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Erik: Why are affiliation points so important to community and neighborhood development?
Dan: You’re familiar with Seth Goaden ‘Tribes We Lead’ kind of mentality and I think that
there’s a lot of truth to it, which is people organize and become interested around certain
concepts, ideas or activities that are happening. So, your question is very valid. Can people
be organized not based around the seminal events or the seminal people or the seminal
things? Can they be organized around something more fluid and non-stated like a concept,
an idea or a feeling of community? And I’d argue you need both, so you’re question
is exactly right that you need these affiliation points, you need things that are happening
in order for people to feel like they should be engaging, but at the same time you gotta
have an underlying structure of a culture where people can feel that its not just – ‘I’m
not just going to this community clean up event because I want to go meet people in
my neighborhood or meet a pretty girl [laughs] but I’m going there, yeah that’s part
of it but its also partially because I feel a real need and I feel a social obligation
to be doing something good for my community.’ I think by combing those two you get the right
answer.