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Reading with ChatGPT: Get Together — Community Guide

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Table of Contents

by Yucheng, with love

“Get Together,” published by People & Company, is a guide on how to build and maintain communities. It provides stories, tips, and principles for every stage of cultivating a passionate group. The authors emphasize building communities with people, not for them. The book highlights every organization’s potential to build and maintain a thriving community. Published by Stripe Press in hardcover and ebook formats.

Book Outline

  1. Foreword
  2. Spark the Flame
    • Pin down your people
    • Do something together
    • Get people talking
  3. Stoke the Fire
    • Attract new folks
    • Cultivate your identity
    • Pay attention to who keeps showing up
  4. Pass the Torch
    • Create more leaders
    • Supercharge your leaders
    • Celebrate together
  5. Afterword
  6. Appendix

Key Takeaways

  1. Avoid one-off events. Relationships take time to develop. Some people need several cycles before they warm up and start actively contributing. Design your first event with intentional repetition.

  2. Be clear and loud about your purpose. For example, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, a designer and writer passionate about clouds, spoke about his obsession at a literary festival and invited the audience to claim official society badges.

  3. As the community’s initial leader, you hold the spotlight. Use it wisely and often. Build a culture of reciprocity through storytelling.

  4. When planning celebrations, ask yourself: What are our badges? What are our rituals? Do we have any quirky terminology?

  5. During celebrations, reflect on what you’ve achieved together. Thriving communities are born from countless small acts of collaboration.

Spark the Flame

This chapter covers how to kickstart your community. Whether starting a running club or connecting online creators, the initial steps are the same.

Action Items:

  1. Pin down your people

    • Write your community’s purpose: who this brings together and why
    • List potential early allies (your “kindling”)

  2. Do something together

    • Organize the first shared activity. Make it purposeful and participatory
    • If people want more, repeat! If not, back to the drawing board

  3. Get people talking

    • Create a space for members to continue conversations
    • Prompt discussions so newcomers feel welcome
    • Establish codes of conduct, moderators, and structure to focus conversation

Stoke the Fire

This chapter covers keeping your community vibrant and growing.

Action Items:

  1. Attract new folks

    • Make the community’s origin story findable by anyone searching for it
    • Equip members to share their own stories with the world
    • Spotlight outstanding members to show prospective joiners what community life looks like

  2. Cultivate your identity

    • Help members represent community identity with visual badges
    • Elevate signature rituals that bind members together
    • Develop unique shared language

  3. Pay attention to who keeps showing up

    • Track member retention to ensure the community stays healthy as it grows
    • Watch your most active members closely (they’re future leaders!)
    • If you make mistakes, step in and communicate transparently with key members

Pass the Torch

This chapter covers growing together as a community.

Action Items:

  1. Create more leaders

    • Define what qualifies someone for a leadership role
    • Find ways to test potential leaders’ true motivations
    • Create roles with varying responsibility levels so members can grow into new positions
    • Establish feedback processes with leaders

  2. Supercharge your leaders

    • Map out key steps in the leader journey
    • Design support to amplify valuable activities and minimize/eliminate less valuable ones

  3. Celebrate together

    • Set a clear intention: how will this celebration help the community grow?
    • Weave community badges, rituals, and language into the celebration
    • Capture what you’ve accomplished together and close with reflection

Practical Guidance for Indie Developer Communities

This book offers highly practical guidance for running a community aimed at “helping indie developers commercialize their products”:

  1. Pin down your people: Your target is indie developers—understand their needs and challenges
  2. Do something together: Organize online seminars, workshops, or training sessions
  3. Get people talking: Create an online forum or social media group
  4. Attract new folks: Share members’ success stories to draw new developers
  5. Cultivate your identity: Create a unique community logo, badge, or slogan
  6. Pay attention to who keeps showing up: Watch active participants—they’re future leaders
  7. Create more leaders: Encourage active members to take on more responsibility
  8. Supercharge your leaders: Provide necessary support and resources
  9. Celebrate together: Host regular events like annual gatherings

Original ChatGPT conversation: Link