The Importance of Ongoing Support for Your Smaller Community Groups
I knew the whole group would fall apart if I didn’t attend their next meeting. That was how I felt after one distraught group member messaged me to say they were in trouble. Members weren’t showing up to meetings, engagement during the meetings was low, and the group often only covered half of the agenda […]
Who Makes The First Impression in Your Community?
“Mo!!!” Everyone in the room yelled in unison. Of course, everyone knew instantly who I was talking about, but all I said was, “The security guard out front is great!” Mo is the security guard at the main entrance to Seton Hall University. He is the first person that everyone meets and greets as they […]
Engagement Is A Process, Don’t Push It
I never thought knowledge about plastic recycling would be the reason to get more engaged. Those who know me now may find it hard to believe that I hardly participated in any school-sponsored events before college. I was the student who ignored or declined pretty much every extracurricular activity. I thought that was something “those” […]
The Best Way To Come Up With New Activities For Your Community
Nothing feels worse than standing in a room filled with party balloons but you are all alone because no one showed up. In college, I was elected student leader for the honors club. I was a club member the prior year and thought that I could offer a lot of value if I stepped into […]
3 Reasons Why Your Online Community Needs To Meet In-Person
Meeting Barack Obama for the first time wasn’t the most nerve-wracking part of my day. Jill and Aire’s friendship solidified after an activity they did during their fourth virtual success meeting through an organization called The National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS). The two kept nodding in agreement as if they were of one […]
3 Reasons Why Every Community Needs a Core Leadership Team
Watching all the newest blockbuster movies for free should be an exhilarating experience, but it was a colossal failure for me. As a college student leader, I launched a movie club with three friends. The club aimed to watch movies and review them while looking for subliminal marketing messages. In short, we got to watch […]
5 Ways to Increase Your Virtual Engagement
Five hundred people stared at me through their computers, waiting for me to say something. My palms were sweaty, my voice cracked, and my nerves took over. It was hard to know if the group was listening to the program or just staring at their screens, and I was just talking to myself. I’ve been […]
How Much Is Too Much Programming?
A fresh cup of hot tea is brewing away on this lovely spring morning next to my desk as I open up my email. Loading, loading, and still loading my inbox finally shows over a dozen emails from different companies inviting me to events they have coming up. The first email is from Airbnb saying […]
Dedicated Roles For Community Programming and Community Growth
It felt so demoralizing to see our executive board go from 15 members at the start of the year to only three by the end. The issue, however, wasn’t that we had too few people; it was that we had too many people. Back when I was in college, I joined an organization led by […]
What’s An Engagement Pyramid?
Marcus sat in the front row of a nearly empty 500 person auditorium with his head cupped between his hands. He was in disbelief that almost no one showed up after spending countless hours promoting his event. “How is that possible?!?” He silently screamed to himself. He remembered standing outside the Student Union building handing […]