This paper is written about a theoretical model I apply to examine any voluntary organisation that I am involved with. It was derived from my experiences over twenty eight years of being involved in/with voluntary organisations. I'm talking LUG's (linux users groups), bicycling clubs, bushwalking clubs, sporting clubs, non-profit associations, scounting, community service groups and others.
It gives a brief theoretical framework to something I learnt the hard way and I hope it will help other people make their groups successful.
I analyse/plan activites for groups I'm involved with by looking at three aspects. These are
Firstly, don't get hung up on my title and think I'm talking about a diety, religion, or schooling/academic study. I'm not. I'm talking about the idea(s) behind your organisation.
This is really a statement as to what the organisation is about. It is fashionable to call these Mission Statements these days. Unfortunately 99% of these are a load of shit. A coarse phrase, but very accurate. You need a clear statement that everyone understands and which means something to your members.
Yes, it should be written down and it should be freely available to all. It could be a plaque on a wall, or a page in the annual report, or a page on the WWW site, but people should be able to find it and read it and think about it. It may be a short simple sentence, or it may be a page of many points. The length is what is applicable to your organisation.
If you can not write it down, then you don't know what your organisation is really doing or why your organisation exists. If it is not written down, how can other people clearly understand what the organisation is about. This will lead to disention as people want to do other things that they feel are appropriate or needed, but the organisation elite, which is how you will be seen, keeps blocking for unknown reasons. A written statement allows all to have and keep unity of aim in your organisation and save much wasted energy.
Perhaps it was so well written in the past, that it could be set in stone, but it doesn't have to be. Some of the ideas behind organisations change overtime. Sometimes organisations have to change, sometimes they don't.
Either way, it is important that it is clearly understood what your organisation is for and why it exists.
Any organistation has to do something. Now it may be as basic as getting together for a chinwag over a cup of tea at private homes or a beer at the pub and solving the problems of the world. On the other extreme, your organisation may be a community sevice that raises funds and has a busy round of bbq, cake stalls, guessing competitions, etc. You must have some activity for your members that is relevant to what you are about and why you exist.
For a bicycle club it might be meetings, rides and workshops. For a sporting club it might be games and training. For a LUG (Linux users group), it might be meetings, mailing list(s), website and fests. What you do should be relevant to what you are about.
The activities and their natures should also change and rotate over time and include all levels of activity. You need a Whole of Life approach.
When you start an organisation, typically there are a few skilled, experienced members who start it off and a multitude of new, inexperienced members. So most of your activites are about improving the skills of the new members.
Then as they get beyond basic skills, the training moves into middle level skills, then onto higher levels. If you do this, you may be inadvertently fueling a boom-bust cycle of membership. Suddenly, they are dieing off, leaving to get married, develop other interests, whatever and you are back to recruiting new members and starting the cycle all over again.
The important point is that you should be doing all levels of activites all the time; beginners, middle and advanced. Cater for all levels all the time and you will smooth out the boom - bust cycle that many organisations go through.
A successful organisation caters for all needs of its members.
Yes, there are limits and you should not be doing anything that is illegal, immoral or unhealthy, unless your purpose is one of these anyway. If you take a Whole of Life approach to your members, you will be more successful in this.
Don't be trapped into thinking that I'm advocating a major social program. I'm not, but I am saying you must structure your organisation so that people can have social interaction.
This can be as simple as a cup of tea after meetings. If you want your organsation to be successfull, you must provide opportunities for people to interact in a non-threatening manner.
You can have all the meetings you want, but if people can not come to you informally afterwards and ask questions, seek clarifications, etc, then your organisation will not be as successful as it can be.
This time to ask questions will also be utilised to meet other people, and examine the organisation and to see what other needs it meets. Very few p eople are strongly focussed on one thing and one thing alone. Society tends to see this as abnormal.
So most, normal people will also be looking at your organisation to see what other needs/wants it will provide. This is where a whole of life approach can help decide what you do.
Some quick examples - if your membership is young single people, then you need to provide opportunities where they can meet other young, single people, usually of the opposite sex.
If you membership is family based, or involves families, you should provide activites that involve the whole family. Perhaps you may also need to provide activites for certain parts of the family to get away from the family. Dad's event, Mum's event, kids day, etc.
Ideally, these activites are part of your normal activites that you do, hence the suggestion of a cup of tea after a meeting. Not only are you providing a a non-threatening way that they can obtain information, you are also giving them an excuse to stay and be with other members and to engage in social interaction.
With a little thought, you will find other ways to modify what your organisations to facilitate and maximise social interaction, without compromising the activity.