IWCS Focus and Facebook Groups Update

facebook-793049_1920

We’ve got some big changes coming up in our member Facebook Groups and focus group meet ups!

Currently, our club offers “focus groups” centered on specific interests that meet regularly and an assortment of Facebook Groups to go with them. Some of the focus groups have Facebook Groups, but not all. And not all of our Facebook Groups have focus groups that meet up regularly. This has caused plenty of confusion, especially to new members.

So starting this month, Emily will be working on reorganizing and restructuring our focus groups and Facebook Groups. Here’s what you can look forward to:

Most of our current Facebook Groups will be rebranded into “Interest Communities” modeled after our crafting and cooking Facebook Groups. We will start with the following Communities:

  • Food/cooking
  • Sports
  • Books
  • Crafts
  • Photography
  • Gaming
  • Mothers Corner
  • Languages

These Facebook Groups will be renamed in a straightforward manner to make them easy to find, for example, “IWCS Food & Cooking Community.” These Communities will be open to all current members and will be used for forum-like discussions of that topic.

The Communities will also be used to plan regular events, which we are re-branding as “Get Togethers.” These are the current focus groups such as “Breakfast & Books” and “Stitch ‘n Bitch.”

Each community can have zero, one, or multiple Get Togethers associated with them. Currently those are:

  • Monthly walking group
  • Strokes Club
  • Breakfast & Books
  • Stitch ‘n Bitch
  • Mother’s Corner Playgroup
  • German Conversation

Please note that joining a Community does not mean you have to attend an associated Get Together. For example, if you want to talk about a new hiking tour you took last weekend in the IWCS Walking & Hiking Community or just want to ask for recommendations, feel free to do that without ever attending the monthly walks Sandra puts in the newsletter. You can be a member of all the IWCS Facebook Communities without ever attending a single Get Together.

Alternatively, you may attend a Get Together without joining the associated Community – you have the choice to do as much or as little as you wish. And if you don’t use Facebook at all, you may of course continue to attend any of the Get Togethers that interest you, as they will still be listed in the monthly newsletter.

Some additional notes about this process:

  • Communities are welcome to create additional Get Togethers (such as an evening book club in addition to Breakfast & Books)  if there is demand for it. The same goes for creating additional Interest Communities – talk to Emily for details!
  • Purely social Get Togethers will not be associated with a Community because they aren’t centered around an interest (Happy Hour, Ladies who Lunch, Buy/Sell/Trade) and will be listed in a separate section of the newsletter to avoid confusion.
  • The Facebook Interest Communities will all have Emily as an admin + a local member for purely administrative (membership-related) purposes.
  • We ask that Facebook events for monthly Get Togethers be created in the main Member Group only and not in the Communities for consistency’s sake (the host is welcome to share the event link to the Community page).

If you have any questions or feedback about this process, please use the contact form below to message Emily directly. Look for these changes to start happening in May!

 

 

[contact-form subject=”IWCS Communities and Gatherings”][contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”1″ /][contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”1″ /][contact-field label=”Comment” type=”textarea” required=”1″ /][/contact-form]