Its not unusual nowadays for a community to have at least one website volunteer. You may even have one willing to “take over” your website.  Be sure to ask questions. What guarantees do you have that the website will not be abandoned in a year or two.

When we are faced with well-meaning volunteers who want to take over, its important to remember you get what you pay for, and without a contract, you have no recourse if you are unhappy but to sever the relationship.

What Are the Different Sectors of a Community?

Groucho Marx once said, “I’d never join any organization that would invite me to be a member.” Well, we’d want Groucho in our organization, and (if he were alive) we think we might get him to join. That’s because we want members from all sectors of the community. And that’s what this section is about.
Why identify potential participants among diverse groups?

Here are four excellent reasons:

• Because if you can bring those different types of members into your group, it will be more representative of the full community; your group will stand to gain broader community support
• Because with a multi-sector membership, more different opinions will probably be expressed and discussed; that means better decisions may get made
• Because a diverse, multi-sector membership is usually also a larger membership — you will then have more talent, and also more varied kinds of talent, at your disposal
• Because the contacts and connections made in a diverse, multi-sector group lead to new community relationships. And these relationships can spark new community initiatives that might never have otherwise existed.

The sectors of a community are its basic component parts. Just about anything that exists has such components. Living beings have organs and cells; nations have towns and cities; galaxies have stars. In a community, the basic component parts are often called sectors.

Think of sectors as pieces of the pie. Here’s one way to slice them.

1. Chief among these sectors are what we call social institutions. These institutions are large and powerful social structures which guide and control much of the community’s life. In any community, these are likely to include:

• Schools, especially public schools, local colleges and universities, and possibly private and parochial schools
• Churches, which may also include organizations and groups within the churches — and across all churches, as in interfaith or ecumenical groups
• Businesses, particularly large employers, and/or profitable businesses, acting singly or through collective groups such as the chamber of commerce
• Media, including local newspapers, local radio and TV stations, local cable television, and other community-wide print publications
• Government-town or city government; in some cases county government as well

These are five key sectors (or, five large pie-slices).  Should some of them, or even all of them, be represented in your group? Possibly so. The downsides seem small. The upsides are that they can give your group additional range and power.  This is an issue for your group to consider carefully.  At the very least, your potential members should be listed from among these key sectors; then you can decide how much you want to pursue each one.  There may be other social institutions that you consider important.  Add them to this list.

2. Other common organizations. There are other key organizations, or smaller sectors, that are common to most communities as well. They probably exist in yours. Here are a few:

3. Specialized groups. There may also be one or more specialized groups in or near your community that can help your cause. That precise group will depend on your own group’s purpose. Suppose, just for example, that:

Your group is interested in:	Then a good group to contact might be:
Teen recreation	Recreation departments Coaches (present and retired) Professional sports teams Local health clubs and gyms
Wildlife conservation	Conservation commissions School biology departments Hunting and fishing license providers Outdoor stores
Mental health	Mental health centers Mental health associations Provider associations Consumer associations, such as the Alliance for the Mentally Ill

Some specialized groups may not be very visible in your community, and hard to track down. But if you keep tracking, you will find them. Your effort should be repaid.

4. Individual citizens. Finally, there may be individual citizens you know, or someone else knows, who might be interested in what you are doing, and whom you might like to recruit.

These are the basic sectors or component parts of most communities. And this is useful general knowledge. But of course, you want not just general categories, but specific names. So how do you go about lining up names to go with the categories you choose?

All of this is grist for the mill. Much of that grist may be useless to you, at least right now; yet if you search carefully through the newspaper, the chances are you will find some nuggets every week.

Prioritize your list. When you have collected all your names, put them in rough priority order. Your priorities should be based upon how much you desire that person (or group he or she represents) to become a member of your organization. What skills or talents do you need for your group? What can this particular member contribute? The answers to these questions will take careful consideration.

(excerpted from Community Tool Box: http://ctb.ku.edu)

Download  CAI’s Best Practices Report – Community Security

Of course, a list is just a list. Those listed are potential members; they may never have heard of you. They are certainly not yet flesh-and-blood members who are going to show up at meetings and do some work in-between. To make them real members, you have to contact them.

“Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.”
– Voltaire

Making contact with potential members is not a casual affair. Such contact is a form of courtship. Like most successful courtships, it requires thought and planning.