We’re always on the lookout for the NPSF members who may be interested in eventually taking over as a Co-leader of NPSF. We want to dive into our day to day and share the expectations so we can give you a better sense of what it entails, and hopefully make you feel empowered to step into leadership and be an effective co-leader of November Project San Francisco. And if after reading it you are interested in leading or have ideas of someone who would be a great fit, fill out this interest form!
Co-leaders build the community
Building community might mean something different to each co-leader and so we try to sync up on those meanings and work together to accomplish that goal. As an example, let’s say one co-leader thinks a good way to build a better NPSF is to improve our workouts so they are more challenging, scalable, and inclusive. Then that person would help drive the effort to consider these factors when we’re planning workouts. Other activities might include social events, community service events, collaborations with other fitness groups, etc. This community building aspect can take as much time as you want to put into it, and some might be more long term efforts. But the overall goal of growing the NPSF community to be strong, open, and welcoming is central to our role as leaders, and it’s important for us to take feedback, continuously grow and improve, and keep pushing to move it in that direction.
Co-leaders set good examples for the members
That means showing up to workouts and events, being on-time or early, and being engaged. Speed doesn’t matter, but we always try to have at least one of us out there doing the workout with people and pushing ourselves. Welcoming new people, greeting people as they show up, remembering names, and being an approachable and cheery individual helps us build the inclusive community we want. The main goal is to make people feel seen, heard and recognized regardless of how they show up.
The time requirement for this piece is the time of the workout plus a few minutes on either end. Coming back from COVID, we’re only doing 1 workout a week on Wednesday mornings between 6-7AM and no consistent social events so this time commitment has been greatly reduced.
Co-leaders plan and run the workouts
The way this happens has changed so much over the years so it can and will change in the future too. Before COVID, we met once a month and planned out a month’s worth of workouts together. These days, we alternate weeks and whoever is on plans the workout for that week with help from the others if wanted/needed. During the workout we split up responsibilities. Often we’ll arrive early to chalk out workout instructions. With COVID we need to check waivers as we welcome people and explain the workout to them. We like to have at least one co-leader out there doing the workout too so members can see us getting after it. We try to model good form and help ensure people are being safe. Finally, we capture content, including photos and/or video for IG stories and posts.
Co-leaders are a team and any good team has good communication
While it’s up to each group of co-leaders to decide how they want to communicate, we have a Slack community with all co-leaders and a private channel just for SF, which is the main way we stay in touch throughout the week. We message and communicate there most days, and we’d expect you to check it a couple times a day or setup notifications. When we need to have more involved and longer discussions we schedule a Zoom call, which happens about once a month (in lieu of in-person during COVID).
Co-leaders use Social Media as a tool for outreach, recruitment, and info updates. We rotate those responsibilities, so if you’re leading the workout you should post to Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook the day before to notify people about the upcoming workout and after the workout to instill FOMO (aka show people how awesome the workout was), which takes about an hour total. Often people will also reach out to us on Social Media to ask questions, and we like to get back to people in a reasonable amount of time so checking messages or having notifications on is important.
Co-leaders engage and participate in the larger November Project community
With the global NP Slack Org, we have access to a network of co-leaders in 52 cities. One of the biggest benefits of being a co-leader is leveraging this larger community to improve yourself, improve your community, make awesome friends, get energized by your peers, etc. Sometimes we’ll be asked to do things together, like attend trainings or give feedback. Once a year we all gather for a “Meeting of the Minds” where all the co-leaders come together and learn from one another, which is usually a long weekend when in person (and may require some PTO). We’re also encouraged to attend NP Summit, a gathering of NP members from all over in a single location, usually for a race (details of this change every year). November Project usually has a sponsor as well which will ship you free gear to try out every year. Currently this is Brooks and Knockaround.
Experiences from current co-leaders (as of April 2021)
Tony (co-leader since July 2018): I find that I spend a couple hours a week total on NP things now-a-days. I was putting in way more time for the Hill Climb Challenge as that was my project but things of that magnitude aren’t happening often. Also making this document and finding new co-leaders has been added time lately but all in all, 2-3 hours a week max. I’ve always found that the more time/energy you put into NP the more you get out. As a co-leader, you’ll be able to turn that dial up as much as you want or turn it down to the minimum if your attention is required elsewhere in life for a time. One big exciting piece to becoming a co-leader right now is that we’re rethinking everything about what NPSF should or could look like going forward. We’ve scaled back the workouts so we can focus time and energy to building NPSF in other ways. You coming on now as a co-leader will have a huge amount of say in NPSF and it’s future more so than any of us have had. The key to successful co-leading is communication with your co-leaders, passion for making a better NP, and love of people.
Ali (co-leader since March 2018): In the pre-pandemic times, the time commitment for an NP leader was much higher, with 4 workouts a week (since Wednesday had 5:30am and 6:30am) and all the planning, social media, and any outside of workout community building efforts. Now that we have scaled back to one workout for the time being, there’s less of our time spent on the workout/planning/social media piece, and our goal is to use the extra bandwidth to focus even more on building an inclusive and strong group that’s part of the broader SF community. My personal goal over the past couple years has been to help NP become a more active participant in our city and the broader fitness community, through getting involved with other workout groups like Bounce, highlighting events from other groups on social media, and even organizing group cultural events like the museum trip for BHM last year. The fun thing about being a leader is that you can take the pieces that excite you most and invest in those, as long as you’re doing what’s best for NPSF and helping it continue to evolve and be better.
Shardul (co-leader since November 2020): I’d say I spend 2-3 hours per week on NP duties. The main time commit is being at the workouts which are currently on Wednesday mornings from 6-7AM due to COVID. Outside of that, it’s being active in Slack, meeting with other co-leaders and being a part of the community. That is entirely what you make it and how involved you want to be. The main thing is to be responsive, communicative and just show up for your co-leaders and the community.
I’m a fairly new leader but my initiative is mainly social and during the pandemic when workouts were virtual, coming up with themed workouts that were fun online and over Zoom. Now that we’ve been in person for a few weeks, more time to be spent on original programming and building out a content strategy for engaging the community of great NP folks! Overall, your involvement as a leader is what you make it. If you want to go above and beyond the core responsibilities, you totally can! If you have an idea for NP, run it by your co-leaders and they’ll find the best way to support you! This whole community from headquarters is what you make it and we are always looking for ways to listen, learn and be better for each other!
