Organizational Communication Audit

Organizational Communication Audit

1. Provide a brief history of the organization

Meetup.com is the largest and fastest growing social networks online. The CEO of meetup.com came up with this social network because of 9/11. Meetup was born in New York just shortly after the twin towers fell down. The CEO Scott Heiferman never talked to his neighbors before 9/11 happened but after that incident, he “found himself talking more to his neighbors. He also noticed that other people were talking more to other people next door and across the city who they'd normally ignore.” (Heirferman) After 9/11 there were a lot of people who were wondering how they could keep a long lasting bond that had been formed. Hence as to how meetup was born. (Heirferman) “Meetup was a place on the internet to get off the internet and grow local communities.” There was a lot of doubt with this idea. Yet nine months after 9/11 meetup was launched. (Heirferman) Yet here we are ten years later and meetup is thriving unlike any social networking group out there.

Meetup.com makes it easy for anyone to organize a group or find a local group that is already meeting face to face. There are more than 9,000 groups that get together within the local communities. The primary mission of meetup “ is to revitalize local community and help people around the world to self-organize groups. Heirferman believes that people can impact the local community by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.” (meetup.com) Meetup.com has 13.5 million members, there are 125,957 meetup groups in 196 countries. Meetup has monthly meetings which averages approximately 377,104, the monthly RSVP’s are somewhere around 2.31 Million. (meetup.com)

The best thing about this online social networking group is that it involves real time with real people. There are a bunch of Meetup Groups that consists of individuals within the local community that like to do anything and everything possible. This is a highly organized organization. (Richmond and McCrosky 2009 p. 1) Meetup allows people to find things to do within the community on the internet first then get off the internet and meet with each other off line. There are individuals who become organizers that set up a meetup and host an event for other people to come enjoy themselves and meet new people. There are three big local social meetups within Hampton Roads area. They are Hampton Roads Friends Event Networking (HRFEN 2,849 members), the Hampton Roads Runners (1,116 members), and Active Youth Social (AYS 1,292 members). I belong to HRFEN and AYS as well as a few other meetups. However I am very active with HRFEN I actually became an assistant organizier because I hosted few events in the past.

2. Offer an analysis of the current communication climate

Meetup is a unique system, it gives individuals the opportunity to be leaders by letting them make up a group on meetup.com. Then from there these leaders of the group can assign others to be assistant leaders. Even though I belong to several meetup groups I am active with (HRFEN). This group is a very unique group when it comes to communication. I have been involved with this group for two years now. I have noticed that even though there is the main organizer Vanessa Gatlin she has many assistant organizers. The goal of the group is to get the community involved as much as possible.

3. Provide a list of potential strengths and weaknesses

The strengths I see in this group are that it gives individuals an opportunity to become a leader. It gives people a chance to go to events based on their interest. It allows individuals to network with other local business owners. It also allows more local businesses to be involved with the community. Individuals get familiar with the area more. Some weaknesses are when people are new to meetup their isn’t a clear understanding of how meetup works. For instance if someone hosts an event and a new person goes to that event they look for that same host at other events. Sometimes members misunderstand the descriptions within the event by not reading description of the event to its entirety. When we have big events, it is sometimes difficult to find the host of the event even with posting directions of where and what time one will be at the site.

4. Conclude with a strategy to improve the communication climate of the organization by utilizing at least three of the strategies we have studied in the Organizational Communication for Survival textbook.