The Community Roundtable

Empowering global community leaders with research-backed resources, training, and tools.

Authentic Engagement in Online Communities

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Episode #101 features Penny Schnarrs, Director of Community Relations and Strategy at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

Hosts Jim Storer and Shannon Abram chat with Penny about community building and virtual engagement with a medical organization. She shares strategies for authentic engagement in online communities, and highlights the need for innovation and connection beyond in-person meetings.

Listen to Penny Schnarrs on Authentic Engagement in Online Communities

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About Penny Schnarrs

Penny Schnarrs is the Director of Community Relations and Strategy at the American Association of Medical Colleges. She is also part-time faculty at Point Park University, teaching first-year students.

About AAMC

The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health care by supporting the entire spectrum of medical education, medical research, patient care, and community collaborations conducted by our member institutions. We are dedicated to the communities we serve and steadfast in our goal to improve the health of people everywhere.

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Unclogging Bottlenecks with Janet Stiles

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Unclogging Bottlenecks

Lessons from The NEW Community Manager Handbook is a limited-run podcast series, featuring the 21 community leaders showcased in the Handbook in conversation with Anne Mbugua.

Episode Five features Janet Stiles, Sr. Director of Member Engagement at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

She and Anne discuss how a thoughtfully designed and managed community program can unclog institutional bottlenecks. Janet shares how community-led programs became critical components of the AAMC member experience, how to manage “voluntolds” at your organization, and effective tactics for enabling organization-wide cultural change via community.

If you haven’t downloaded your free copy of The NEW Community Manager Handbook you can get it here.

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About the Association of American Medical Colleges

The AAMC’s strong sense of community and professionalism fosters an environment that supports the career and personal goals of its staff. Through development opportunities, employee support and activity groups, and other resources, employees can work in an environment where innovation and new ideas are encouraged. The AAMC serves a vital purpose as the nation’s voice for America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals. These institutions play a crucial role in our nation’s health care by training the next generation of doctors, discovering new medical knowledge, and providing superior clinical care. The work of the AAMC and its employees leads and serves our member institutions and constituents.

About The NEW Community Manager Handbook

The NEW Community Manager Handbook features 21 profiles of community leaders sharing advice and ideas on everything from accessibility, hiring, strategy, gamification, defining the digital workplace, technology, and more. Each profile is paired with research from the State of Community Management reports and includes tactical advice for implementing what you’ve learned.

Learn from community management experts at Easterseals, Glencore, Microsoft, UKG, the World Bank Group, Analog Devices, Inc., AAMC, Zapier, Doctors Without Borders, and more.

Download the New Community Manager Handbook

You can find more resources for enabling cultural change through community-led programs here.

Just Because You Invite Me, Doesn’t Mean I’ll Come

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By Marjorie Anderson, Community Engagement Specialist at PMI and member of TheCR Network. 

Screen Shot 2016-08-23 at 9.39.26 AMOne of the many wonderful things about an association having a member-facing online community is that there’s something in it for everyone. Maybe one of the most challenging things about an association that has a member-facing online community is getting staff and internal stakeholders to see that there’s something in it for everyone.

You’ve probably heard it all:

  • I don’t need to be a part of the community
  • I don’t want to be inundated with connection requests and e-mails
  • I don’t have time!
  • I don’t see how it can help my department

It’s the old “if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it” way of thinking. Of course, you have ammunition in your back pocket that’s going to settle these concerns, but have you educated yourself with information about staff and other internal stakeholders to find out why they would want to or need to engage?

“Marjorie, what are you talking about? We’ve already demonstrated the value of the community to executive level staff, so people should just be ready to jump on board!”

Not so much.

Let’s just say you want to engage your marketing department. To you, it makes perfeassociation community managementct sense for them to create a profile and get a pulse on what’s going on in the community and what your members are saying. After all, this is information they may not be able to gather through normal market research avenues. But does it make sense to them to be there? Do you know what their business goals are and how their involvement will ultimately help them succeed? If your answer to this is “no,” you may want to rethink who you’re trying to engage and why.

Familiarize yourself with your organization’s business goals and departmental goals. If you don’t have access to this information, have conversations. Talk to your peers about what they are working on and then offer solutions. Community is an essential place that can help your organization meeting its goals. But you can’t stop once you have executive buy-in. If you’re not helping your organization see the value in what the community has to offer, you can’t expect much support for future growth.

What are some ways that you’ve helped your organization realize the value in your community?