38 replies to this topic

[The Immortalist]

and soon through here, imminst.org/chapters - but its still under construction at this time. If anybody wants to help then let us know.

We are going to be promoting this as a two birds with one stone angle through flyer drives that we will be setting up. We are also hoping that this chapters structure is going to be useful to help in absorbing ambitions of floods of more people we expect to be coming in in the upcoming years. A few years ago we had around 100 new people signing up here a month, now we have around 500 and it seems like its probably going to exponentially grow from here.

How many of those 500 people actually sign up for membership and how many are just free users?

I'm new to this community, Is the Imminst the largest radical life extension community in the world? Do any other communities compare to this one?
Is this organization purely run on the Internet? Would it be possible for the Imminst to have different branches in other part of the world, for example "The Immortality institute of America" "The Immortality institute of Canada" "The Immortality institute of England" "The Immortality Institute of Australia" etc, or our you already doing that with this chapters project?
Will the chapters be like an informal "get together" just to have fun and share ideas with like minded people? or will they be like a formal meeting and members will act as the "limbs" of the radical life extension community to promote Life extension research, or will it be a mixture of both by having fun meetings and also a team of volunteers making and handing out flyers to attract more members?

Edited by The Immortalist, 06 January 2010 - 03:53 AM.

[brokenportal]

Not many sign up for member ship all at once, but many do over time. Thousands have been members at one time or another, and of course, not only people that are registered as members participate.

[ilia]

I have some scruples about the local chapter announcement saying that to become a local chapter member, one “must be an imminst member to apply. Rates range from $5 per month to $500 life.”

I personally think that having empty sub-forums/topics, listing hundreds of countries, states and cities might be a little overcrowding. But we can do some more immediate modifications. For example 1) I think we should restore the “Russia – East Europe” forum. I actually saw some posts where people were put off by the absence of the Russia forum. Also there have been several attempts to find compatriots from Poland, former Yugoslavia, and Ukraine. The general “Russia – East Europe” forum could give a cover for all these groups. 2) Similarly, there are a lot of great old posts in Spanish, that now look orphaned, and can be moved to the “Foro Español” section. This section could give a cover not only to Spain, but also to Central and South America. And indeed, there have been posts from Venezuela and Mexico. (Perhaps create a separate sub-forum in Portuguese, for Portugal, Brazil.) 3) I believe we should also set up the “Asia region” forum, and move there the various calls regarding China, Japan, Korea and India at the very least, followed by an outreach in those regions. 4) I would also suggest to rename my native “Israeli group” forum into “Middle East”. There seems to be not a single word on Radical LE/H+ in Arabic. I could try to arrange a translation of some brief introductory passages. Such an inclusion can help promote peace in our region Here you have the basis for at least several local chapters right there!

Edited by ilia, 22 February 2010 - 04:14 PM.

[brokenportal]

I have some scruples about the local chapter announcement saying that to become a local chapter member, one “must be an imminst member to apply. Rates range from $5 per month to $500 life.”

That is one of the more adjustable things. I can see the pros and cons. Pros are that it makes it more of an imminst thing. With out it people might hijack them and start discussing transhumanism and unitarian universalist agendas at them, etc... Those things are alright, but we want to focus on imminst. It would also encourage more people to join, growing membership is a great asset to imminst. Another pro is that people are less likely to flake on attending if they have made even a small investment in it.

Cons though are that we might get less people joining the chapters, however, they could just go to them with out being an imminst member.

Can you think of any other pros or cons?

I personally think that having empty sub-forums/topics, listing hundreds of countries, states and cities might be a little overcrowding.

We debated that. What we have ended up with is that we have started sections for the ones we have listed in the regional section so far, but we want to extend that to all the main ones. We dont have them all listed as you point out, and we want to get all the main regions in there. Then after all of those are in place, probably 20 to 30 total, we will then start individual chapters when we get 3 or more people interested in a particular area as we go. For example, somebody in Brussels puts out 25 flyers a month and after 6 months they have gotten 2 people to sign up for that regional chapter spot. We then create a topic called Brussels and link it in that regional topic.

But we can do some more immediate modifications. For example 1) I think we should restore the “Russia – East Europe” forum. I actually saw some posts where people were put off by the absence of the Russia forum. Also there have been several attempts to find compatriots from Poland, former Yugoslavia, and Ukraine. The general “Russia – East Europe” forum could give a cover for all these groups. 2) Similarly, there are a lot of great old posts in Spanish, that now look orphaned, and can be moved to the “Foro Español” section. This section could give a cover not only to Spain, but also to Central and South America. And indeed, there have been posts from Venezuela and Mexico. (Perhaps create a separate sub-forum in Portuguese, for Portugal, Brazil.) 3) I believe we should also set up the “Asia region” forum, and move there the various calls regarding China, Japan, Korea and India at the very least, followed by an outreach in those regions. 4) I would also suggest to rename my native “Israeli group” forum into “Middle East”. There seems to be not a single word on Radical LE/H+ in Arabic. I could try to arrange a translation of some brief introductory passages. Such an inclusion can help promote peace in our region Here you have the basis for at least several local chapters right there!

Can you make a list of all the regions that you think should also be in there, and the regions you think that should be recategorized? In other words, a list of what you think the complete regional categories should look like.

If we agree, and I think we will, then if we create them will you be interested in going around and moving topics to their new homes where needed, and helping with the chapters topics? If so we will see what kind of a role we may be able to vote you into so that we can give you access to those sections.

[Mind]

Thanks for the suggestions Ilia! We usually create a new regional forum when someone asks, however we have created forums in anticipation of new users, such as with the Italian forum. There was an article about Imminst in a leading Italian newspaper and we created the forum before publication. It worked well. I especially like the idea of an Arabic labeled forum in order to attempt a better peaceful dialogue about the future.

I am aware of a couple Russian/Eastern European members, so a regional forum in Russian might be worthwhile. Anyone else have opinions?

[ilia]

Cons though are that we might get less people joining the chapters, however, they could just go to them with out being an imminst member.

I think it is a major con. At the present embryonic stage in the chapters development, the demand for payment may be very discouraging from signing up. But perhaps we can add this caveat that you suggested. Something like:

“Joining requirements:
-must be an imminst member to apply for full chapter membership. Rates range from $5 per month to $500 lifetime. Join here. Chapters are eligible for chapter grants and resource packages. Attending membership is free.”

Can you make a list of all the regions that you think should also be in there, and the regions you think that should be recategorized? In other words, a list of what you think the complete regional categories should look like.

More or less as they are, with some additions:
Present Subforums: 1) Australia & New Zealand, 2) Dutch Group, 3) German Group, 4) UK, 5) USA & Canada, 6) Scandinavian Forum, 7) Forum Francophone (French), 8) Forum Italiano, 9) Foro español

Additions:
1) Russia & East Europe, 2) Asia Region, 3) Rename Israeli Group to “Middle East”, 4) Fórum Português (Portuguese), 5) Africa.

This would cover most areas of the world. As you say, some of these forums might be pre-emptive, but it is important to have them in place as a basis for further growth. It is very encouraging to see one’s area represented.

If we agree, and I think we will, then if we create them will you be interested in going around and moving topics to their new homes where needed, and helping with the chapters topics?

Yes, I think I may be able to do this.

Mind: We usually create a new regional forum when someone asks, however we have created forums in anticipation of new users, such as with the Italian forum. There was an article about Imminst in a leading Italian newspaper and we created the forum before publication. It worked well. I especially like the idea of an Arabic labeled forum in order to attempt a better peaceful dialogue about the future. I am aware of a couple Russian/Eastern European members, so a regional forum in Russian might be worthwhile.

Exactly! Some people may not feel confident enough to request a special forum. (For example, before the creation of the Israeli forum, many Israelis hanged out in the Russia/East Europe forum.) But, with an anticipatory establishment of regional forums, they can post local information right away. This can also provide a platform for further outreach, for example by linking to and from local life-extensionist/transhumanist communities (and there are such communities in all the regions listed).

[Mind]

See these comments from Ilia, in the regional forum suggestion.

iii) I think one of the important steps in increasing the international outreach may be to formulate an attractive call to join local chapters/forums. In this regard, I think we should somewhat revise the present “Chapters” announcement and preface to it some sort of brief explanation:

1) Why supporting life extension is important, 2) Why supporting ImmInst is important, and 3) Why local organizations are important. Do we have some drafts for such a call? Perhaps we could adapt some abridged, emphatic form of the present ImmInst Mission statement: http://imminst.org/about

Such a chapter announcement, with a prefacing motto, may be used even as a single hand-out to raise people’s interest in our cause (especially when translated to other languages!)

I think it is very important to preface to it a brief summary of what we are about.

I also think we should remove the clause:
“Joining requirements: -must be an imminst member to apply. Rates range from $5 per month to $500 lifetime. Join here.”

I think this clause may scare away most potential applicants, not to mention that in many parts of the world paying $50 for membership is completely out of the question. I even think that with a removal of this clause we can attract more future full members than with it: People will be likely to get interested, join the local chapter, and then get involved in ImmInst as full members – rather than the other way around.

Such a revised “Chapter announcement” – prefaced by a concise statement of our cause and translated into other languages -- can be used as the main means of outreach: posting it to friendly LE/H+ local groups or interested individuals. The flyers are great too for catching the eye, but the “Chapter announcement” may be better suited for forum/e-mail formats.

[wawee]

HI,
I'm in interested to join your team..
How ca i join?
Thanks in advance..

[brokenportal]

HI,
I'm in interested to join your team..
How ca i join?
Thanks in advance..

What you do is find your area then follow the links and fill out the form through http://imminst.org/chapters