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About Club Maintenance

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Description

It's been almost (just) a year that I am on DA, and I would like to share some thoughts on how to run a club/group (this tutorial applies to both systems). After observing work of others and having experienced club maintenance from the inside (I founded #Abstract--Reality, come visit it!), I determined a few points that I believe make a club a good club. I might update this tutorial from time to time.

Contents:
0. Club info
1. Journals
2. News
3. Activities
4. Getting started
5. More ideas?

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0. Info on the club

A good club must have information on how to join and submit on its profile page. It must be visible. Most clubs put it in their journals. You can also use other features that DA offers.

Don't make the submitting process too complicated. It's hard to remember all submitting policies for all clubs :faint:. The general procedure is to send 1 deviation per week or per month to the appropriate folder. The group system allows you to control the number of submissions possible. (Of course, for some clubs it's more appropriate to have special rules). Also, there is no point in refusing submissions on the week-end (as some clubs do): if you don't want to maintain the club on some days, what’s the big deal of going through the submissions them later?


1. Journals.

i) Updates.
Journals are the main mean of communication of a club with its members. And what really sucks is when you get several journal updates in your message box, without knowing what has been updated. I would suggest that you always put a short description of what's new, or what's in the journal - at the top of it, so that it will appear in the message box (you know, these 3 lines there?). Just a phrase to summarize! It's the same thing for regular deviants. When you make a feature, write what it's about. When you update an existing journal, write "UPDATE: new prizes for the contest!!" or something like this. Seriously, it will make your journal much more appealing to be read.

Another thing: don't update them too often. Most people don't visit DA every day: guess what, they have a life! I made 2 surveys related to journal updates, and they showed that most people prefer not getting them to often. 1/week is just fine, for journals with a lot of updates. 1/month or 2/month would be better for journals such as "affiliates", "new members" etc.

ii) "New Members" journal
Now, coming to the New Members: some clubs choose to make a special journal where they list their members. Some do it by alphabetical order, some by country etc. I think it's really cool (I personally like to browse these lists), but there is no need to make them appear in the message box. Just don't uncheck the "this is a minor change" square. Or, if you do, make the new members stand out with a :new: sign or something!

A practise that seems to be rather appreciated is to make a new members feature journal. It may be awkward for clubs with a lot of new members, but it works great for #Abstract--Reality: I feature 1 to 3 pics/new member 1/month (or more often, depending on the number of new members). It's a nice way to get to know each other's work and it's definitely a good way for artists to get some exposure - and that's what clubs are for, right?

iii) An example of organization
In my club #Abstract--Reality I have the following journals (in a random order): (I don't think that it's a perfect organization, it was much simpler in the beginning, and it reflects the evolution of the club. I think that each club has its own perfect system. This is just to give people who never ran a club an idea of what it looks like)
- New Members feature (1/month) - with a link to "members by country"
- Members by country (updated as "minor changes") - we will soon need to split it into two journals :faint:
- Resource Centre (1/month) - tips & links
- Affiliates news (1/month) - Once a month may not be very effective because some clubs make contests that last less than a month, so maybe 2/month would be better
- Themed games (1/week) - a place for monthly "games". See below for explanation.
- About the club (rarely updated) - summary about rules, activities etc >> links to detailed explanations. A link to this journal is given to all new members so that they can familiarize themselves with how the club turns.
-- All activities (rarely updated) - details of activities
-- Club foundations (rarely updated) - we had to make a separate journal for this one, because it's a rather long text that was written after some discussion
-- Submitting & Critiquing (1/month) - details on how to submit and receive critique + latest critiques given
-- All our contests ("minor changes") - results of past contests and a place where to suggest a contest. We also make a separate journal for each contest; some clubs choose to simply update 1 journal - imo, there is no perfect solution, it's all up to you, as long as it works!


2. News

Telling the community about your club! Promoting club's members! Definitely a very important activity.
I would suggest writing 1 article/month. Personally, I don't think that submitting it on the 1st of a month is a very good idea, since that's what most people do and your article can simply be lost in the huge amount of news; so 3rd-5th are the best dates. But, well, it's not that important.

However, it is crucial to make your article get the most :+favlove:s possible!
Generally, news articles announcing a contest receive a lot of favs (especially if you give the link to the news article, instead of the journal, while sending your advertising requests to affiliates). Cool, your contest will be greatly advertised. However, the news article featuring the winners generally receives just a few favs. Pretty unfair, right? A solution is to include all contest submissions in the news article. People generally fav an article in which their deviation is featured. Winners are still distinguished by their special status, but other artists receive some exposure too. I think it's a good thing. People deserve exposure! Sometimes the runners-up are almost as good as the winners. So why not giving them another chance? Anyway, more favs = more exposure, so go for it.
The same goes for club features: what most large clubs do is to feature all submissions monthly. These articles generally receive a lot of favs = exposure for the artists and for the club.

Don't forget to fav it with your account!


3. Activities

i) Contests
Only clubs which focus on community relations instead of art don't hold contests!

>> How often?
imo, not too often. A contest has to be a very special event, exciting and fresh. Monthly contests work for some clubs, I do not deny it, but it's not always the best choice. Imo the best frequency is 1 every 3 months.
A simple reason: it allows you to make it open for more than a month. It's hard to come up with an idea of submission right away!

>> Prizes:
Journal features are the easiest thing to get - simply send a note to all your affiliates asking to advertise your contest and feature the winners. They generally accept - and you do the same in return.
Costly prizes such as subscriptions and goodies are harder to find and would certainly make your contest more popular, but a good theme is key for massive participation. For our Black and White Vision contest there was just a 1 month subscription offered, but we received a lot of wonderful submissions!

>> Theme.
I would suggest that in addition to a theme you write an inspiring text explaining and expanding the idea. It's a good thing to know what is expected and it helps contestants looking in the right direction. Poorly defined themes can lead to offtop submissions, and it will be your fault.

>> Rules -
Read other contests' rules. See what you think is appropriate for you. You may find some points that you didn't think of before. After that, you'll have to stick to you rules, so choose wisely, or you may have some bad surprises (e.g. a deviation that wins just because the deviant asked his friends to vote for him)

>> Winners
I tried several methods of determining the winner. Right now we combine judging and voting: judges determine their winners, and deviants vote on their side. Several voting methods exist, I will try the "points" method for our next contest (1st choice receives 5 points, 2nd - 4 points etc)

>> Updates
New prizes? Update 1/week. Deadline approaching? It definitely needs an update! Some people simply forget or lose contest's link.

ii) Games
WTF?
It is something that I have seen in several clubs, and I see that it is being adopted by more and more clubs. The idea is to pick a theme and ask the members to send in their pics. It's not a contest, it's just for fun. The results are always rather cool. It generally results in a news feature.

iii) Non-contest votes
Some clubs (e.g. #Shutter-Vision) ask their members to vote for their favorite submissions. It's a great thing because it encourages members to look into others' submissions. However, I believe it should not take place too often.

iv) Polls
Subscribers can create polls. Apart from general surveys, it's also a great tool to focus members' attention on an activity. A simple "will you participate to our contest?" serves as a reminder. Of course, do not abuse them lol.
Some clubs choose to create polls with pics, as a solution to votes for the best picture (cf. iii). That's a nice idea, but, as for everything, don't abuse it ;)

v) Submissions
With the new group system, it will be easier to avoid wrong favs and make the deviations appear in member's message box. Just one thing: don't add them all at once! It's hard to appreciate all submissions when there are 30 additions after several weeks of inactivity. Keep it down to 5/day. Thank you :)


4. Getting Started

New club? Gimme contestz! :woohoo:
But before you do so, make yourself some affiliates ( >> journals features for the contest) and write an introductory news article.
Also, make yourself a stamp!


5. What else?

Have any ideas or suggestions? It would be great if we could expand this whole thing! :D
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Lady-Compassion's avatar
This is a fantastic "mission statement" for the Infrared Club!