Books/resources on running community groups

December 14, 2008 6:03 PM

I fail at Amazon. Help me find a book on running a small community group.

My sister has just started up an LGBT group in her large but very conservative town. I am trying to find her a really good book on how to run a small community group, like how to run effective meetings, host community events, run outreach/advertising/fundraising programs, etc.

Many (most) of the books that come up seem to refer to either intra-corporation groups ("task forces" and such) or small Christian ministries (whose goals, you can imagine, are probably orthogonal to the goals of her group).

Can anyone recommend some great books and resources on starting and running local community groups?

posted by symphonik to Society & Culture (3 answers total)

Not read any of these but they're highly rated on Amazon:
Building Powerful Community Organizations
Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy
Smart Communities: How Citizens and Local Leaders Can Use Strategic Thinking to Build a Brighter Future
posted by peacheater at 6:27 PM on December 14, 2008

The Troublemaker's Tea Party is about exactly this.

Also try looking around zine distros, they tend to have piles of info about this. Microcosm Publishing is a good place to start.
posted by divabat at 3:54 AM on December 15, 2008

Table of contents for Troublemaker's Teaparty so you can see the content for yourself. I think you can find downloads for each section somewhere (unless they've taken it down recently).
posted by divabat at 3:55 AM on December 15, 2008