Running Your Community

Freegle Volunteer Wiki › 🏘️ Running Your Community

This section is about the day-to-day life of a local Freegle community. It's ordered by when you're likely to need each thing - the basics first, then what you'll come to as your community gets going, and the occasional bits at the end.

Start here: Running Your Local Community is the handbook front page for this whole area, and ChitChat is the discussion feature most communities use day to day.

The basics (everyone)

• Running Your Local Community - the classic handbook front page for this area, with pointers on to Basic Information, First Steps, ModTools and Freegle Direct.
• ChitChat - the public discussion forum built into Freegle Direct, where members chat, ask questions and get to know their community; the modern replacement for the old email Cafe groups.
• Local Community - a short hub linking the local-community pages below: advertising events, charities, the police, festivals and schools.
• Getting Involved - the ways to take part beyond your own community: Central Groups, Freegle Teams, the Board, and more.

As your community gets going

Running events

• Events - a short hub linking everything below, plus insurance and Freegle Direct Events.
• Give and Take - the full guide to planning and running a give-and-take event, including how to apply for Freegle's funding contribution towards costs.
• Collecting Stuff - how to gather stock for an event, whether collecting from members yourself or storing donations at the venue.
• Running an Info Stall - how to plan and staff a simple information stall to raise your group's local profile.
• Banner - the cloth, canvas and PVC banners you can borrow for events, and how to request one.
• QR Codes - generating a QR code that links straight to your Freegle homepage, for banners, flyers and posters.

Building local links

• Charities and community groups - how to handle charities and community groups joining, and how to check whether an organisation's charity claim stacks up.
• Schools - a real example of a Freegle give-and-take run inside a school, as inspiration for links with schools in your own area.
• Community Police - how one group built a working relationship with their local neighbourhood police team to share safety appeals.
• Festivals - why big festival clear-outs are usually best left to specialist charities, but how you can still get Freegle a mention locally.

The wider Freegle network

• Central Groups - the Discourse-hosted Central discussion groups every owner, moderator and volunteer is encouraged to join.
• Freegle Cafe - the "Freegle Rock Cafe", a chit-chat group on Discourse for UK volunteers to socialise away from Central.
• Freegle Whatsapp - the formal and informal WhatsApp groups volunteers can join to keep in touch.
• Named Roles - the individually-appointed national volunteer roles (Board Secretary, Ombudsman, Returning Officer, Treasurer and more), and any current vacancies.

Now and then

• Changing community name - the simple, low-risk process for renaming your local community, for example to include "Freegle".
• Local Group Initiatives - an example of a particularly active local community, Penrith and Eden, and their local projects.
• Advertising local events - why event notices don't belong on the main offers/wanteds listing, and where to point members instead.
• Cafe Groups - background on the older, Yahoo-era "Cafe" discussion groups some communities set up before ChitChat existed, and how to set one up if you still want one.
• Cafe Guidelines - a suggested welcome-and-guidelines template for a local Cafe group.
• Cafe Disclaimer - the standard disclaimer and safety-notice text for Cafe groups.
• Cafe Leave - a template message for members who unsubscribe from your Cafe group.

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Prefer to browse? Every page here is also listed A-Z in the Running Your Community index. Back to the home page.