Organic Fans: Free-Range Community Leadership for the Novice
Speaker: Rebecca Newton (Director, Community, Content and Customer Service, MindCandy.com), Andie Grace (Communications Manager, BurningMan.com)
Date/Time: Wednesday (September 17, 2008) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Location (room): Room 9
Track: Online Games - Social Networking & Community
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate

Session Description
Developing a volunteer Community Leader program requires thorough planning, perseverance and patience. Balancing legalities and personalities can be a high maintenance and costly task, with little chance of proving the value of the program to your stakeholders. Measuring the ROI of the program is daunting at best. However, the benefit of engaging and rewarding your active users with a sense of product ownership is crucial to your success. This discussion will examine successful and problematic online Community Leader programs (historical and current) while addressing the legal, financial and social implications unique to developing, implementing and managing an online volunteer program.

Idea Takeaway
Sharing the nuts and bolts information needed to design and manage an online volunteer Community Leader program and Fansite packages, including legal and technical requirements. In addition, best practices as well as unsuccessful methods will be examined and discussed. Finally, tools to measure a program’s success or problems will be reviewed.

Intended Audience
Community and/or Customer Service Managers, HR Managers, and Online Community professionals who are relatively new at online community or who intend to create a volunteer Community Leader program will benefit from this session.