You may have noticed that we link to and include our Great Lakes Commons meetup group on this site. Well here’s why.
At GLC we want to connect with you. We do our best with email messages and Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube updates – but there’s so much missing. Where can people who share the same passion and curiosity ‘meetup’ across a vast bioregion like the Great Lakes and work collaboratively to protect them?
Our meetup group combines many collaborative tools for connecting:
- It facilitates both face-to-face and on-line events in a simple, public, and accessible format
- It hosts message boards so that members can develop and share their thoughts and actions
- It creates a community of people (rather than just a list) who participate as members (we call them water-commoners). Membership fosters a greater connection and dedication to the group’s success.
- It allows members to message each other directly on matters of common concern, rather than just the host organization managing everyone’s contact information. We designed the profile page so that members can share their connection to the Great Lakes, while also entering into an exchange of what they can offer and receive from the group.
- It uses a simple interface that lets the host customize the group, lets members manage their own profiles, and acts as a hub to host and link vital content (rather than a stream of information lost in various Facebook & Twitter feeds)
- It emails updates and invites to members directly so they can stay better connected. Less than 50% of people on a mailing list actually open the email and Facebook Pages generally reach less than 20% of their LIKE community.
We don’t use all the functions of the meetup, but in the future we could be posting more photos, conducting polls, collecting fees, or accessing the group’s analytics.
But for now it’s a member-focused ‘collaboratory’ to foster a community of Great Lakes Commoners.
So don’t see this site as just an event calendar, but part of an engagement strategy. Mixing events, discussion, and the many gifts of our members -- this meetup group is fertile ground for creating Great Lakes Commons communities.
Join Us !