Organic Growth I

The community association I am involved in is developing a life of its own, which it seems to me is a good thing.

It has been interesting to watch its growth. From the inaugural meeting of March 2009 where we didn't know how many would get involved, it has now won awards for its street party last year, and selected as one of four projects nationwide to demonstrate the value of community development training.

From the outset there have been some key principles that have made it easy for the organisation to get started and develop. In terms of organisation these are:

•  a very simple and open definition of 'membership': anyone involved in any capacity in the area who wants to get stuck in!
•  A light-weight and flexible constitution that only requires the standard key positions of chair, treasurer and secretary, and beyond that being very flexible: the management committee could be anything from 3 to 10 official members
•  building in further flexibility, i.e. allowing any interested person to be co-opted on so they could contribute and help organise things as well

This open and flexible approach sets the bar for participation very low, since a key aim of the association is to encourage people to get involved. Not rocket science really!

Well thats the boring constitutional stuff! The next episode will talk about the dreams and setting about making them a reality ...