Thoughts on Recognition and the Review Process

The LAN is more complex than most people realize. It is a tool for recognized communities to use to better their community, to learn and to share, to collaborate, and to communicate directly with the LEGO Group. The LAN is also a community, and each participant should accept a certain amount of ownership in participating in a healthy way that builds relationships and enriches the experience for themselves and others. It also means that when allowing a community to be a member of the LAN that there needs to be an assessment to ensure a fit. 

Often in reviewing applications, the review process, we identify innovative communities that are creating new experiences, opportunities and increasing expectations. In review we see active websites, up-to-dates socials, innovative events, active collaborations, amazing charity work, etc. These actions from non-recognized communities can raise the bar regarding expectations for recognition but also challenges existing recognized communities to adapt and grow as well rather than idly watch the world change around them. Seeing what non-recognized communities are doing can encourage us to share amongst recognized communities the need to grow and adapt. 

For new communities the review process is about looking at who the community is, how they represent themselves, assessing their internal structure, and identifying what they can bring to the existing LAN community. It is also about reviewing their history and making educated guesses about how they will fit in the existing LAN environment. It is also about bringing in new voices that are not represented whether it be region, language, audience, etc. This will make it challenging for a LUG in the same city as an existing RLUG to get recognized as well as a YouTuber who shares the same audience as an existing RLFM. 

For existing recognized communities, the review process is about whether that community is using the LAN as a tool, as described above, and whether the community represented is being an active part of the LAN community. It is not just about filling out a form once a year and posting the occasional “done” or “thank you”. It is about adding value through engagement with others on the LAN, collaborating, sharing feedback to the LEGO Group, and reporting. It is a demonstration of wanting to be on the LAN, and not just for support, but for the community, knowledge, and experience. For the communities where we see a lack of collaboration, participation, engagement, and desire, we reach out to learn more. We also aim to encourage conversation and awareness, and we provide suggestions on how to move forward. It does not result in an immediate offboarding but a conversation.  

With thousands of LUGs, Fan Media, and Online Communities in the world, and only a select number that are recognized, it is about finding those that want more than just a typical AFOL experience. Recognition is about those that actively want to be lead-communities who demonstrate behaviors that others can aspire toward.  

Most currently recognized communities are lead-communities that continue to demonstrate their desire to knowledge share and co-create a healthy LAN atmosphere. The challenge that I see is finding a way to remove the concern of offboarding. Finding opportunities to remove this concern is something we want to investigate. The way we currently review recognized communities is through reports, publicly available information such as websites and social presence, and a review of ambassador participation. We are still looking for ways that we can do this and hopefully it can include feedback from peers as well. 

The LAN vision, as stated by Signe during the most recent LAN Town Hall is, Empower value growth by supercharging value entities in the LEGO fan hobby ecosystem. Inspire, celebrate, and strengthen long-lasting relationships in a caring, high-trust environment. We see the LAN as the place where we are building long-lasting relationships and we hope that this clears up some of the mystery behind the review process and recognition.