Hey all,
So over the weekend I decided to have a meet up with our local community, Abuja Local Guides. Although it was impromptu but there wasn’t really a better time to have it other than over the weekend as every one is trying to wind down for the year and enter into holidays and festive seasons.
It was a wonderful meet-up with a lot of the community member participating. For flexibility, time, and cost efficiency, I decided to have a virtual meet-up to bring the community together where we would look inwards and reflect on our journey so far and also find means to learn from one another and grow the community as a whole. We also celebrated our only guiding star for this year from our community @SholaIB who has been actively contributing and sharing his journey.
I noticed there has really been little representation of our members from the recently concluded Guiding Stars '22 I am challenging the community (Abuja community to a larger Nigerian Community and much larger to Africa) to gear up for the coming years. My aspirations for the coming year is to have at least one (1) member from each of the listed categories and perhaps have smaller and more dedicated sub-groups. The list inlcudes;
- Helpful Hero
- Inclusive Mapper
- Creative Contributor
- Community Builder
- Local Business Champion
- Sustainability Star
However, looking inwards, we have already identified potential contributors within the immediate community taking up that challenge. The foodies like @Zino , environmentalists and nature lovers like @Sagir , road mappers, accessibility advocates @EmekaUlor & @ChinonsoOnukwugha , creative photographers (a lot that i can tag all), our little community helpers who also welcome new members and share tips (both on our unofficial platforms ie. whatsapp and connect), sharing historic highlights & story tellers like @Ewaade_3A , community builders like @Mayford , tip & tricks, finding hidden gems/unique places, supporting local businesses, promoting local tourism, the list is unending etc. etc. but i would say we build on and on, small portion at a time.
During the meet up, we all decided to align our purpose and set a clear path towards meaningful contribution and linking it to a personal meaning. Why does this matter? I believe this will help us stay more focused, improve our ability to learn new things and ultimately make the learning more enjoyable.
Before we wrapped up @ChiomaE came up with a question on how she could contribute better. I can’t even lie but I have always learnt a lot @MortenCopenhagen 's tip & trip, you are doing an incredible and we can’t thank you enough. I’m also always eager to share what i learnt so i did share about adjusting storefront frames, how to merge duplicate locations, and a little on road mapping. @AlphaSays as a guest gave his tips for photography and lighting.
Over the years, we have been actively working to grow our little community into a larger one with active local guide contributors in different fields. It hasn’t really been easy with covid-19, economic hardship, and so many other different life endeavours but regardless the community grew and showed resilience with great contributions.
Do you have a specific track of contribution? Do you have any aspirations for the coming year and for the future of your contributions?