Ready, Stormtroopers?

It Takes a Community

By now you’ve been hearing about this “community concept” for days, but what does it really mean? It means we can accomplish great things as a group if everyone contributes a little to the forward momentum. To thrive as a community, we need to move ahead as a dedicated group—each person offering what they can of time, ideas, research, resources or expertise. I know we’ve got extremely talented members who are willing to work together to advance our battle lines. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t enthused about the idea, right? Like Heather Massey said in her post, The SFR Brigade Wants You!

So…how can you help?

Here are just a few things we can do to launch our community. All these things won’t happen overnight, but some of them could happen very quickly if members are willing to jump onboard the shuttle. What would you like to get involved with? What ideas or expertise can you offer? Even if you don’t have expertise or a lot of time, doing one small task would help us accomplish major things. If everyone offers just a little, the combined energy will be enormous.

Are you excited yet?

Let’s discuss a few close-range soirees:

Facilitators (otherwise known as “administrators” in the G-world)
We’ve reached the point where we need three or four more facilitators to help get new members signed up (especially if we plan the Twitter Brigade below) and stand guard against the inevitable spam bots. (Think of them as alien attacks.) What does it involve? Not a lot. Knowing a bit about Blogspot, such as how to access Layout and Settings/Permissions and how to delete spam comments. Each member request takes less than five minutes. We could really use a “Down Under” or “UK” facilitator so we have good round-the-clock coverage. Any takers?

Twitter Brigade
After we have our facilitators onboard, a Twitter-cast would really help get the word out. Do you have a Twitter account? How about Facebook? You can link to our “5 Reasons” and get our message out on all the subspace channels? We can accommodate up to 100 members on this site itself--we’re more than a third of the way there already! The more members we have, the bigger the voice and the more vast our resources.

Web Site
Over thirty-five members in just a few days is one impressive accomplishment (hats off to Heather, once again). A dedicated web site linked to this blog would help give us a solid web presence. Do we have any web designers in our midst? Or do you know of someone who would design a web site? Let’s put on our tinfoil caps and turn on the radar.

Promotion
Banners and buttons and cards, oh my! Anyone know how to design a blog banner that members could post on their sites? How about a big six-foot long paper one? Or an 8 x 11? How about bookmarks? Or buttons that say “Member of the SFR Brigade” and business cards to pass out when people inquire?

Ambassadors
We have some big conferences coming up including RT and RWA. How about some of the –cons? Are you attending? Would you be willing to help get the word out by wearing badges or passing out those gorgeous SFR Brigade cards to interested parties?

Those soirees are great for starters, but what about a few major engagements?

A Dedicated SFR Award
Yes, it’s a huge, but shiny, undertaking. We have a member onboard who has a lot of experience in this area and is willing to advise, and there’s a wonderful series of articles Heather Massey wrote for The Galaxy Express (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV) with background information on the former SFR newsletter and Sapphire Award. Who would be interested in making some contacts and doing some research on resurrecting the award? Think of it! Our very own award for SFR! Let’s go back to the future!

Science Fiction Romance Writers International
That’s one possible name in what could become our own organization. But how to we get wayyy over there across the galaxy from our little home planet? A little recon, for starters. Is anyone a member of FF&P? Would you be interested in contacting them to see if we could form a splinter group? If so, would a specialized chapter of RWA be in our future? Or should we be independent from RWA? Would you like to be part of a task force who would study these ideas, present information to the membership, poll or survey the members?

These areas will get us launched on the road to the future. What say you? Thoughts? Ideas? Mission volunteers?  Please post below.

"Let’s rock!"