand your offerings, you’ll need to ask for help. As a note, never ‘volun-tell’ people what to do. This is a sure way of turning off your members, and killing your credibility. Instead, tell people about what you’d like to plan and talk it up. Always be open to feedback. Also, empathize that they have a stake in this and you’d like their ideas. With any luck, you may find your IPC’s future steering committee!

Your programming should fit in with your club’s strategy (refer to the “Creating a strategy for your IPC’ post). The events need to be designed to accomplish the club’s overall strategic goals. Creative use of events can be designed to help with this. Also, realize that some events we’ve covered so far in this blog may not be appropriate for your IPC. While a supper club would be great for social or professional IPCs, it’s probably not appropriate for a hobby or certain accountability IPCs. If you’re at a loss, casual meets are always good starting events. Even then, you’ll need to begin formulating events that propel your IPC in the desired direction.

As an example, let’s say you’ve just formed the Midtown Coders Bloc IPC. Your club’s strategy is to network local professional programmers, and to keep folks up-to-date with trends in the industry. You can establish a monthly casual meet to allow your members to just mingle and talk, and speaks to your networking strategy. Also, a member knows someone that is a jobs recruiter, and they’re willing to give a bi-monthly talk about local programming opportunities in exchange for a chance to meet and speak with IPC members. Another member loves hands-on programming, and is more than willing to host a quarterly discussion (we’ll talk about this add-on later) on certain programming topics. Both the recruiter and programming lover speak to the trends portion of your IPC strategy. This serves as your basic IPC programming. From there, the sky is the limit, if you have enough energy and volunteers to go around.

Organizing your IPC Membership

If you’ve recruited several members into your IPC, you might want to start asking for volunteers, or organizing boards, committees and the such to help run the club. I can tell you, without a doubt, this is a hard task. In my experience, most folks want to participate in club functions, and then leave it at that. A small committed handful will volunteer to do more. It’s your task as the IPC organizer to think of ways that members can volunteer in a meaningful way.  It’s up to you to find the committed handful, and expand them into couple hands full.

Before you ask for help, know what you’re asking for first. It’s easy to get caught up in the operations of the club to see what can be done. But if you don’t have an idea of what you want help with, or want folks to do, you’ll confuse and scare away potential volunteers. If you’re running a monthly Salon or Casual Meet that has a good turn-out and very little moderation, those might be events you can turn over to a volunteer. You may even consider designing a volunteer board for sign-ups. This can be managed many ways. One way I’ve seen is to suggest an event and estimate the volunteers needed. Then tentatively post the date for the event with the stipulation that it needs the list volunteer spots to be filled before it becomes a scheduled event.

In running any group, a committee of the right people can go far to help the club grow. Volunteers can do things, but committees provide extra brain power. Please don’t confuse these committees with PTA, civic club, or other organization committees that are droll and boring, because they must operate under tight rules and regulations.  On the other hand, IPC committee is a brain trust that has an overriding interest in keeping the club’s programming fresh and vital. While the committee must conform to club by-laws, these shouldn’t be so constricting as to limit creativity.

 Since your IPC members have been interviewed or recommended, you already have a base of the ‘right’ people. When you have enough people, let’s say ten or more, consider forming a steering committee. This committee can serve as the brains of the IPC. You’ll need to serve as leader for a few meetings, but at some point, you may want to have the committee elect a new head on a yearly basis. This way, the IPC can function independently of one person. Eventually, the committee should be elected by the club’s membership with by-laws in place to guide the election process. I recommend keeping the committee small, no more than seven members for a larger IPC, and no more than 5 for a small (less than ten) to medium (11-50) -sized IPCs.

Don’t be one of those organizers that goes about organizing alone. You’ll burn out very quickly. Also, realize you’ll need to let got and allow the membership to make the IPC a living organization that doesn’t depend on you to keep it moving forward..

Designing Member Guidelines

Last week, I posted “When Should You Consider By-Laws?”, which covered when to begin writing actual rules that your members (and you too!) follow in matters of the IPC. In this post, I’ll introduce the ‘lite’ version of by-laws, 'Guidelines.'

In short, guidelines are suggested standards that you want members to follow in dealing with the club and other members. Unlike by-laws, guidelines are not hard and fast rules, but a guide to follow at the request of the club. Also, unlike by-laws, they’re not enforceable. They can stand alone, or work in tandem with by-laws, becoming in enforceable in the context of the IPC. In those two instances, one is to assist your members when there are no by-laws, and the other are areas where solid by-laws are not needed, but some guidance is needed and can be referred to via the by-laws.

In “When Should You Consider By-Laws?”, I suggest waiting until your IPC is large enough to need by-laws that are written and enforced. This is not to say that you shouldn’t create some basic guidelines to define the expectations of the club and its members. If you have a social club, some common-sense behavior and etiquette guidelines can be established. By the way, for more information on behavior and etiquette, refer to the “A Matter of Manners” post. Guidelines can go above and beyond behavior and etiquette. In “Finding the right members for your IPC,” I introduced the fictional Atlantic Philatelist Club. This club is all about postage stamps, so guidelines would involve meeting attendance, or expectations of presentations or meetings that members host. I haven’t of stamp collectors getting too far out of hand, so behavior and etiquette guidelines would be less than that of a socially-oriented club. These guidelines will help inform the base of any by-laws your club decides on.

Once you have by-laws on paper, you may have some areas that don’t need to be covered by-laws, you may be waiting to see by-laws might be necessary in the future, or there is an area where the situation might be too dynamic to have by-laws. Let’s say that the Atlantic Philatelist Club has established in the by-laws each member must host one meeting a year to remain in good standing with the club. While this is a solid by-law, it might point to guidelines on the minimum standards for a meeting, which don’t need to be covered in the by-laws. With those guidelines, you might also stipulate that the meeting organizer must be in attendance. It’s not a problem now, but if the situation arises consistently, then that stipulation might be promoted to a by-law in the future. In another instance, you may have guidelines that discourage bringing stamp collections to certain meetings, but you also see that this guideline may need to be bypassed for special occasions. 

While I suggested waiting on establishing by-laws, guidelines can be established close to the start of an IPC. However, I also recommend getting member suggestions and feedback, if not shared ownership of the club’s guidelines.

Book review: How to Talk to Anyone; 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships

How to Talk to Anyone; 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships by Leil Lowndes is a solid book in the realm of self-help writing. She comes from the perspective of offering actionable advice. For the most part, she delivers sound advice. If you’ve read other self-help books, some of her advice will be familiar, albeit couched in a way you can use in real life. Also, the book’s tips covers many situations you’ll eventually find yourself dealing with. Information-wise, How to Talk to Anyone is a value, if not an investment.

In an IPC setting, How to Talk to Anyone is handy. It can be used for handling people and building relationships. While some of the tips may not relate directly, there some gems that you can consider using to improve your organizing and hosting game. In aspect, this book is an investment just for its IPC value.

The only real downsides to How to Talk to Anyone is the sheer volume of tips. I listened to this as an audio book, so its use will be limited to me, unless I buy a physical or electronic version where I can use it more effectively as a reference. Bear that in mind before you buy the audio version. The other downside is that some of the information is ages-old self-help advice, so you’re not getting a completely new list of tips. Admittedly, this is me looking for faults in the book, and you can easily gloss over the information you’re already using or doesn’t pertain to your situation.

I recommend this book, particularly if you want to limit your foray into the self-help genre, but have a reference of pertinent information you can use immediately.

Finding the right members for your IPC

© Can Stock Photo / ajt

In “Basic ideas for recruiting members to your IPC,” I mentioned some ideas about finding and recruiting members, but didn’t explore the core of the matter, defining the qualities you’re looking for in potential members.

Open vs Closed Groups

If you're familiar with Meetup.com or some Facebook groups, you'll notice that you can either join immediately, or there is a small screening process before you can join. This is the elementary difference between open and closed groups. 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.  Even with such a basic gateway for membership, you need some basic criteria to make a judgement. In one of the Facebook groups I moderate, we look to see if folks are 'real,' or they’re someone using Facebook to spam messages into our group. We look for things like locality, some posting history, or any other hook that tells us that this person is real. These are simple criteria put in place to mitigate an issue.

An IPC is a closed type of group. It goes much further in screening potential members than what I described above. An argument can be made that the clear majority of Meetup and Facebook groups are open, even if they screen potential members. This is to say the default screening processes are very limited and not thorough. To screen thoroughly, you need a well-developed concept of what you expect out of your membership.

Who is the ideal member for your IPC?

The first task you have in considering your membership is a checklist of broad traits folks need to have to get anything out of your IPC. The most important trait that should be on the top of the list is interest in IPC’s focus! From this point, take care to be reasonable about your expectations. You want to design your checklist in such a way as to identify folks who will be interested in the subject, be active with the group, and will get along with other members.  At the same time, you’re not looking for clones. What are the absolute requirements for joining the IPC? What are desirable traits?

Write a small paragraph about who you’re looking for as far as a member. An example for a Philatelist (stamp collector/historian) IPC might look like this:

“A member of the Atlantic Philatelist Club would be a stamp collector or somebody who has performed some work relating to philately, be it books, magazine or blog articles, or fine photography. Members must be able to attend at least half of the club’s meetings or functions, and be willing to share their knowledge of stamps with other club members.”

Pull out your membership criteria from the description. The starting checklist for a stamp collector’s 

IPC might look like this:

• Has at least one curated collection of stamps, properly stored. (Requirement)
• Can commit to attending six monthly meetings a year. (Requirement)
• Must be 21 years of age or older (Requirement)
• Can host at least one monthly meeting. (Desirable)
• Has a membership to a national philatelist society. (Desirable)
• Is willing to design and teach at least one workshop a year. (Desirable)

You can go deeper, but I would suggest not going more than ten criteria. Even then, if they conform to the required criteria, how many of the desired criteria do they need to hit to be considered for membership?  You should consider the goals of the IPC.

Don't expect perfection

Once you develop your checklist, you need to understand that very few people are going to meet every criterion you’ve established. However, you need to decide how many of the criteria is acceptable for membership, or what combination is acceptable. Of course, the requirements are the definite entry points, but you need to decide how many desirable criteria they need to adhere to be acceptable for membership. Do not expect anyone to be the ‘perfect fit.’ Look at this a goal to aspire to, rather than an absolute.

Live up to your own ideals

In creating membership criterion, you are required to live up to the standards that you’ve established. If you do not live up to the membership criteria you’ve established, both you and the IPC will lose credibility. Although you’re putting in the work – and good work it is – at the core of it, you’re another member. So be realistic with other folks.

The Charity and Accountability - more IPC focus areas

© Can Stock Photo / pressmaster

In my post "What should be the focus of my informal private club (or IPC)?," I define four basic focuses of an informal private club; Social, Professional, Field and Hobby. As a result my continuing research, I'll add a couple more focus areas, Charity and Accountability. Unlike the basic four, I would term the follow two a little bit more advanced because of what you need to consider in order to manage them.

Charity
This is an outstanding focus for an IPC, and done correctly, would be very popular. A charity IPC would take aspects of most of the basic IPC types, possibly adding field work or fund raising as activities within the IPC, along with discussions and socials that keep everyone interested and focused on the goals of the IPC's charity work. Charity could also be used as a 'plug-in' activity, like I've written about Salons, but to be truly effective, probably the best expression for charity work in an IPC is a free-standing group. It's probably advisable to associate with a larger association to establish or expand credibility.

If a charity focused IPC is going to do fund raising, it's going to take in money. This means accounting and bookkeeping. If you decide to take in money, everything needs to be absolutely correct, transparent, and in line with county, state/province and Federal laws. Do your homework ahead of time; research as much as possible and ask questions. This advice would be good for any IPC taking in money, either as membership dues or as simple donations. People rightly want to know where their cash is going. Also, it's always a good idea to be absolutely clear about where the money is going and keeping the books open for inspection by the membership. I'll discuss membership dues and money handling in later posts.

Accountability
I encountered the Accountability social organization in the Fast Company Magazine under the article "What You Need To Know To Create An Accountability Group That Works." Basically, an accountability group helps people stay focused on tasks they want to accomplish by reporting their progress to other folks. This is how businesses like Weight Watchers work. With WW, you join follow the plan and do a scheduled weigh-in, report your progress and receive encouragement to keep going. This would be a unique focus for an IPC, which can focus on anything that is task oriented. The Fast Company article threw out health, novel writing, professional uses as examples, but accountability can take many, many forms. Unlike other IPCs, you need to be very aware of the events and activities to present. You'd not want to have dinner parties if the goal of your IPC is help members stay fit and trim, unless the dinner party was about health food, or how to eat better.

An Accountability IPC would have some unique considerations, tact being foremost. Telling someone that they need to do better can be a difficult thing, if you want to empathetic also. You'll need to mentor people about how to be firm, but not rude or overbearing. Consider how the accountability will be handled in the design of your IPC.

Both of these IPCs speak to a higher purpose, and even though they would require some additional work, they could be most worthwhile IPCs you could create.

IPC Inspirations: Chappism

Gustav Temple, co-founder of CHAP Magazine

This will be first in a series of posts about inspirations for your informal private club. To start this off, it's fitting to begin with the concept that was the catalyst for the original IPC concept; Chappism (or 'chappist'). This is something I never heard or even conceived of until I seen this video posted on a website I regularly visit. After I saw this video, I had to follow it down the internet rabbit hole, and see where it led. Eventually, I found chappism.

Chappism is an interesting throwback to the dress and manners of the British town and county lifestyle, but with some modern embellishment. Much of it seems to be rather tongue-in-cheek in nature. Chappism, as I’m able to figure out, spans from Victorian to post-world war two inspirations. It even spawned a ‘chap-hop’ rivalry between two chappist -inspired entertainers, Professor Elemental and Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer. It's grown to be an alternative lifestyle for some folks, a consuming interest for others. It also has its own magazine, Chap. Chappism is an almost perfect fit for an IPC.

Two of the focus points of chappism is the dress and manners. Both lend to social interaction, preferably with others who share the same interest. It’s also a portable concept. If you’re not interested in chappism itself, but like the historical angle, you can go Great Gatsby or World War Two or post- World War Two America, or other timelines that had their unique styles. (for the love of Mike, don’t bring back the 80s!) From what I gather, it’s more an appreciation of the good that came out of those eras rather than a complete historical rehash. The downside of chappism, at least for the time being, is that it seems to have had it high tide some time ago. If you do any research in regards to chappism, bear in mind that some of the resources will be rather old in internet terms. 

Socials would be the core events for a chappist-type IPC, with discussions and workshops comprising other anchor events. An overall strategy could be to refine and improve everyone’s individual dress and manners. The strategy could eventually evolve into some community outreach, but that is something that the organizers and members of the IPC would need to figure out. A chappist IPC would allow a friendly space for that to happen. 

If like interesting dress and want to exercise your old-fashioned manners, take a look at chappism, or a derivative of it. If you love chappism, you might want to take a look at Dandyism!

Resources referring to Chappism

CHAP, "The Chap Manifesto"
CHAP, "Am I Chap?"
New Humanist, "Charm Offensive"
London Particulars, "Steady On, Chaps"
"Tweedland" The Gentleman's Club blog
Practical Chappism Facebook page (note: this hasn't been updated recently)

Creating a strategy for your IPC

© Can Stock Photo / ivelinradkov

It's not enough to simply create an IPC, but what do you want from it? This applies for any type of IPC defined in the 'What should be the focus of my informal private club (or IPC)?' post. For instance, if you've created a professional club, then what is the core mission? Is it to simply be a mixer for like-minded professionals, or is there something deeper to consider? A club should strive to elevate its membership in some way. Networking can be one way, but there's plenty of networking organizations out there. What more can your club do, or advocate? Is there a aspect of ethics you want to accentuate? This could lead to different types of events past socials, such as guest lectures or round tables.

Although I used a professional club as an example, most other club types can also dig deeper, be more focused and exclusive. Hobbyists can focus on a niche such as HO-scale trains rather than model trains in general, Rose gardening rather than flower gardening, and the same for any hobby. Social clubs can focus on food and drink, or an activity such as dancing (which can also port over to a hobby); clubs devoted to a field can narrow themselves down to a specific topic field. Studying the Civil War? You can go as specific as the war in the Appalachians. Studying the civil rights movement? Try looking at the issues per state. There's many ways to split the subject.

If you have a focus, then what is your club's overall strategy? How are you going to elevate your own members' awareness and knowledge, and by what means? What is the club going to offer past gatherings of folks? If you had a schedule, what would you plan to make the club a worthwhile investment of time for the membership and yourself? I suggest start thinking broadly, but narrowing your focus to find a comfortable niche. Also think in terms of 'offering', rather than terms of 'teaching.' What folks want to learn is up to them, and forcing a topic on them will cause some rebellion. Variety within the focus is good. You may look at asking for volunteers, and share the work. Also, I suggest living by the 'Stone soup' story, and have everyone contribute something.

By the end of the year, what opportunities will you have given your membership?

A Matter of Manners

A thought I had recently has stuck with me over the weekend about the core values of manners. It’s been something I’ve thought about the past few years, and I wanted to commit it to a post. It’s about respect and the other auxiliary things that surround it, such as manners, friendship, leadership to name a few. This especially important now, when respect for people seems to have bottomed out. Our discourse with our fellow citizens seems to be rougher than was in the past couple of decades, and we seem to take relationships for granted these days. How can we change this trend? How can we be better? How does this pertain to an IPC?

© Can Stock Photo / innovatedcaptures

Respect

I’ve read many articles about how social media has made things worse in the realm of public discourse. Folks can post anonymously, and be as rude, crass, and frankly loathsome as they want to be and not face the consequences. But is this the fault of social media, or is this a failing of our society, and social media is but the messenger? The one thing that I’ve observed is that the concept of respect for others is not often taught to children these days, and when these kids grow up, it becomes a foreign concept applied for all the wrong reasons. Now that we’ve elected controversial presidents, uncovered salacious Hollywood scandals, and seem to be solidly polarized as a culture in how we think and feel about many social topics, respect sounds like a dead notion. It’s been thrown out on to the rubble heap with once noble ideas of chivalry, patience and charity. I have a naive thought that if people knew the power of respect better, then we would be in better shape in these regards.

So, here we are. What can we do?

One way of looking at respect is seeing or even assuming the positive worth or quality of someone. This should relate along every plane of society, whether it be gender, race, religion, philosophy and politics, or what have you. If you give someone an equal footing in your dealings with them, at least at first, then you’re establishing a rapport that both of you can build on. After that, the relationship becomes a sliding scale of sorts. Depending on either one’s actions, the scale can move further along a positive path, or tumble toward negative territory. Both parties are responsible for how the scale moves. Sincerity and selfless action are two of many ways of moving the scale into positive territory. Having selfish or even abusive agendas are two sure ways of sliding into negative respect territory. Take a lesson from Harvey Weinstein. Selfishness, especially when it’s taken to an abusive level, catches up with you eventually.

When you’re running an IPC, the ability of giving people a measure of respect is a quality you want to encourage in yourself. You’ll meet folks of all sorts, and you want to give them a measure of respect, so they feel empowered to bring their unique perspective to your club. How they act will indicate whether of not they’re worthy. Respect goes both ways. It is a sliding scale.

Politeness

Politeness is often branded as an ‘old-fashioned’ trait, but it has an important function as a societal filter. If you go to YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, you can see the disastrous results when the ‘polite filter’ is turned off. People have the potential to get very nasty in expressing themselves, or in their opinions of others. Sometimes they hide behind a fake name and picture, other times they’re quite open.  I’ve heard both sides espouse doing this as empowering. But is it really empowering? I don’t think so. It’s tit for tat; it’s hiding behind a computer; it’s rudeness at it’s most basic. Is that you? Politeness and respect are tied together. Respect is the concept, politeness is the expression of the concept. Practice politeness. Get a copy of Emily Post’s Etiquette and read it, and then practice what pertains to you. Consider etiquette the functional part of politeness. 

Language

How we express ourselves through language affects our manners. I’m all for free speech, but how you speak reflects the person you really are. Although society seems to accept more alphabet -bombs or -words in everyday language, the fact is that it only reflects how inarticulate and lazy we’ve become. If you really want to make an impact, clean up what you say, and how you say it. Eliminate, or at least minimize, the crass words that have very little significance in daily language. Also, strive to increase your vocabulary. Replace the bad with the good. The more words in your arsenal, the better you can express yourself. This way, you can avoid getting into a donnybrook over how you said something.

Self-reflection

If you’re like me, it’s easy to see a lack of manners in other people, but we don’t see it in ourselves. Therefore, we don’t practice our manners as much as we ought to. Self-reflection is a powerful tool in course-correcting yourself. As a friend said to me about patience, “Every day gives me the chance to practice patience.” The same can be said of manners. But to measure your efforts, you need to think back on what you do. Aim to do little better every day, and think where you need to improve, or think of the areas where you may be backsliding. Keeping a journal is handy to track how well you’re doing.

Being an organizer of an IPC is to aspire for better for yourself and your members. There’s no better place to start than with manners. The world will be that more improved with your efforts.

Apologies for the semi-rant, but I think it's important, especially when you deal with people, I’ll be writing much more on this later.

Dress codes - when and how to apply them to your IPC

© Can Stock Photo / Nejron

Established private clubs are historically known for their strict adherence to dress codes. Even today, most clubs ask for something akin to khakis and polo shirts for men. These codes are meant to help convey a certain dignified and clean-cut atmosphere. The more high-brow the establishment, the more strict guidelines in place. Some of the most established clubs have jacket and tie policies at the very minimum.

What to do for an informal private club? Should you consider a dress code? If so how do you apply it?

An IPC is not an establishment, so dress codes more or less fall on the type of event you're hosting, and the atmosphere to you want to evoke. I advocate developing a base recommended dress guideline, much like an established private club, but make it 'suggested' rather than 'required.' This way, members know they aren't going to kicked out of an event if they don't dress the part, but they also know there is an expectation that they should dress better than t-shirts and flip-flops. Most people usually rise to the occasion. For your events that don't specify dress, the base guideline would cover it just fine.

The base dress guideline should be easy to conform to. An easy way create a base guideline is to create an exclusionary list of clothes that goes against your club's image. Overly casual clothes like t-shirts, baseball hats, and cargo shorts usually find their way on dress code "no-fly" lists for established clubs.  If you plan outdoor activities, then you may want to recommend clothing that is appropriate. For example, if you plan a hike in the summer, you may want to suggest hiking boots or trail shoes along with an athletic t-short and shorts.

Make sure your base clothing guidelines are accessable to all members. Also, if you plan to throw cocktail parties, salons and similar gatherings, you may want to develop a dress guideline for those, too. Like your base clothing guidelines, make sure those are communicated to your club members too. Avoid being overly perscriptive. Part of the fun is allowing people to be creative.

If you have a professional club, a well-defined dress code would be a good idea. Clothing is a form or communication, and in a professional setting, dressing the part is essential. Although a dress code in a social or field -oriented club would optional, I still recommend it, but with plenty of leeway. For a hobby -oriented club, call for dressing guidelines only under special circumstances.

More resources on dress codes:
The Art Institutes, "Defining Dress Codes – What to Wear for Every Occasion"
City Club Los Angeles, "Dress Code"

Basic ideas for recruiting members to your IPC

© Can Stock Photo / aaronamat

People are the most important component of any group, but being able to choose the people who are the right fit for your IPC is paramount to its health and vitality. People who are interested in your club, who are interesting, and who are willing to regularly attend functions are the ones you should search for. Be careful, though. There is another part to consider, and that is chemistry.  Chemistry is hard to define, and it comes from the gut.

The next logical question is, ‘how do I find these people?’ Chances are that you have friends you want to include. This can either be a great start to your IPC, or an unforeseen trap. Even friends need to be subject to the search conditions listed above. You need to be very honest with yourself and ask if the friend is going to be compatible with other folks you’d like to attract. Some people make great friends, but do not have the social graces to play well with others. Or they may have beliefs that they enjoy discussing regardless of the prevailing topic, but those beliefs are incompatible with what you’re trying to achieve in the club. Better to keep them friends on an individual level, rather than later forcing yourself to sacrifice the friends you made in the club for the old friend who has become problematic.

I would avoid creating public access groups in social media to use as recruiting tools for your IPC, but rather, join a few as a regular member.  You’ll find people by being active in the communities that you want to draw from. If you’re someone who wants to attract geeks and nerds, then become active in some local public groups that are targeted at geeks and nerds, and strike up friendships. You’ll be doing the footwork that needs to happen before actual recruiting.

Once you attract some friends, invite them to a coffee or to lunch. In doing this, you want to see how they act on an individual basis, and to see how engaging they can be face-to-face. This may sound manipulative, but you’re expanding your friend circle. If you make friends, be a good friend, and don’t drop the friendship because they don’t suit your IPC. Making and maintaining friends is good trait to develop for someone that wants to manage an IPC. After you meet a few times, start asking them questions that relate to your IPC. In an off-hand fashion, you’re interviewing them for possible membership. With any luck, you’ll hook a member or two.

Once some membership has been established in your IPC, see if they’d be willing to sponsor friends for the IPC. Make sure any potential sponsorships fall along the lines of ‘interest, interesting and regular.’ I’ll talk more about membership intake and maintenance in a future post.

All this recruiting will take time and patience. An IPC is a long-term investment, not a race to collect as many people as possible. You’re looking for a slow build-up that enriches the club, and there will be a limit to membership. Be exclusive will allow you to raise the standards for your IPC.