How-to Guides - Community Resource Kit

Resources for setting up and running community organisations and projects.

stages of development

Community groups, like all living organisms, go through stages of development.

The following table sets out a very simplistic development pattern that community groups may go through. This must be used cautiously as not all groups will go through this linear pattern. Many will be appropriate in their community operating as a small, volunteer-based group, and others may develop very quickly as large, organisationally sophisticated groups.

Stage	Typical Characteristics	Matters to Consider
Starting Out One person or a small group, passionate about a particular issue, "want to do something".	often led by a visionary and/or strong, entrepreneurial person high ideals - often quite fuzzy.	where does this fit with other things that are going on in the community? clarification of/agreeing on purpose of the group.
Becoming Structured Small group committed to making something happen.	generally operates as a committee or collective the "work" of the group is done by the group members (generally voluntarily) minimal financial structures - often group member contributions, perhaps small grant (e.g. COGS).	what structure best suits our purpose? getting organised assigning roles agreeing on what needs to be done (not just the "high ideals") establishing systems.
Growing An organisation that has outgrown its volunteer structure.	the group inevitably faces challenges - "it's harder than we thought" some members often doing the bulk of the work, leading to resentment and tension the loose, voluntary structure is replaced by a more formal, structured committee or board a co-ordinator, administrator, CE may be employed to do the tasks delegated by the committee/board applying for funding for the organisation to support this increased operation.	establishing good organisational processes setting up governance, management and reporting structures increased financial, legal and employment responsibilities maintaining external relationships.
"Maturity" Group is functioning.	systems and structures are formalised generally a separation of governance and management roles employs staff ongoing evaluation of the group's effectiveness and relevance.	challenge of keeping relevant (or getting stale) learning/reflective practice avoiding a loss of passion business management responsibilities - financial, employment, premises, assets, contract management etc.
Completion "Our work is done" or refocus.	things change, either externally (in the community) or within the group to indicate that it is time to wind up some groups may reinvent themselves with a different focus rather than winding up others may limp on, resisting the death knell, although they may be increasingly irrelevant to the community.	evaluation - at both group and personal levels dealing with grief - some members may not want to finish celebration tidying up and moving on.