Freeconomy Blog
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22 Jun
Guide to getting a local Freeconomy Community group started...
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One of the most common emails I get is from members around the world who want to kick off their own local Freeconomy Community gatherings, but who aren’t sure of how to go about it. Which always gives me a lot of hope for the future - it’s great to hear that so many people from all walks of life want to actively bring this community forward and enable more people to both give and receive.
When I started this community near the end of last year, everyone around me told me that our main problem would be that people would abuse the system. Well, it has actually been the opposite – in a couple of countries the main problem has been that people are actually too shy to ask for help 'without offering something in return!'. One of the best ways to combat this is to get people physically together – psychologically, once we know somebody we are more likely to be comfortable asking them for help. Which is all very strange n a sense, given how good we all feel when we are allowed to help someone else! If we don’t ask for it then we deprive someone else of that good feeling!
From all the feedback I have received from people around the globe regarding what works and what doesn’t, and from my own experiences from what’s been happening where I live in Bristol, UK, I have put together a list of things which anyone anywhere in the world can do in order to not only get more people in their area involved, but to also get those who are already involved together face-to-face.
Here are my top tips –
1. Organise a local Skillshare evening:
Here in Bristol we have just finished organising the first eight weeks of our new Skillshare evening called ‘Freeskilling’.
Through this event, one member of the community, each week, comes along to a local venue and shows an audience of people how to do a particular skill. Evenings so far range from learning how to make REAL bread and pizza to making your own candles to sign language – even how to forage your own food.
Not only does this teach lots of people a load of skills we are going to need in the future, it also gets people together in their local communities under the spirit of sharing, which at the end of the day has got to be the ultimate goal.
If you would like to do something similar, you are more than welcome to use and adapt the Poster (B&W version) and / or the Flyer (BW version also) (click any to see the first two months line-up) that the Bristol group has drafted to promote its events into something for your own evening – there’s no point in reinventing the wheel!
2. Arrange a gathering in a local café / pub / community centre:
In some areas, certainly those with smaller amounts of members, the best place to start seems to be in organising an informal get together of folk in some public place, to just have a chat and get to know each other. From that you can then get everyone’s opinion on how best to move forward, and even get a group started up to organise whatever it is you decide is that best route.
Feedback so far has been that it’s not just a great way of getting things going in your local area, but that many friendships have been formed between group members!
However, the success on getting people to actually come along often depends on the quality of email writing from the original sender, unfortunately. Here are my ‘Tips for sending out emails to everyone within a 10-mile radius’:
• Send out the email between 10am – 4.30pm on either a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday – this ensures your email has the best chance of actually getting read!
• Follow this email up with a reminder the day before the event in the same time slot. Sunday mornings are also a good time to remind.
• Keep emails relatively short – no one wants to read an essay these days. Don’t go into too much detail about why you want to do it – that often comes across better when you talk about it face-to-face! And don’t voice strong opinions – again, it can put people off before you get a chance to even chat about it!
• If you organise an event, arrange it for a day that there is traditionally not much on in your area – Tuesdays are often best.
• Arrange the initial meeting place to be somewhere public at a time that suits most people i.e. 7pm in a local café.
• Keep it positive and upbeat – no ones really wants to go to a dreary negative meeting!
3. Launch a one-day event:
This is probably the most labour intensive option but a great method on a number of levels. Events can range from a day of skillsharing workshops to one of talk / debates etc.
A handful of local members in Bristol are organising a clothes themed day, with everything from a clothes swapping ‘swaparama’, to workshops on how to fix the clothes you love and want to keep! It really can be anything – the main thing is that people come together and share their time, their ideas or the things they no longer have any use for.
4. Offer help to anyone who asks:
This is the simplest thing you can do. Sometimes this can be just helping somebody in the garden, helping them with their own website or helping them with their engine. Which can probably sometimes seem ‘menial’ as many members here are dedicated to projects whose raison d’etre is to make the world a more positive place.
However, I believe that just the simple act of helping and sharing with another human being, just for the love of it, is one of the most profound things you can do. Peace will not descent upon us in one fell swoop – it comes from the billions of interactions we humans have everyday. If every one of us helped and supported each other when we were in need, peace would be attained in no time. Helping and supporting people raises their spirits, breaks down fear of people around them, and, most importantly, makes people feel good about the place where they live. This, in time, then nurtures a spirit of wanting to ‘give back’ in those who have received.
JUST REMEMBER – if there isn’t something happening in your area, don’t wait around for someone else to start it – that’s what everyone else is doing! Go and initiate something yourself, and trust me, in no time you will have a whole team of people helping out and taking part! BE A PIONEER!
If you need any further help or have any questions, please just email on saoirse@justfortheloveofit.org or phone me on 0044 (0) 775 886 1783.
If anyone has any other ideas on how best to get more people involved or get existing members together, please leave a COMMENT BELOW suggesting how. Have a fantastic day.
Comment on this Post:
jammms6 comments ...
Hi there,
I have not sussed out how to find all the members in my area to send emails to. Could you please advise how to get an overview on your website of how many people there are in a particular region and the best way to pull out their emails quickly.
thank you
Annemarie
Madam Salami comments ...
Things have been on the slow side here in West Sussex, well at least in my network they have! To be honest with you when I first moved here to Worthing 10 years ago, we all noticed how surly and down right rude Worthing folk were. This has luckily changed a little in that time, and from what I can see is getting better all the time.
Admittedly my only basis for this comment is that fact that recently I am making more friends, so maybe it's me being nicer and friendlier - either way I guess it's a good thing!
Since joining here I have met one lady, a very lovely lady but we both had had emails for help ignored and had no contact with any others requesting help.
I decided that freeconomy needs to be highlighted more so we came up with a plan. Mid August we are holding a friends making picnic, I will be emailing all in my network and hope they all come along. I am hoping that it will give everyone a chance to make friends and maybe not be so shy about asking for or offering help.
Also we have a local newsletter forced through our letter boxes months, so I wrote to them telling them all about just for the love of it and how it would be great if they could include a bit about to make every one aware of how good it is.
I heard nothing back, after a month, so assumed they had decided against it, well that was until I welcomed a new member to my area. I recognised her as a lady from my freecycle who had given me a peace lily and (ironically) a money plant. It seems she had read a letter published in our local newsletter! Fabulous!
Then on welcoming another new member to my area, found out she too joined as a result of my published letter! She even thanked me for it.
I got hold of a copy and despite the publisher misspelling my name and chopping my original email up so much it made me sound a little crazy, it did prompt at least 2 more people to join!
I was a little chuffed.
