Intentional Society: Membrane stories
notes on membership, belonging, and recruitment
The next orientation call will be on Saturday, December 31st, leading into the new year and Season 9.
We looked back at our season a few days ago, and one story I constructed from the data is about the effect of moving to a more intentional/legible membership status declaration. What we saw in the attendance data was:
- A larger "core" cohort of people who attended every or nearly-every session, compared to past attendance distributions
- Less variance overall in attendance and a slightly lower average
Correlation is not causation, but in this case it seems like a sensible inference! It's about what I would have guessed: that strengthening the membrane that marks in-ness and out-ness would both keep some people away (from dropping in sporadically) and hold some people more securely in (with a greater sense of shared investment). The aim was the latter, of course, but the former is just the flip side of the same coin.
We can look at separate mechanisms moderating the inflow-current "wind" ushering people in through that membrane of belonging. The language of "guest pass" seems to be well-received for newcomers to understand that they are welcomed into the member space. The membership agreement can benefit from a re-ordering tweak to get the "openness to varied relational-commitment intents" up front.
Then I think there's a thing we could try next season re members who fall away not consciously (because of bandwidth or priority shift) but because of a "I haven't been coming regularly, therefore I don't belong, therefore I shouldn't come" kind of (very natural) social logic. Something around reviving and strengthening remote checkins (we have a little web-form message-box tool) as being both valued and "enough" as a connection move.
Lastly, the outer-most interface: recruitment. I'm feeling confident in the "good bones" of the culture, community, content, container we've built, and I'd like to reach out beyond our current bubble of awareness. I'm currently working on a longer piece of writing, something emotional, ambitious, insightful IMHO, and hopefully worth sharing. This piece will serve as an updated manifesto/call/marketing/message piece after two years of learning. I will of course share here, after perhaps 1-2 more weeks of writing and editing. If you'd like to provide early review feedback, give me a wave! 👋🏻😁
Cheers,
James