A community panel or reference group is a dedicated sample of your community that has volunteered to help shape your engagement practices and decisions. The panel should be representative of your community as a whole and can range in size for whatever is appropriate for your organization.
You should, however, take care to include people of different age groups, suburbs, genders, ethnicities, or other established demographics of your choice. Your panel’s responsibilities may include tasks like the following:
Representing larger samples of the community
Regular meetings, surveys, or forums
Volunteering at events
Spreading word to their social circles about new consultations
The Benefits of Community Panels
Community panels or reference groups can help you achieve many things, and they can have wide-ranging benefits for the entire community, such as:
Extend your reach beyond the usual vocal minority and engage a broader audience. Your panel members can also circulate among their own social circles to encourage more engagement.
A larger reach can lead to higher registration rates, more contributions for future consultations, and a higher likelihood of demographic diversity in your participants.
Grow trust and build rapport by demonstrating transparency and acting on public input. This can also lead to higher contribution rates for future projects. When community members can see how they have influenced decision-making, they are more likely to trust that they have a say over how the community develops.
Maintain a feedback loop wherein your engagement practices are evaluated by valued community members. Use the insights gained from your panel to inform your ongoing engagement strategy.
Ideas to Get Started
Before setting up a community panel, you must understand what you want it to look like. You should also know how it will fit into your overall engagement strategy and identify a representative sample of your community.
When getting started, consider these ideas:
Developing guidelines and objectives for the panel – everyone involved should know their remit and responsibilities and how the panel fits into your overall engagement strategy
Develop short- and long-term goals for the panel and the community, but make them actionable and achievable.
Recruit new participants using your signup form or your mailing list for existing ones. You can also spread the word through other channels, such as your corporate website, social media, or in-person meetings and events.
Use open tools so members can engage with each other directly and leverage your panel to create focus groups or open discussions.
Incorporate a regular satisfaction survey so your panel’s members can provide feedback on your engagement practice and activities. Ensure you present your findings for all consultations.
EngagementHQ provides the ability to create participant groups and protected projects to help you prepare for and create your community reference group. If you’re ready to start building your panel, check out Prepare for a Community Reference Group to get started.