As we shared recently in the annual census, our Social Media Club (SMC) community has expanded from nearly 200 chapters in 2010 to more than 300 chapters in 2011, and the applications to start new chapters continue to stream in.
As we survey our community, we have found too many chapters launch with little to no local support in place – causing the chapter to eventually go inactive. As this can affect the credibility of SMC, we are working to expand our resource library to ensure chapter leadership teams have the tools they need to succeed and need to update the chapter guidelines to include the following items;
- Potential chapter leaders must provide a minimum of 3 content ideas for the local chapter.
- Minimum of three people committed to a primary leadership role.
- Potential chapter leaders must suggest a minimum of three venues to host local activities.
- A minimum of one quarterly call with SMC HQ.
We have also decided to place a hold on all new chapter launches effective today through December 31, 2011. This will allow us the time to build additional infrastructure needed to fully support you, your local chapter and help ensure a path to success for all.
Over the coming weeks, I will be working closely with our SMC chapters to better understand their local challenges, strengths and where SMC can help them most.
We will continue accepting chapter applications but will not be moving forward on any launches until after a series of calls with local leadership, which will begin in 2012.
With more than 300+ chapters in the SMC community, we have a great understanding of what it takes to build and manage a successful chapter. While we wish to expand the SMC community, it is more important to us to build strong communities of members and ensure there is a sustaining model, both at .org and the local chapter level. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause in the interim, but the quality of our global community is our #1 priority.
