Community Members

General Makeup: The group of people who interact with a specific social system on a frequent basis and whose present personal wellbeing and future prosperity is directly affected by the system’s functioning. Depending on the goals of the community, these can include large groups, smaller ones, and individuals. The level of detail is always based on utility in thinking about the community as a whole.

Their Focus: Some members of the caring community will be interested in the intricacies of the system’s functions and others will not. Either way, all caring community members need the system to work with their way of life.

Role(s) in the System: As the caring public, the community members hold together the needed capital (economic, political, social) to improve and transform the system as needed.

Relationship to others:< /br>

• Relation to the Community Builder: The goal of the community builder is to is to support action, communicate context and current happenings, share enthusiasm, grow engagement, connect established and emerging players, and ultimately foster vibrancy among community members
• Relation to the Innovators: The innovators are usually community members first who are directly hampered by the system and have the gumption to try to change it. Said again, the caring community membership is the likely source of innovators.

Relation to the Community Builder:

Relation to the Innovators:

States Over Time:

• Starting Out:Community members are aware at various levels of the problems and possibilities of the system.
• If We’re Doing Our Job Right:
  • There’s a growing sense of momentum and energy that the community membership can sense
  • Community members will seek more information (some with enthusiasm, others with skepticism or worse) and ways to engage
    More and more community members will understand the work and shift to being active contributors, participants, resource providers or innovators
• Desired End State:
  • Caring community members generally share a common understanding of the context, challenges and possibilities of the system and are engaged in a deep and meaningful ongoing discussion about the system and its next steps
  • A large number of community members are participating and contributing