Kalela, Kim, and Wendy discuss what to do when folks don’t show up.
With contributions from:
Kalela Williams (Free Library of Philadelphia )
Kim Hagen (Chicago Public Library)
Wendy Pearson (Kansas City Public Library)
Hey @Mika_Katua I saw your recent feedback and thought you might like this video. I think you’re running your learning circle exclusively online, so my first thought is to consider finding a common in-person space to meet and promote in your local area.
I would like to add a couple tips to this.
#1 - Don’t wait for people to come to you. Go to them. Posting the learning circle on P2P alone will not garner you a healthy group (I usually get 1-2 registrants from the website). To get a healthy group, I figure out where people with this interest are already hanging out, and then partner with that organization. If you are doing a knitting learning circle, find a local yarn store. Invite the business owner to come to one of your learning circle sessions to promote their store, and then leave them with some business cards sized announcements about the learning circle that they can hand out to customers at checkout. If the business already runs their own classes going, they may not be interested, but sometimes they don’t have capacity to serve everyone who wants a class, and they can be willing partners. It won’t work every time, but go through the steps anyway. Find the community, offer leaders in that community something that will benefit them, and then ask for help promoting.
#2 Sometimes online is better. I hosted a learning circle on Race in the United states shortly after the George Floyd murder. I am willing to bet that no one would have overcome the inertia to leave their house and talk about a difficult subject if I had hosted this in person - even if the pandemic hadn’t been raging. But people were willing to sign up for the online version. Being in their own homes made them feel safer. They were a little removed from the situation so they could take bigger risks and share more. And they didn’t have to drive somewhere. I think being online really helped this one.
#3. Attrition is normal. If I want 12 people to show up to a learning circle, I know that I have to recruit at least 25. I once handed out fliers to 300 individuals for a learning circle-esqu program at locations where my target demographic gathered, and from those 300 I got 15 really dedicated participants. You have to over promote to get the group you need.
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This is all such great advice, Dana!