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I belonged to a synagogue for twenty years. This year we made the decision not to rejoin. The reason? I was feeling less connected to a place that was putting control over choice. Concretely: Leadership would not permit the Shabbat morning prayer class I had attended for the past eight years to continue on a weekly basis. We could hold the class twice a month, but not every week.

All this talk about ‘developing a network’ and ‘organizational change for the connected age’ can feel both daunting and vague. But really, it’s just like starting a band! (And you’ve always wanted to be a rock star, right?) Here’s how it works in five easy steps.

Part of the Connected Congregations series

Point of clarification: your list is not a network.

I sometimes hear organizations talking about the number of people they have involved with their work - their network - and then reference the people who have signed up to receive their email updates. That’s great! It’s wonderful that so many people are interested enough in your work and the difference that you’re making that they signed up to get your communications. That can be really important and powerful. It’s just not (necessarily) a network.

It's Elul and the High Holidays are just around the corner.  Now is the perfect time to get your Facebook Page 'Likeable!' How will you use it as an entry point for prospective members seeking to engage in the holiday season, and as a point of connection for current members?

 We've compiled 10 ideas to get the conversation going.  Feel free to add your ideas and your social media "New Year's Resolution" for deepening your community's engagement.

Guest post from Debra Askanase, cross posted from CommunityOrganizer2.0

Inspired by the book Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, Darim has developed the POST Planning Worksheet.  POST stands for PEOPLE, OBJECTIVES, STRATEGY and TECHNOLOGY.  While many jump into social media thinking "Oh, Twitter is the latest hot thing, we should be doing THAT", to use the tool successfully to meet your goals takes a bit more thought.   Creating a plan can be an indepth and complex process, or can be on the back of a napkin.  Either way, asking the right questions in the right order is incredibly helpful. 

The Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) hosts a phenomenal conference every year -- the NTC. Attracting professionals, and lay leaders, from organizations both big and small (actually humongous international orgs as well as tiny local operations), from executive directors to IT staff and program professionals, it is a cornucopia of ideas, tools, strategies and do-gooding-ness. I go because I value the exposure to the best, brightness and most creative people in the field.

There’s a lot of buzz about the increasingly image-driven nature of social media. At the forefront of this discussion is the latest hot social network, Pinterest. But it’s not only this virtual pinboard. Everywhere you look, memes are being generated to better marry words and pictures, kinetic typography videos are turning letters into animations, and infographics illuminate otherwise meaningless statistics. Pictures are the most highly engaged content on Facebook. Where is all this coming from?