Project Growth

Community Building

These are some general recommendations for getting your project organized and growing.

• Mailing lists and IRC
  Most of our projects use a mailing list for asynchronous communication and IRC (Internet Relay Chat) for real time chat. Be clear about kinds of decisions will be made in which place to avoid confusion. We recommend having a Code of Conduct that covers these communications, like this one Python Community Code of Conduct Some other tips for running a welcoming channel are here, LibrePlanet: Hosting a Welcoming Channel

• Bringing in new users and contributors
  We highly recommend making a plan for recruiting and retaining new people. Outreachy and GSoC are great ways to do this. More resources here:
  Open Source Diversity
  First Timers Only

• Attending events to speak about your project
  This can be a powerful way to reach new people who might be interested in your project. Resources for public speaking

• Hosting a meeting co-located with a larger event
  Many of our projects do this. Say a big event in your space is on Friday and Saturday, why not hold a small event to talk about project work and goals on the Friday or Monday? We can help you do this.

Road-mapping

• Technical decision making
  We highly recommend doing this in a way that is shared transparently with your whole community. Regular intervals generally improve attendance for these kinds of meetings.

• Getting input from your larger community

• Record keeping and transparency
  Consider keeping your regular minutes in a wiki or shared repository so that folks who couldn't attend or who join your project later can easily see what they've missed.

• Holding an election
  Conservancy can help you hold an election for leadership roles or a referendum on a particular topic. We’ve got easy, secure, online voting software and can set everything up for you.

More Ways We Can Help Each Other

• Interested in hosting an intern? We can help!

• Finding a free software solution for your technical need. Write to your PLC alias and we’ll work with you on this.

• We can help you brainstorm some fundraising or promotion ideas, just write your PLC alias and we’ll set up a short meeting.

• Can someone sit in on our annual or semi-annual planning meeting or long-term strategic planning meeting? Yes! Please give us lots of notice and keep in mind that Conservancy staff are all in US time zones.

• Templates for various things; eg photo release forms, sponsor prospectuses, fundraising communications, codes of conduct, kernel enforcement template forms which can be tailored for your specific project's purposes

• Advice when there is community friction? We will do our best to help in these situations. The earlier you let us know what’s happening, the better.