Fully understanding the needs of your community is a complex concept that will likely take lots of time, conversation, and observation. Depending on your situation, you may already have a great idea for what your community needs. You may not, and that's OK. We will go over these questions and topics broadly during week 1, and discuss responses in more detail in week 2. Here are some things to keep in mind when assessing your community and hoping to grow it.
Please write down your
- Answers to these questions for current community
- Answers to these questions for an ideal version of your current community
- Ideas on how to improve in each category
After you've completed these questions, define your community in several short paragraphs for discussion in week 2.
- How would you define your community? Try to be open minded, but here are some examples of ways you could define your community:
- Women that use Linux
- Girls learning how to code
- Students interested in tech in the Central Florida region
- Computer Science teachers in the Orange County school district
- Online computer programming professors
- Hackers in and around London
- How many people are currently in your community?
- How many would you like to be in your community?
- Historically, has the group always been about the same size? If not, what brought on that change?
- What is currently available to people in your community to learn about tech?
- Are there meetups, seminars, online tools, office hours, hackathons?
- How accessible are the current resources in your community?
- Are meetings held during hours where people may be working?
- Is there childcare available?
- Is your community made up only of computer science students? Are you OK with that?
- Is your community open to other topics, or are their interests very specific?
- Why do people get involved in your community?
- Are they students hoping to get a degree?
- Are they trying to ramp-up to get a job?
- Are they passionate about developing, regardless of their major?
- What activities and goals can you set for your community based on their existing goals?
- Where does your community currently gather?
- Is it an online-only group so far, or is there a place where people can meet?
- Is there parking, and if so, is it free?
- Is there public transportation available to and from meet-ups?
- Is the location accessible to those both on and off campus?
- How much does it cost to use the space?
- How flexible is the space for different types of presentations and meetings?
- How many people can it fit?
- Is there comfortable seating for all shapes and sizes?
- Is there water or snacks available nearby?
- How does your community get in touch with one another?
- Is there an email group, a GitHub organization, a Twitter account, a Facebook group, a chat room or channel?
- Could your organization benefit from one or more of those, or another way of communicating?
- How welcoming is your community to new people and new ideas?
- What happens if there is a disagreement?
- Are there any policies or procedures in place, and are they documented?
- How will you personally handle it?