{"id":2415,"date":"2015-01-18T19:59:32","date_gmt":"2015-01-18T19:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bisexualblogs.wordpress.com\/?p=15"},"modified":"2015-01-18T19:59:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-18T19:59:32","slug":"setting-up-a-bi-group-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/2015\/01\/setting-up-a-bi-group-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting Up a Bi Group \u2013 Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Originally published\u00a0in January 2014<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve decided to write about the process of setting up my new group for bisexuals so I have a record of what happened when and gain an idea of how much time and work I put into this project. I also hope it will inspire others to do something similar if there is a need for it within their own communities. (Be it netball, knitting, Doctor Who fan clubs&#8230;not just bisexuality, anything!) I would also like this blog to be a useful resource for people in the future who are thinking of doing the same but don&#8217;t know where to start&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-15\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Disclaimer:<\/strong> I&#8217;m not saying this is THE way to set up a group. This is just an account of what I&#8217;ve chosen to do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background:<\/strong> In the process of moving to a new city I discovered there are currently no active groups solely for bisexuals in Nottingham. I bravely\/foolishly (delete as appropriate) decided to start my own!<\/p>\n<p><strong>1 &#8211; I decided what I wanted to do.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Main Goal: Set up a group for bisexuals in Nottingham.<\/p>\n<p>At first this will involve social meet ups in a pub. In time I&#8217;d like it to involve discussion and support based meet ups in somewhere like a community centre too.<\/p>\n<p>Secondary goals:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Everything has to be free for both myself and event attendees.<\/li>\n<li>Every event has to be held in a venue with disabled access.<\/li>\n<li>Events should be held in an independent venue where possible, rather than one belonging to a nationwide chain.<\/li>\n<li>The group must strive to be as inclusive as possible for people regardless of income, gender, ethnicity, nationality, ability\/disability or sexuality (i.e. whether someone identifies as being into BDSM or not, or is bisexual or questioning).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>2 &#8211; I got support and advice from an existing group.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before moving I mentioned in a BiPhoria meeting (a group for bisexuals in Manchester) my plan to start a new group and asked for advice. I felt very empowered and motivated by people&#8217;s encouragement. The main message I took away was that despite lacking in confidence and feeling very nervous about it, I could do it. I was also reminded that I needed to be patient and work really hard. Dream big but start small. My first few meet ups would probably involve me and Joe Bloggs sat in a pub wondering if anyone else would turn up, but the group would grow over time!<\/p>\n<p>The organiser of BiPhoria also happens to be a prominent bi activist and editor of Bi Community News magazine, so I was able to get a lot of bisexual <del>propaganda<\/del>\u00a0leaflets and magazines to take with me to the East Midlands.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3 &#8211; I thought up a name.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After spending several weeks trying to think of one I sat down one evening and researched bisexual group names on the Internet. I then tried to come up with a name that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Showed it was a group relating to both bisexuality &amp; its location<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Was different to group names already in existence<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Was not immediately obvious to those outside of the bi community in order to avoid potential unwanted attention and biphobia<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Sounded good!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This I knew would be one of the most difficult things about starting the group and I wasn&#8217;t wrong. It took about 4-5 hours! I chose Nottingham BiTopia in the end as it met all of the above requirements and was also a nice tip of the hat to sister group BiPhoria.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4 &#8211; I started to create an online presence.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Over the course of the next few weeks I started creating a Facebook group, Twitter account, FetLife group, Yahoo profile and email account whenever I had the time and energy after work. I&#8217;d say this took about 20 hours of work in all. I had to think of group rules and descriptions, find relevant groups &amp; individuals to follow &amp; interact with and learn how to use sites I hadn&#8217;t used before such as Yahoo! groups.<\/p>\n<p>I also designed a logo and taught myself how to use free photo editing software (GIMP) in order to create the logos and banners.<\/p>\n<p>I got a notebook and began writing down what I did when. I wrote down the passwords to all the accounts and the number of followers\/group members each time I checked so I could track the group&#8217;s growth. I also linked up all the accounts to apps on my iPad and iPhone for convenience. This has been a great help as it means I can respond to emails, tweets, requests etc. immediately no matter where I am. It also means it&#8217;s really easy to post regularly to all the accounts as I can post updates or search for content during my commute and whilst I&#8217;m at work.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve also been taking screen caps of the group profiles on social networking sites so in the future I can post a picture and go &#8220;Awww, look at what it looked like in the beginning!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s all for now. Part 2 on the way. <span class='wp-smiley wp-emoji wp-emoji-smile' title=':)'>\ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/gocomments\/bisexualblogs.wordpress.com\/15\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/comments\/bisexualblogs.wordpress.com\/15\/\" \/><\/a> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/pixel.wp.com\/b.gif?host=bisexualblogs.wordpress.com&#038;blog=83147982&#038;%23038;post=15&#038;%23038;subd=bisexualblogs&#038;%23038;ref=&#038;%23038;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Originally published&nbsp;in January 2014 I&rsquo;ve decided to write about the process of setting up my new group for bisexuals so I have a record of what happened when and gain an idea of how much time and work I put into this project. I also hope it will inspire others to do something similar if &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/bisexualblogs.wordpress.com\/2015\/01\/18\/setting-up-a-new-bi-group-part-1\/\">Continue reading <span>Setting Up a Bi Group &ndash; Part&nbsp;1<\/span> <span>&rarr;<\/span><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/pixel.wp.com\/b.gif?host=bisexualblogs.wordpress.com&amp;blog=83147982&amp;post=15&amp;subd=bisexualblogs&amp;ref=&amp;feed=1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":1211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,391,390],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bisexuality","category-nottingham-bitopia","category-running-a-bi-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bimedia.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}