Ways To Participate

Roles & Responsibilities

All organizations involve some form of roles and responsibilities. WordPress, the technology that this website is built upon, includes the notions of roles and capabilities. In the blue chart of roles, there are several levels that correspond with the structure of WordPress.

Visitors

People who visit a website without logging in are “Visitors” and as such, can see any content that is intended for the public to see.

Subscribers

Subscribers have provided their name and email address in exchange for granting them access to content not visible to the general public. The most obvious example is the Personal Growth Research Library. On the home page, I show visitors the titles and topics of the content. That is intended to show them content that should prove valuable to them. I should hope so, because I have put many years into growing that content.

The value we get from their name and email address is the right to send them notifications of when a new course is announced, when a new article has been added to the library, etc.

Contributors

I am considering opening up our community meetings to include Contributors. I have had conversations with people several times each week who would be interested in what we are developing (the 5 Gateways) and inviting them to community meetings may have a positive impact on enrollment in our courses.

Coaching Clients

Coaching clients are people who I coach but are not necessarily Students. The information I track about coaching clients is distinct, so I treat them as a special class of user. They may or may not visit the website to access materials.

Students

Students are people who are taking one of our courses. Students get their Personal Dashboard which will grow in functionality over time.

When I took my Clear Beliefs Coach Training, we were inundated with materials. I expect that as we deliver the Gateways courses (or other classes), they will face the same issues, so The Personal Dashboards will address that problem.

Apprentice

Course participants who want to deepen their mastery of the material and possibly present some of it themselves play the role of Apprentice. They get to take courses they have previously taken, but for free or for a deeply discounted cost.

Promoters

Promoters are people who deliver new students. There will be a commission structure related to the cost of the course, student payment, etc. Promoters will have access to whatever materials will help them communicate effectively with their prospects.

Course Designers

It has taken me many years to develop the skill of creating course content. It is more than just knowing how to create PowerPoint decks (although this is a useful skill too). Course Designers will be compensated by giving profit sharing of the courses they produce.

Instructors

Instructors are the folks who present the materials. Right now, there are only three people who can wear this hat within our organization: Anthony, Ipswa, and me.

Administrators

Administrators maintain the technology infrastructure. Tim is helping me with the administrative tasks I have forgotten how to undertake. Like building “shortcodes”.

Exploring  Community

As the Four (now Five) Gateways undertaking evolves and clarifies, the notion of community has become increasingly important. So far, we have been meeting regularly on Monday evenings, but there has been little structure or clarification of goals, roles and wants. What I have heard so far from those who have attended is that this notion of community is important and compelling.

Human beings have a well-established need for community and connection. We have lots of ways to gather in community, from clubs, to churches and meetups, but few of these seem to address what I believe is a deep need for healthy authentic and deep personal connection.

Many years ago, I realized that organized religion meets three common needs: the need for service, spirit and socialization. Soon after I discovered The Mankind Project, I realized that it too met all three of these needs, but for some reason, people tend to drift away from MKP. Even in the Integration Group (a fancy name for Men’s Circle) that I started 20 years ago, there are only a few stalwarts who have stayed with the group.

I have also felt that the group left me longing for more connection than I was getting.  Occasionally, some of us have gone for walks or met to share a meal, but something is still missing.

Over the years, I have taken hundreds of courses, both in-person and spread over time. What I have learned as both a teacher and a student is that courses that are spread over time lead to better learning retention. Courses that take a weekend such as the MKP New Warrior Training Adventure always tend to fade over time. And the participants inevitably drift apart. This led me to a question: what if we spread courses over a long period of time and maintained continuity and connection during breaks?

These two realizations, the need for community and the need to retain what is learned lay the groundwork for the notion of Community that I have been sitting with and want to explore with you.

What do you want from the Community we have been creating? Dig into this question and seek clarity. What do you want from your already hyper-busy lives that you still are not finding?

I have activated the Forum and will start seeding it with topics and ideas. Please join me. Let’s see what using it feels like.