Community Manager Notes: A Final Check-in
Hi friend, I hope you’re well and that your summer has gotten off to a great start. I’m checking in for a final time because, as hard as it is to believe, my time with Agencies for Good (AfG) has come to an end. I have learnt so much during my time in this role and I am certainly not the same person that I was a year ago. It hasn’t always been easy to hold this position — as we know, alongside any learning and opportunity for growth, comes challenges.
The first challenge that is worth highlighting is the fact that community building is a long process, much longer than most people (myself included) anticipate. That’s not to say that the community is not in a better place now than it was a year ago. If nothing else, the Working Group and I have learnt that having a Community Manager makes all the difference. Members value having someone on hand who can facilitate conversations, offer support and simply function as a friendly face within the group. However, this work requires community managers to walk a long and winding path. Obstacles pop up almost out of nowhere and the final destination tends to change. While an ability to adapt is therefore necessary for any community manager, it is also important to provide them with some structure. This can be achieved through an effective and thorough onboarding process, as well as an accessible and clear job description that outlines both their responsibilities and their relationship to others in the team. The second challenge is around managing a team that is made up of both paid employees and volunteers. Different levels of commitment are naturally to be expected from these two groups but it can cause friction when the exact nature of these commitments remains unclear.
I am very happy to report that AfG’s Working Group have expressed that one of their immediate actions following my departure will be to revisit the roles of both Community Manager and Working Group member. This is an essential step to take because the intention is to eventually hand the community management baton over to someone new.
On a more personal note, it has been a real pleasure to work closely with the Catalyst team to help them ensure that all of the networks they manage, as well as the initiatives represented within them, prioritise inclusion. I have found that I am particularly passionate about this issue, and as someone who is often quite reserved, I have been surprised to learn that I actually have a lot to say. Whether I do or not comes down to the environment in which I find myself. I look forward to hopefully continuing to pursue this line of work, either in my job as Open Data Manchester’s Office Manager or through other ventures.
While we are between Community Managers, please feel free to DM any member of the Working Group (currently made up of Ellie Hale, Noam Sohachevsky, James Gadsby Peet, Gem Hampson, Molly Gavriel, Janinah Mckenzie and Erica Neve) if you need anything at all. They will be more than happy to help.
I appreciate you all for engaging with me, however that might have looked. You helped make my season as AfG’s Community Manager more interesting, and the outcomes that came out of the resulting work I did more valuable. I can’t wait to see how this community develops in the future, and will be sticking around on Slack for that very reason. Thank you for reading, take care!
P.S. To find out what I’ve been up to in the last year, take a look at my first and second Community Manager Notes posts.
