

6 Steps To Creating A Community - wiljr
http://andersonjr.com/2011/11/28/6-steps-to-creating-a-community/

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DanBC
Some excellent points balancing the need for clear simple instruction ("we
meet at $TIME on $DATE") and flexibility. I guess that could be tricky for
some people.

Have you got any ideas about how you'll deal with disruptive people? (If it
happens?) Someone who just comes along to moan, and moan, and moan? Or someone
who tries to steer the community along a route it isn't interested in, but who
doesn't get it, who doesn't understand that people aren't interested?

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mikegreenberg
I find that keeping a clear agenda or format to your meetings helps to keep
things on track. You might not have an agenda planned out in the beginning and
that's fine, too. It will gradually flesh itself out as meetings progress. And
when everyone knows what is going on, there'll be fewer disruptions and
diversions.

In the rare scenarios when someone is just trolling, as the event organizer,
you have to politely take them aside and explain the purpose of the meeting
and theme of discussion. Making sure they're aware might be the only
miscommunication. At worst, explain how the diversions take away from the
meetup. Hopefully, you won't need to go further than this.

Note: I started running a meetup and supporting my local tech community over
the past year. This is one person's observations.

