Start a Local Assembly

The Global Assembly is a international network of people who want to save money and build stronger communities. A lot of time, the two are closely related! We want to do more than just give away free stuff. As we grow, we aim to start community projects, neighborhood supper clubs, help promote renewable energy and much, much more- volunteers are free to bounce ideas off of each other in our forum. Each assembly is part of a network of worldwide groups we officially set up and monitor so that every group has the same culture of community service and generosity. 

Want an assembly in your own neighborhood? If you’d like your community or project to be a part of The Global Assembly, we need to set up your group for you – Please don’t try to do it all by yourself. There is a specific series of steps that need to followed, plus our logo, name, documents, artwork and photography are all copyrighted. Here’s how we can set up your new group for you:

1. Let us know that you would like to admin a group by sending David Jackson a private message on facebook. This David Jackson! (Yes, there are a lot of them and we will be creating a gmail address soon) We’ll set up a Facebook Group for your neighborhood – Since you know your town better than we do, think about what area makes sense as a single group; you’ll want an area large enough to gather a critical mass of members, but not so large geographically that it will be difficult for members to connect in person to share things. Our groups serve areas of UP TO 100,000 people, so please try to keep your region within that upper limit.
2. Your group will need a few local volunteers to help run it. In the beginning, one should be enough, but as it grows you'll want to be able to add more. Volunteers are responsible for answering questions, advertising/inviting new members and helping maintain the group by enforcing the rules. After the initial setup, the group will basically run itself and you can focus on helping recruit members. If you can't volunteer to admin your local assembly or you don't have the time, recruit a friend who can! Going forward, the instructions will assume you're one of the administrators. 
3. If you don’t already have a Facebook account, you’ll need to create one. Global Assemblies connect and communicate online via Facebook group pages, so each member needs a Facebook account. It's free, just like the rest of the setup. 
4. You'll be notified when we've finished setting up your group, afterwhich you'll be invited to join. Once you become a member, you will be upgraded to administrator status. Global Assembly central will co-admin with you to provide support, answer initial questions and make sure your launch goes swimmingly. We'll also give you access to our private support group, where volunteers from around the world will be ready to assist you, answer questions and share ideas. 
5. Invite your local friends to the new group, ask each of them to invite their friends, and so on and so forth. If you don't have facebook friends (even if you do, this is a good idea) print out a bunch of paper coupons with the group name and this message: "Got extra stuff at home you'd like to get rid of? Join Global Assembly [insert your town here] on facebook! Give/get anything you want away, free! Carry a bunch with you when you go out. When you go to the store or local fast food joint, start conversations with the people you see and pass the "coupons" out. You can easily print about 20 coupons to a page in MS word/Google Docs. If push comes to shove and you don't have a printer, you can use handwritten paper tabs.
6. Start posting! Groups need to see examples of every way people use local assemblies: Stuff being given away for free, people unafraid to ask for what they need, items up for loan and sharing. The more there is to scroll through, the easier it is for new members to see how things work, and the more inspired everyone will be to post their own things. Be sure to comment on submissions to get the group going. 
7. It’s that simple!