F3 Nation, Ideas, and the Start of a Community Hub

Last month, Odin out of our Phoenix group reached out to me about what I thought was a new maps issue. Turned out over a couple emails and finally a fantastic conference call, I learned his point was definitely more nuanced.

I’ll attempt to summarize his point: despite notifications on this site, twitter, Facebook, podcasts, Nan’tan calls, etc., some people didn’t hear about the change. And while that’s expected in such a large organization, what he really missed out on was the process by which we landed on how we’d do maps. Odin wanted to do more with the Nation, but also he wanted to know how he might be of service to others across the Nation. He said we had a hole in our thinking as the board (aka the XG) of the Nation… that more men could be more helpful at more times if we had better ways to connect to each other.

Immediately I took this input to Dredd, Slaughter, CR and Dark Helmet to ask questions. Things like: Were we in fact unintentionally not sharing everything we could? Was it a fact we were obscure sometimes, even though we feel like we’re over-communicating at times? Are we connecting others easily, or do you have to be inside baseball and have someone connect you to the PAX?

We came to the conclusion that yes, Odin was on to something. We share a ton as best we can, but we also know who to connect to who in the limited centralized roles we have. And, true to the model where the PAX should have more Reverse-Flow Incubator opportunities, that won’t scale longer-term.

So… we started looking at how to start. And it turns out progress can be made just with a tool we already use that — you guessed it — not everyone actually knows about. Um… you’d have to be invited. (Insert facepalm.)

Slack is an incredibly popular tool used by 1000s of companies and many F3 groups already, and we’ve been using at the “Nation” for a while.

But, like Odin suggested, perhaps it’s been a bit obscured unintentionally. So let’s fix that.

Starting today, we’re promoting Slack as our nationwide community hub. By that, we mean it’s our place to gather and exchange ideas amongst everyone — not just the five of us.

It’s not a perfect technology tool for all things (nothing is), but it’s a great place to gather, discuss, and figure out what OTHER tools we need. Better yet, it’s best for sharing ideas across the nation, gathering around who will be downrange this summer and where, etc.

Slack does requires that someone approve the request (given we are not a company with uniform email addresses), so there’s a small form to fill out.

Once you’re invited, you’ll receive an email with details on getting started.

As always, ping with questions in comments below or directly by emailing ap at f3nation.com.

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