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This document outlines a strategic plan to grow an open source community.

• Build an affiliates and ambassadors program,
• Further expand the community internationally,
• Promote "satellite" events and activities.

• Deploy a CRM if none already exists (this gives the team visibility on who is reaching who and measure progress),
• Identify the target audience and start populating potential contacts,
• Develop a value proposition for each audience,
• Design onboarding experience for each audience and types of contributions/engagement desired,
• Reach out to these potential affiliates and follow up,
• Ask for referrals of individuals who would be interested in joining (both staff and community members),
• Organizations get invited to become affiliates, and individuals get invited to become ambassadors.
• As the number of affiliates and ambassadors grow, create dedicated pages on the website to formally recognize each,
• Provide channels for cross-project discussion and collaboration.
• Create a strategy for each marketing/contribution channel (Blog, Newsletter, Podcast, Social Media, Code Repository, etc). For example, for the Blog, invite affiliates and ambassadors for guest posts. Also publish guest posts for them. This is a great way to reach a new audience to expand our network and also to let them tap into ours.
• As the community matures, publish resources in different formats, languages, and tailored for different audiences. Examples: Specification, Documentation, One pagers, Infographics, Checklists, White papers, Scientific Papers and Articles, eBooks, Case studies, Reference Training Programs, User Manuals, Developer Manuals, Handbooks, Reports, etc.
• Allow affiliates and ambassadors to add satellite events and activities to the website (see the Events section below).

• Constantly assess the global distribution of the community (through website geolocation data, mailing list email addresses, social media profiles, surveys, etc), always respecting privacy.
• Make a conscious effort to expand the community internationally by reaching out to new contacts.
• Create incentives for the publication of content in languages other than English.
• Content in a new language attracts a more diverse set of individuals and organizations to the project, who in return contribute back to the project making it even better.
• Ideally the software should also be multilingual. Provide users the option to select a language and locale.
• Work with Affiliates and Ambassadors to organize events worldwide and produce local content (see the Events section below).

• Grow the main conference while promoting “satellite” events and activities worldwide.
• With the assistance from Affiliates and Ambassadors, promote these satellite events and activities.
• Allow affiliates and ambassadors to add satellite events and activities to the website.
• Provide guidelines to local organizers on how to produce a successful event, including: finding a venue, setting a date, seeking sponsors, managing budget and timeline, selecting speakers, marketing the event, handling catering and audio/video equipment, etc.
• Make sure these events have a code of conduct and promote diversity and inclusion.

• Growth of affiliates and ambassadors,
• Demographics of affiliates and ambassadors,
• Frequency of Blog posts and other contributions (focus on establishing a continuous pattern),
• Number and quality of contributions,
• Level of engagement for each contribution (downloads, views, pull requests, etc),
• Number and quality of events.