Grow United
Sprout Your Group Using the BuyNothing App
This is a post you can share with your Buy Nothing group to explain why your community is sprouting using the BuyNothing app. It was written by a long-time Buy Nothing volunteer local admin. We're sharing it here with your permission, as a gift from her to you and your groups.
I am moving. Please move with me too!
11 Reasons to Sprout as one Facebook Group to the BuyNothing App
It is so hard to believe how much we have grown!
Many of you have questions about the process we call sprouting, and we’d like to give you a few more reasons why we believe it’s a great option for this large Facebook group to sprout to the BNApp as one community.
We hear your concerns at the Admin Team, and we know that people are afraid to change. Change is scary. We understand these concerns, and we hope that you keep an open mind. Ultimately, the community is what you make it to be. If you want to see this work - it will!
As we get closer to sprouting, let’s celebrate the success of this beautiful group, and allow ourselves to embrace the change with positivity.
I love the Buy Nothing Project and I love what we do for each other with our abundance.
Neighbors that do not use Facebook can join us and we are not locked into a map, meaning that the BuyNothing App can travel with you to where you meet your community.
YOU will be in charge of your area you engage within.
We can still be super hyper-local. We can still connect directly with our neighbors and the more of us that sign up the densely packed our ripples will be!
We started as a social experiment. Now, it's time for us to have a place we can call home. Welcome home to the BuyNothing App.
This post was written by Katylin. I used Liesl Clark & Rebecca Rockefeller's words shared through my lens. If you have any questions please reach out to our volunteer support team. Visit the Buy Nothing Public Library for even more resources.
11 Reasons to Sprout as one Facebook Group to the BuyNothing App
It is so hard to believe how much we have grown!
Many of you have questions about the process we call sprouting, and we’d like to give you a few more reasons why we believe it’s a great option for this large Facebook group to sprout to the BNApp as one community.
- Neighborliness - the vision for the Buy Nothing Project is for neighbors to get to know one another through the community, and to form bonds and connections, weaving a web among all of the neighbors. As our community gets bigger, it becomes harder to know one another and to interact with all people. In encouraging personal and face-to-face communication, rather than anonymous giving, it becomes increasingly harder to get to know everyone in the community the larger we become.
- Community Flexibility - As we can set our own distance in the BNApp, we can decide how big our community footprint for travel will be, thus naturally sprouting based on individual settings. .5 miles, 1 mile, 3 miles, 6 miles and there is also a rural setting of 20 miles.
- Warmth - in a smaller community where we can all get to know one another, the atmosphere is warmer and more intimate. We get to know the people posting. We will know that someone is caring for their elderly parents, that someone is getting married, or someone was diagnosed with cancer. We can shed tears of joy that a neighbor is expecting after years of trying, and gather baby clothes. We can more easily reach out when we know each other and interact to help one another, rather than say, "Her name started with an S .... trying to remember ..."
- Less Competition - in a smaller community, there will be less competition for gifts, and we will get to know each other better. In the BNApp the community rings will overlap but each area will have less competition as each one of us is the center of our own community and we are not all piled in one group, where the members on the sides of the geography have to travel twice as far as the ones in the center. Instead of a line of 10+ people all clamoring for the same gift, you may see 2-3 people chatting and interacting on a post. Rather than just picking a random person out of a line, with a smaller sampling you can pause and think about what they might do with the gift, why they would need it, and your interactions with this person in the past. When it is your time to ask for that dresser that you really, really, really want, your chances of receiving will increase exponentially!
- In the BuyNothing App the Community Builders are free to do just that build a community. On Facebook, the admin teams for BuyNothing have a lot of backend duties. Without that work, it makes it far easier for the Community Builders to have time to focus on YOU as a *person* rather than data. Facebook local admins are inundated with requests, member verifications, concerns, maps, and other admin-ing responsibilities that keep us plenty busy! While it certainly helps in some ways to have more admins, it can also slow down our communication with members over concerns because we have more people on our team to reach a "consensus." We are all volunteers, hoping to bring the best and most enjoyable experience to all members. The biggest change is that members simply become neighbors! On the BuyNothing App, Community Builders are better able to listen to concerns, educate neighbors and work with them in achieving our mission. The BuyNothing App has an egalitarian premise that all neighbors have the same report tools, and there are no admin duties. There is no maintenance or wait time to be added to the community. This allows BuyNothing App Community Builders far more time to help their neighbors focus on the mission of the BuyNothing and create personal connections.
- Care for our environment - the Buy Nothing Project was founded by environmental activists who are interested in ways that we can protect our earth by reducing our consumption levels, saving items from landfills, and driving less. The vision that we have in the project is one in which we can walk or bike to give and receive gifts more often. We hope to reduce our distances in driving, and lessen our carbon footprint in the only planet that we have. The BuyNothing App allows a .5 mile setting for all neighbors!
- Accountability - in a smaller community, behaviors are more noticeable and people might feel more comfortable bringing up any issues, like “no shows” that they see within the group.
- Ease of pick-ups - it can be much less of a hassle to pick up when the gift is right around the corner, rather than a 15-minute drive. More than that, participating with people who are so close to you can give you the opportunity to meet the people right in your area. In one town that sprouted, in the first week, a neighbor connected with a member of the community who, as it turned out, lived five houses down! They became fast friends and had never interacted before despite being in the bigger The BuyNothing App allows a .5-mile setting for all neighbors! As well as a 1-mile, 3-mile, 6-mile, and a whopping 20-mile setting for rural areas!
- Outreach - Sprouting can help make new members and quiet members feel more comfortable in a smaller, more intimate environment which is what happens when we move to the BuyNothing App. At the same time, if you cannot find what you need in the setting you have chosen, .5 miles as an example, you can change your setting to cast a wider circle. You can change this setting at any time and even travel with the BuyNothing App. We believe that adults know their own community best and that they alone should set the limits/boundaries to their own community.
- Ease of pick-ups - it can be much less of a hassle to pick up when the gift is right around the corner, rather than a 15-minute drive. More than that, participating with people who are so close to you can give you the opportunity to meet the people right in your area. In one town that sprouted, in the first week, a neighbor connected with a member of the community who, as it turned out, lived five houses down! They became fast friends and had never interacted before despite being in the bigger The BuyNothing App allows a .5-mile setting for all neighbors! As well as a 1-mile, 3-mile, 6-mile, and a whopping 20-mile setting for rural areas!
- Outreach - Sprouting can help make new members and quiet members feel more comfortable in a smaller, more intimate environment which is what happens when we move to the BuyNothing App. At the same time, if you cannot find what you need in the setting you have chosen, .5 miles as an example, you can change your setting to cast a wider circle. You can change this setting at any time and even travel with the BuyNothing App. We believe that adults know their own community best and that they alone should set the limits/boundaries to their own community.
We hear your concerns at the Admin Team, and we know that people are afraid to change. Change is scary. We understand these concerns, and we hope that you keep an open mind. Ultimately, the community is what you make it to be. If you want to see this work - it will!
As we get closer to sprouting, let’s celebrate the success of this beautiful group, and allow ourselves to embrace the change with positivity.
I love the Buy Nothing Project and I love what we do for each other with our abundance.
Neighbors that do not use Facebook can join us and we are not locked into a map, meaning that the BuyNothing App can travel with you to where you meet your community.
- You will have more control over your giving.
- Your posts will be easier to locate.
- You will be able to engage in messages that are easier to find.
- You will have a fast history of your own interactions.
- The App uses far less space on your phone!
- You can decide how big or small your own area of engagement is and what path or direction you want to travel or participate in, your choice.
- There will be a focus on intentional change as giving is powerful use your power to do great things!
YOU will be in charge of your area you engage within.
We can still be super hyper-local. We can still connect directly with our neighbors and the more of us that sign up the densely packed our ripples will be!
We started as a social experiment. Now, it's time for us to have a place we can call home. Welcome home to the BuyNothing App.
This post was written by Katylin. I used Liesl Clark & Rebecca Rockefeller's words shared through my lens. If you have any questions please reach out to our volunteer support team. Visit the Buy Nothing Public Library for even more resources.