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The Community Roundtable

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

Meet the 2021 Scholarship Cohort in TheCR Network

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As part of our continuing efforts to increase the impact of our community resources, we are excited to announce the 2021 Scholarship Cohort.

We believe that offering access to individuals that may not otherwise have the financial means to do is beneficial not just for those who receive the scholarship, but all members of TheCR Network. Increasing the diversity of membership to include organizations that are not traditionally well-resourced provides a more holistic and comprehensive experience for everyone.

You’ll hear more from our Scholarship class, as they report back on their learnings in this space over the next year. In the meantime, here’s a snapshot of our 2021 Scholarship Cohort:

TheCR Network 2021 Scholarship Cohort Infographic
Download the Infographic

You can learn more about our Scholarship program and meet the 2021 Scholars.

Introducing our Connect 2020 Track Chairs

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For the last five years, we’ve run increasingly dynamic and engaging Connect conferences. Over the course of the years, there was one piece of feedback that we heard over and over – but had a hard time implementing: “We want tracks!”

Believe me, we got it. It’s a bummer to settle into a session only to realize ten minutes in that it’s just not for you. Connect has always been intentionally small, and tracks just didn’t make sense. Until now.

Connect 2020 has changed the way we can think about our content, and by moving from a two-day in-person event to a month-long community celebration, tracks now not only make sense, but they are also a heck yes.

With over 50 online sessions, we’ve reimagined what it means to Connect in 2020. To help attendees find the sessions that will be the most valuable, we have divided all activities into nine tracks. Tracks also give us the opportunity to work with Track Chairs for the first time. Each Chairperson holds deep expertise in their track, and will serve as the member voice and face for Connect 2020.

I’m thrilled to announce our 2020 Track Chairs:

You can learn more about our nine community tracks, and read about our 2020 track chairs here.

Institutionalizing Inclusion

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Institutionalizing Inclusion - Vertical Garden, Milan, Italy
Photo via Greenroofs.com

Inclusion is a critical focus for most organizations and has been particularly prominent over the past few months. Online communities are uniquely suited to promote wide-scale inclusion because of their collaborative rather than directive structure—they reward members for their unique contributions instead of forcing compliance to a standard. Communities are also generative, producing more value for every participant than is contributed by them—delivering a compelling ROI for every member. But the best communities don’t just assume that their existence will immediately foster widespread inclusion; instead, they prioritize investment in operations that will institutionalize inclusion.

When we asked members of TheCR Network for specific responses on how their community promotes inclusion, three methods stood out.

  • Validating Concerns – One community manager received concerns from members about a lack of female speakers in a large annual conference his organization holds. He investigated and found that 15 to 18 percent of speakers were female and that this number was in line with similar conferences in his industry, but he didn’t stop there. Looking deeper he discovered that the percentage of female speakers was not representative of female members in his community, so he reached out to his community and they created a five-step plan to make their conference more inclusive.
  • Making Inclusion Visible – One of our members noted that while they still have much to do, they created a code of conduct, which is accessible to the entire organization, and an inclusive holiday calendar that allows for community members to discuss inclusive movements like Pride. Her community also marks moderators and admins so members of the community have clear pathways to report concerns. She is also working to recruit a more diverse cohort of customer advocates, formalize welcoming procedures for new members, and even implement slackbot to combat the word “guys” in their Slack channels. All of these measures make the importance of inclusion visible, daily.
  • Providing Inclusion For Everyone – A member in a large organization brought up the importance of seeing inclusion everywhere. One of her community’s biggest diversity issues is age. Her community often feels curtailed for older generations, and it’s common for younger employees to feel their ideas are not important. While her organization is working towards BIPOC and LGBTQ+ inclusion, ageism was overlooked. Her community has since developed a multi-tiered incident response plan with a section dedicated to HR. They have also set up a number of filters to pick up word usage that might indicate exclusive behavior. Clubs that cater to a younger audience are being developed, even when there is push back from older committees; the community channels allow for discussion and eventual approval.

These sorts of solutions cannot exist without the inclusive culture that well-functioning communities bring. Institutionalizing inclusion requires public progression and admitting openly that there needs to be change. This sort of acknowledgement demonstrates to community members that their organization validates concerns and that inclusion is lived, not just communicated. Advanced communities show that this is achieved best when community governance is highly integrated across organizational leadership as well as across emergent community leadership. When more voices ask questions and provide answers, holes in inclusion practices can be identified and addressed faster.

Inclusion is the result of advanced strategies.

This year the State of Community Management research shows that communities are more effective when they engage with more constituencies. Communities that do this best are those with roadmaps, dedicated budgets, and advanced strategies. They can calculate value and report it, and they empower their members to be actively engaged and innovative.  None of this success could be achieved without inclusion, and all of the measures that lead to this success promote it. This generative nature changes culture, promoting a culture of equity in voice and experience.

Advanced Communities include a wide range of stakeholders in decision-making.
Download The State of Community Management 2020 Report

Connect 2020 Update: A Reimagined Online Experience

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Virtual Community Management Conference

When we started the Connect series in 2015 it was because our members asked us to create a way for to meet in person with the people they rely on in TheCR Network. Our members are, and always have been, the foundation of Connect. Whether as a speaker, lightning talk facilitator, Advice Desk attendant, or an engaged participant, we rely on them to make Connect meaningful, and this is even more true this year. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted us to explore how to design Connect 2020 in a safe way that fulfills that desire to deeply connect with peers. Moving to a virtual experience isn’t simple, at least in the way we’re thinking about it. We can’t imagine a virtual two day Connect… Zoom fatigue is real and we want to avoid trying to jam too much content into a limited time frame.  

We’ve reached out to some of our members and noticed several themes in their feedback:  

  • Connect is as much about the side conversations and one-on-one knowledge sharing as the formal learning and collaboration sessions. 
  • Hearing how community technology platforms are evolving is important to many of you right now.   
  • Including sessions for executive stakeholders on the agenda would help you continue to advocate for community at your organizations. 
  • Running sessions about internal AND external community use cases would be a great way to help you focus on the people and topics that matter to you.  
  • Running Community 101 AND advanced community talks at the same time will help you and your team pick what makes the most sense for you.  
  • Even with more spaced out content there will still be live sessions that you want to attend, but can’t, so we’ll be recording and sharing sessions back in the community.  

In order to make this event everything we know it can be, we need our members to raise their hands and agree to be part of Connect 2020. There is a role for everyone, whether it’s as a speaker, panelist, a session facilitator, or an engaged attendee.

Based on member feedback and guidance, we have reimagined Connect as a month-long community celebration, with sessions running at regularly scheduled times on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week. Keynotes, case studies, product demos, show and tells, and unique networking opportunities will weave into a comprehensive agenda – spanning time zones and transcending distance.  

Our goal is to keep Connect 2020 a “members-only event” and make it an extension of existing membership for TheCR Network, meaning that unlike in the past, ALL Connect sessions will be free for members to attend. If you are not currently a member of TheCR Network you can learn more or join today.

You can view what a sample week might look like for Connect 2020 and download a flyer that provides more details here.  More details are here.

Jim Storer and Kelly Schott,  Connect 2020 Co-Chairs  

Building effective content and programs for online communities

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If your technology is the venue, and your members are the party goers, then content and programming are definitely the snacks, music, and games that keep your online community party rolling.

In this webinar Kelly Schott shares five lessons we’ve learned from TheCR Network members about planning and managing effective content and programming in your online community.

Kelly’s five lessons include:

  • It’s All About The Planning​
  • Try, Adapt, And Try Again​
  • Meet Your Members Where They Are​
  • Show Me The Data​
  • Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Watch the archive here:

Find more community management webinars.

Dina Vekaria + Maren Beckman on Remote Teams

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Join the community experts at The Community Roundtable as they chat about online community management best practices with a wide range of global community professionals. Topics include increasing online audience engagement, finding and leveraging executive stakeholders, defining and calculating online community ROI and more. 

Find more episodes.

Episode #65 features Maren Beckman, Global Community Manager, and Dina Vekaria, Senior Global Community Manager at Pearson.

In this episode of the podcast, Maren and Dina discuss best practices for time zone management on remote teams, thriving on a dispersed team, the power of using “work out loud” (WOL) practices for accountability and visibility, and their successful “People of Person” vlog series.

Listen Now:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | RSS

About Conversations with Community Managers*
To better reflect the diverse conversations our podcast covers we’ve changed the name of our long-running series to Community Conversations.
Community Conversations highlights short conversations with some of the smartest minds in the online community and social business space, exploring what they’re working on, why they do what they do, and what advice they have for you.
These episodes are a great way to begin to understand the nuances of community strategy and management.
Each episode is short (usually less than 30 minutes) and focuses on one community management professional.

TheCR Network Wrap-Up: October 2019

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A handshake between two men in business clothes. Only the hands and arms are visible.

We continue the discussion about career trajectory in the Network. On the heels of the invigorating Connect 2019, the community managers in the Network are discussing how to move both horizontally and vertically within the community space.

This month one of the highlights was a Roundtable call with Marjorie Anderson, the digital communities manager for Project Management Institute. She shared her path from entering the community space to receiving a promotion all while navigating organizational shifts.

One of her words of advice to other community managers is to speak up. She encourages those looking to take on more responsibility to ask to work on projects, to learn on the job, and position themselves for the perfect opening within the company.

Often, community managers are still the authorities on community mindset and practice within their organization. Plotting your trajectory, without a well-defined path is difficult but not impossible. With support from mentors and peers in professional networks such as TheCR Network, many community professionals are finding unique and innovative ways to move up the proverbial latter.

Another exciting Roundtable discussion centered on the parallels between journalism and community. We were joined by Anita Zielina, Director of News Innovation and Leadership at Craig Newmark J-School at CUNY. This inspiring discussion focused on how journalism and community have a shared value of centering people and the stories that inform their lives.

Lead community manager Kelly Scholl also discussed her experience attending the first annual Engagement Innovation Summit, focusing on what journalists can learn from communities in the healthcare sector. This reciprocal relationship between journalism and community lends itself to some important lessons about human behavior, and more importantly how to form more authentic and useful relationships.

With the continuous work of reporting, strategic planning, tactical and operational tasks, it is necessary to pause from time to time and return to the core of what we do as community professionals. Remembering that human connections underpin all we do is vital to ensuring that our work remains on focus, and can help to rejuvenate us when we are experiencing challenges.

In the Network, we regularly share and celebrate the wins we experience in community. Many of which have the most impact when they are focused on how community made a lasting impact on someone’s life. Whether it answered a questions, saved time, helped foster an introduction or deepen a connection, community is at its best when it is helping people feel and do their best.

Join TheCR Network today!

October in TheCR Network: Community Leadership & Careers

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After a fantastic TheCR Connect conference, we’re looking forward to continuing all of the different conversations that we started as discussions in TheCR Network for the next several months. We joined and heard conversations around a variety of topics including tools & platforms, Centers of Excellence, executives & proving value, and leadership & careers.

To get to further explore some of these areas, we’ll be digging in and exploring a particular theme in October as we did in September.

For October, we’ll be looking more at Leadership and Careers:

One of the topics that I was most interested in hearing about at Connect was the definition of leadership and how we, as community professionals, understand, use, and leverage our leadership in our communities as well as in our own organizations.

Around the topic of leadership & careers, we’ll be hosting the following events for members of TheCR Network (with more to come!):

Rest assured, we won’t be only discussing leadership & careers this month. We’ll also be hosting a variety of calls meant to continue a diverse set of discussions in TheCR Network, also leaving room for spur of the moment conversation:

With members who are at all stages in their community leadership journey — from just starting out in community to owning director-level roles — we’re looking forward to getting to hear about how they furthered their careers, developed their skills, and led their own community programs.

If you’re looking at your own community career and skillsets, or if you’re looking for leadership opportunities, October is a fantastic time to join TheCR Network and take part in the conversation.

TheCR Network Wrap Up for September 2019: TheCR Connect

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If you’re feeling the extra jolt of energy in the community space this week, there is a good reason! We are riding the high of TheCR Connect which took place September 23rd – September 25th in Boston. This one-of-a-kind occasion was filled with first time meetings, reunions, and so many ah-ha moments; I’m still reeling!

Our members are still talking about the peer-led sessions they attended, the connects they made, and colleagues they met IRL. Nick Emmet did an amazing recap of day 1 and 2 of the conference you can dive into if you are feeling left out. 

Many attendees and I marveled at the graphic recordings produced at the event. These unique and creative renderings help to bring the topics we discussed to life.

One of my favorite aspects of the conference was our first ever Community Solutions Showcase. Although the session stimulated many more questions than answers, it was insightful to learn more about how community platforms view the needs of community managers, and in contrast, how community managers are evaluating the platforms they choose. You haven’t seen the last of this conversation so stay tuned to TheCR for our next platform focused event.

Another one of my favorite moments from TheCR Connect 2019 was the award ceremony. TheCR Awards recognizes leaders, trailblazers, and newcomers in the community management space who are making waves. We honored long-time TheCR member and expert community manager Jeff Ross with the Lifetime Achievement award. On the other side of the spectrum, we also recognized Amy Rood, a newcomer to the community space who hit the ground running with thoughtful questions in the Network.

Although Connect took up much of TheCR teams lifeforce during September, we know that the impact of the ideas shared will continue throughout the year and this is well worth the effort.

We could not continue to put on these events without the leadership, guidence, and support of our members. One of the key conversations I am determined to continue is about empowerment.

As Rachel Happe stated during the conference, community leadership IS leadership and as community managers, it is time to step into our full power and influence.

As we move into October, I encourage you to find ways you can lead in your community. You don’t need to manage people to take up the charge of being a leader. Ask the tough questions, find a community-minded way to solve a problem. Set a meeting with a stakeholder to update them on community. If there is anything I learned from this years conference, it is this; community leaders are experts in their organizations and now is the time to speak up!

Where do you go to recharge, get advice, and find empowerment? If you’re a community manager looking for support, research, and tools, you have found your people! Join TheCR Network today and join the conversation.

September in TheCR Network: Community Technology

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Like so many communities, for TheCR Network September is a period of regrouping and getting back into our routines after the summer. Over the summer we pause a lot of our programming and we typically see our engagement drop a bit as well. September means getting back to regular roundtable calls to hear from experts and peers, back to interest group conversations and more regular communications from TheCR Network community management team.

This year, because so many of our members have either recently deployed or migrated community platforms or are preparing to do so, we are focusing on community technology. This focus will have us exploring both technical strategies and looking deeply at specific platforms – capped with the Community Solution Showcase ahead of TheCR Connect conference at the end of the month in Boston, where we will be hearing from the solution providers, customers, and analysts.

We’ll host the following events for members:

Sept 6th – Salesforce Community Professionals Virtual Meet-Up

Sept 11th – Aurea/Jive Community Professionals Virtual Meet-Up

Sept 12th – Roundtable Discussion: Designing and Defining A Tool Ecosystem with Thomas Vander Wal one of the premier experts in social and network technologies

Sept 13th – Roundtable Discussion: Selecting Platforms: Comparisons, Requirements, and Evaluation, which I will facilitate using TheCR’s Community Technology Framework

Sept 16th: Igloo Community Professionals Virtual Meet-Up

Sept 18th – Power Up: Building Relationships With Super Users with Nilsa Fragoso and Tuvy Le providing case studies from Verizon and Alteryx.

Sept 23rd – Community Solutions Showcase, in Boston

Sept 24th – 25th – TheCR Connect, in Boston

Sept 30 – Kick-off of our fall community management training cohorts, one for internal community professionals and one for external community professionals.

September is a particularly special time for us because we get to gather at TheCR Connect to reconnect in person, dig deep, meet new peers, and enjoy each other’s company, wisdom, and support.

It’s a great time to join TheCR Network, especially if you are working on your technical infrastructure.