I’d like to open this article by saying GRR.

Grr to engagement metrics and grr to analytics and grr to what’s the ROI.

I’m not morally opposed to any of these things. I think engagement metrics and analytics and ROI and [insert more math stuff] can be useful. But the magic of community exists in the intangible.

I cannot quantify to you why my camping trip with some of my closest friends changed my life. Or why I feel so close to the strangers I cold plunge with at Golden Gardens in Seattle. Or why Soapbox Project fills a deep existential void for so many of our members—why they’ve described it as life-giving.

When I wrote this article on how to choose a community platform, I said:

Your online community platform ≠ your COMMUNITY. Your community exists in a lot of places and your members exist as their full selves. Not just on the internet, and definitely not just in the community you're building. Selecting your platform is important, but not as important as how you build your actual community.

Let me say it again: your community exists in a lot of places and your members exist as their full selves.

I wanted to share some intangible “metrics” that are really special as I’ve been building Soapbox Seattle alongside our community members.

• A four-year old threw a temper tantrum because she did not want to leave. We could hear her wailing down the entire block
• In the past 8 weeks of hosting our pop-up community center, there have been SO MANY member-led ideas that have come to life, including:
• A mending circle
• Our trip to the Seattle zoo
• Gathering at a soup pop-up at Book Larder, a community cookbook store
• More future events on the calendar:
• Book discussion
• A summer park series
• A climate-related collaborative board game
• Cooking classes
• Paint & sip-style nights for a solarpunk future
• A renowned Seattle chef saying, “this event got me out of my comfort zone. I mostly think about the climate crisis in the context of doom and gloom, and this put a smile on my face.”

You can’t really measure serendipity. At Soapbox Zoo Day, someone yelled “NIVI?!” as they whizzed by on a bike, and it turned out it was yet another one of our Soapbox regulars! And today, when a few of us were out on a bike ride, yet another one of our regulars dropped by to say hi at the restaurant we were eating at.

Community makes the world feel smaller in the most beautiful ways. The magic lies in run-ins on the street. When you walk home but you’re derailed because you’ve seen an acquaintance whom you actually want to talk to. When you’re at an online event and you find someone in the Zoom chat you haven’t caught up with in a while. When you go to a random public art walk and you see someone you met at a community event earlier in the week.

These are all true stories from the past month alone. There’s not really a “point” to this article other than… I encourage you to look for, and write down, the community moments that light up your soul. It is HARD to explain to others in a world where capitalism monetizes all our relationships, but to me, this magic is all that matters. 💚 The magic is the point!

Gimme your thoughts & feelings as usual —

Level-up your community skills - get these guides delivered straight to your inbox!

Random intangible things from Soapbox Seattle’s pilot