The Community Roundtable

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

Kicking off #ThankitForward 2017

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#ThankitForward

Letterpress thank you cards by 1CANOE2

For the fifth year in a row (seriously!) our team is practicing our tradition of #ThankitForward – thanking the people in your life (personally and professionally) who have made a difference in your year by letting them know. And today it seems like this small act of gratitude and kindness will go an especially long way in these last few weeks of a turbulent year.

In the spirit of reflection and gratitude we encourage you to look back at 2017 and identify three (or more!) people who made a difference in your work and life this past year and send them a thank you via email, snail mail, or Twitter, (or whatever medium works best for you.) 

Think about:

  • Who inspired you? Brought on an “aha moment”?
  • Who was unwavering in their support of your work?
  • Which executive made a difference with their sponsorship or participation?
  • Which community member or advocate showed up in a big way?
  • Who covered you so you could unplug for a vacation — whether a day or a week?
  • Who talked you through a tough situation?
  • Whose blog posts or Twitter handle kept you well informed? Or laughing!

You get the idea! We’d love if you tag any social thanks #thankitforward so we can see the gratitude spread. Of course – some thanks yous are private and we 100% encourage those as well. Our goal is to inspire reflection on your journey this past year and help identify those that helped make it possible.

So tell us. Who will you be thanking it forward to this year?

Friday Roundup – Turkey Sandwich Edition

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“Turkey for me. Turkey for you…”

If you celebrated (American) Thanksgiving yesterday you might just be up to your ears with leftover turkey – and in a prime position to make my #1 sandwich of all time: the Tom Terrific. Today is the only day all year I can convince myself that putting more bread (stuffing) on my sandwich is not just acceptable, but mandatory.

The Tom Terrific Sandwich

The Tom Terrific Sandwich – a Friday-after-Thanksgiving staple.

tom-brady-240x320

Not to be confused with this Tom Terrific, who I’m happy to see any day of the year.

But, I digress. Here are this week’s links – perfect for enjoying with the delicious sandwich of your choice. Dreamy quarterback optional.

– Excited to share and spread gratitude this holiday season with #thankitforward: https://t.co/5hcFd6qDs1 Seeing all the tweets tagged this week was really fun – please keep adding more!

– Interesting stuff – 2013 Shift Index metrics. The burdens of the past: how long-term trends help to tell a story. https://dupress.com/articles/the-burdens-of-the-past/

–  Anyone attending the Gilbane Conference: Content & the Digital Experience next week? gilbane.infotoday.com/program. Our very own @rhappe will be there taking part in a discussion titled “Guidelines for Building Communities and the Role of Employees in Social Media” on Wednesday, December, 4th at 3:30pm. Please stope by and say hello!

– Fun look inside the #mini brand:  Motoring Community Member Experience ow.ly/qLkMe

Enjoy these last few days of November – December and 2014 are coming! (Also: winter!)

Credit Note: Sandwich pic via Martha Stewart, Tom Brady pic via People.com

Thank It Forward 2013

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gratitude via https://fellowfellow.com/words-gratitude/

Building community — no matter your end goal — depends on gratitude and reciprocity. Since we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving later this week in the US our own team has been reflecting on the people who made a difference in our community work in 2013.

In the spirit of reflection and gratitude we encourage you to look back at 2013 and identify three people who made a difference in your work and life this past year and send them a thank you via email, snail mail, or Twitter, (or whatever medium works best for you.) 

Think about:

  • Who inspired you? Brought on a “aha moment”?
  • Who was unwavering in their support of your work?
  • Which exec made a difference with their sponsorship or participation?
  • Which community member or advocate showed up in a big way?
  • Who covered you so you could unplug for a vacation — whether a day or a week?
  • Who talked you through a tough situation?
  • Whose blog posts or Twitter handle kept you well informed? Or laughing!
  • Which TheCR member made a difference in your work via email, Roundtable call or discussion thread?
  • Which Roundtable facilitator(s) helped or inspired you?

You get the idea! We’d love if you tag any social thanks #thankitforward so we can see the gratitude spread. If you want to keep your thanks anonymous of course that’s fine, but we’d love to hear some stories about the ways people contributed to your success ad community initiatives in 2013 – please feel free to share any shout-outs in the comments here as well.

So tell us. Who will you be thanking it forward to this year? We’ll be sharing our #thankitforward posts over the next three weeks and we can’t wait to see yours!

note: gratitude image via https://fellowfellow.com/words-gratitude/