Starting DIYcity in Your City

Some people have written to me in the past few days interested in starting a DIYcity group in their own city. This is great - it's exactly what we had in mind with the site. Lots of the issues we will be taking on here are the sort where the particulars are different in each city or town, so it makes sense to have special groups for each of those places. And having a local group allows for meetups to happen as well, and that's going to be one of the most interesting parts of DIYcity.

So, if you want to start a DIYcity group for your own city or town, it's very easy and here's how you do it.

First, if you haven't yet, join the site.

Then:

• Go to the Post new content page and select Local Group Homepage.
• Fill in the information there and submit. In the Mission Statement area, say hi and tell people a bit about what your aims are for the group. That will appear at the top of your group's home page.
• If you want, send an email to geraci-a-gmail-dot-com and tell me you started a local group for your area. That will get it on the site faster.
• Send an email to everyone you think would be interested in participating and ask them to join.

After that, do whatever you like. Hold meetups, create challenges around local issues, adapt ideas from other groups to your own area, etc.

What if you want to start a group but you're too busy? Start the group anyway and don't worry about it. Send out invites, get the group started, then tend to it when you can, even if that's only once every couple of weeks. Let other people tend to it when you don't have the time. That's how the local group here in NYC is emerging, and it's working pretty well for us - it can work for you in your city too.