My LG Community #CommunityLoveChallenge

I am Jayasimha Nuggehalli (go by ‘Jay’ just to make it easier for everyone :)). I am a level 10 Local Guide. I currently live in Cupertino, CA, USA. I am originally from India.

I started my Local Guide journey in July of 2017, so it is around 2.5 years since I started contributing to Google Maps. I was not aware of LocalGuidesConnect.com till May of 2019, joined connect as part of ConnectLive 2019 application process. Till that time I was not aware of any other LGs. After joining connect slowly got to know some of other active LGs on connect.

Fortunately I got selected for ConnectLive 2019, which gave me opportunity to meet 199 more LGs in person also several LGs on telegram before ConnectLive.

I started contributing on connect through posts on photography, sharing information on interesting places I have visited. Received Love! and support for many of my posts from my fellow LGs, LG Moderators and Google Moderators.

These interactions really helped me to grow virtual community. Then came 2020, The Covid and lock down. Apart from all the negatives of this situation, there are some positives.

  • We started spending more time as a family, since everyone started working or studying from home

  • Cooking more at home

  • Of course spending more time on Local Guide Connect. Specially when I am tired of seeing more division, hatred, false information on other social media outlets.

Connect was very comforting not only to share information but also learn from other LGs.

Cooking at home helped me to share posts related to recipes, pictures of home cooked food on connect. This helped to expand LGs community who have similar interests.

Here are pictures of few posts I created based home cooked food.

This is when virtual meetups exploded on connect. I have participated in several virtual meetups, which were really informative and also understand passion of other LGs towards Local Guides program.

During this time Denise and Megan started the State Challenge virtual meetups. I must have attended almost all of these #StateChallenge meetups.

These #StateChallenge meetups helped me to contribute several ways and increased interaction with other LGs

  • I modified some of my previous posts so that they can be part of #StateChallenge,
  • Contribute new posts related to specific state challenge
  • Participate as a guest host in couple of meetups
  • Also assist in running couple of meetups

These challenges are informative, fun and competitive, Thanks to Denise and Megan for starting this.
Also got to know more about some of the regular attendees.

Here are some of the posts I posted for #StateChallenge

Other than Meetups I also like to participate in challenges specially photography related. This helped me to get to know more LGs who have similar interests. Able to expand the virtual community through these challenges.

Other than Connect, I am also member and moderator of several unofficial LG related facebook groups. This is also helping me to expand my LG virtual community.

I would like to Thank all the LGs who have supported me. Wish you all a Happy New Year 2021.

Here are top 48 LGs and Google Moderator who have encouraged me on Connect platform. Special thanks to them!

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Great post and great job @jayasimha78

I wish you great success and luck in future and bright travelling. Thank you you for interesting posts on Connect.

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@helga19 Thank You! Best wishes to you too.

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@jayasimha78 With the number of posts you’ve submitted for the various challenges, I’m not sure if we can keep up with your pace! :sweat_smile: Thanks for all your support too! Your posts are of high quality and it helps others to see the kind of posts that they should aim for. And I’m sure @Denise_Barlock and @Kwiksatik are always thrilled to have you join them at the #StateChallenge meet-ups although I’m not sure if @PeteMHW shares the same sentiment since you’re both rivals for the top spot! :joy: Keep up the great work and it’s nice to see that I’ve managed to slip in at #46 on your list of ranked supporters! :sweat_smile:

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@AdrianLunsong Thank You for your kind words. Appreciate again for your continued support. I am pretty sure you are very busy reading all the challenge submissions.

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Great post @jayasimha78 and I look forward to reading all your posts and finding out about the places you’re reporting on. And despite the friendly rivalry it’s great to see you at #StateChallenge regularly. I enjoy your ‘company.’ Keep up the good work.

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@PeteMHW Thank You! Same here, enjoy your company too. See you at next challenge.

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Amazing post @jayasimha78 !

I’m very glad to meet you on Virtual meet-ups! Especially I want to mention here again #StateChallenge. I learned a lot from your posts. Happy to have friendly competition with you!

See you next #StateChallenge!

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@JaneBurunina Thank You Jane! Good to meet you too through these virtual meetups. See you in the next one.

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@jayasimha78 It is such a joy to have you in the #StateChallenge! Thank you for all you do!

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