I honestly believe that starting socially or culturally-based organisations is a lost art. We have too many institutions, bureaucracies, political parties, groups whose aim is to make money for the participants or advancing your career but what about cultural groups? They seem quite low down on the scale of priorities.

Where I live in Somerset, I can only recall one group that was started and that was a monthly lunch club for those less well-off who could give a donation. It lasted only two or three months because of incompetence in publicity and marketing. The idea itself was excellent but like a sapling you have to give it time to grow.

It’s no good leaving everything to the local council. They are not there so much as to originate ideas but to channel the requests and enthusiasms and the needs of the local population to improve services accordingly.

Waiting for Godot

It seems that everyone is waiting for someone else to do something. The local churches do their best in organizing discussion groups, coffee mornings, lunches, lunches but this is not really a cultural thing. What about the Arts? We did have a Local History Society in Paulton, but faded when the originator died and there was no one to take their place.

If you look behind the scenes and this includes not only where I live but say Frome, you will find a lot of the organization is performed by a lot of aging people who have been in the job far too long and are really worn out but cannot hand over because there is no one to hand over to.

I am very fortunate that I have the mindset that can create something. If I see a need and there is nothing to show I feel very happy and secure, I suppose this is a type of reverse psychology. It is vision that keeps me going plus I’ve had many years experience in not only starting groups and ventures about giving people counseling and support on making a new start.

There are many pitfalls lying in wait for those starting a group or an initiative.  Believe it or not, the viability is determined in the first few moments of creation when even then power struggles happen but in miniature.

Key words are ‘humility’, point of view, realism, ability to listen, teamwork, lack of possessiveness, independence, and these are not common virtues.  An idea may be obvious to its creator with a strong vision to match but they may be way ahead of their time or do not have the right social context in which to develop this particular idea. In other words come up right seed, wrong soil.

One of the inherent dangers is building ‘castles in the sky’ when you have an idea far beyond the ability to realize it. You can start on your own but sooner or later you are going to need funding for salaries, office, communications, computer power, and this is why long term planning and realism is so important.

It is rare that the originator of an idea has the executive ability and objectivity to bring it to life. You can be an inventor and not have the skill-set to market your product because you are so convinced of its value that you cannot see it from the point of view of someone who is unfamiliar with the topic.

Everything starts small. If you follow nature, that is universally true,  and we are part of nature.  So if just half a dozen people turn up to an opening meeting that’s absolutely fine. Good news will spread and people will be drawn.

What is envisaged is a local collective writers group. The group will not be run or controlled by one person though I as the admin will be in the background keeping the wheels turning. What is the most important thing in the first instance It is important to take everybody’s views and opinions into account

With larger groups, especially enthusiastic groups, it is common for the stronger personalities to take over. The more timid or introvert attendees at a meeting also may well have a good point of view but they do not have the robust constitution to jump in to a dialogue and interpose that own opinion.

The plan for the new venture that I have in mind is that after the meeting everyone will write a little blog saying what they want and how they feel the group could go, possibly including their previous experience of such groups.

I would not take what people say at the meeting as the sum total of what they feel. Remember,  the brain is the ultimate relational database and when people leave for home the brain will continue to work on the topic and offer certain Solutions, comments, suggestions and these are important

I will then publish on the website all the views without comment and individuals can read them and comment so we will get a very good idea of what is the most popular feature or features. I will be guided by that.

It is very rare that the conception of an originator of an idea is perfectly in phase the ideas of those drawn to it. If you ignore people’s views – spoken or otherwise – at an early stage that is the kiss of death because if people feel they are not being listened to then why bother?

For seven years in London I ran an organization called London Village which was a community designed to welcome people who were new to London. In practice I noticed that no two people had the same motivation for joining nor did they have the same background. We had up to four and a half thousand unique individuals all coming together under an umbrella.

We solved the situation of different needs by inviting any member to submit any comment, event, announcement, they felt like and we the organizers seldom censured anything. As a result we had an interesting and diverse number of activities, up to 200 self-organized and self-ranged events per month and everybody had a good time. In other words there was no ‘them and us’. Truly, a community.

With the rise of social media in the last decade and the change in mentality of people and the decrease in the community such face to face groups are more rare. In this area of Somerset, few if any new groups are formed but there are many utilitarian pop-up groups in the background if you look on for example Facebook there they are.

I will not use Facebook for this writers group because in spite of Mark Zuckerberg saying that he will not censor,  I still do not like the environment and I would rather design a custom built platform design specifically for us.