Membership numbers for groups and associations have declined, yet being part of a community is more important than ever. But useful communities have taken a new shape.

The idea is simple: there is just too much happening, too much information, too many decisions to be taken. So instead of the power of one, we are shifting to the power of communities with shared leadership as the new, lean, effective way to learn, to understand, to allow you to adapt and be resilient to the warp speed change enveloping us.

So easy access to what is most useful to you at any given time is a strong incentive of what being part of a community offers.

Another powerful element of communities is what Daniel Pink describes in Drive: “making progress towards a shared mission is the most motivating force a professional can feel.”
So you are looking for communities that share your mission, who accelerate your mission but also where your role is important enough to make a difference.
Communities that work best are those in which every member of the community feels they are leading a part of it, contributing to the whole, having a visible impact on the progress of that common mission and not just sitting around. Belonging, being part is activated ten fold when your actions makes a difference to the whole.

So you are looking for the autonomy of the individual,
the usefulness and reciprocity of contributing to and getting something important to/from the community,
the power of one+plus = the power of being an important individual strengthened by N other important individuals , who have created a powerful, recognised, outstanding community that you feel proud of being part of and that others admire.