This is not designed to be a rulebook or minimum community ambassador guidelines but a guide to understanding the complexities of the community ambassador role on the LEGO Ambassador Network (LAN). This document is based on observations from internal teams, conversations with fan communities (regardless or recognition status) and insights gathered from observing and speaking with highly successful community ambassadors.
Activity. A key aspect of the LAN is that the LAN is a community, just like any LEGO User Group or other AFOL community. Here the members are the individual community ambassadors. Like any community, after gaining membership, it is the responsibility for each member to participate to maintain membership and benefits. A failure to demonstrate oneself as an active and engaged member can therefore forfeit their ability to maintain membership within the community. To allow a nonparticipating person access to benefits of an engaged member diminishes from the community itself and is also a disservice to the community members who are active and engaged.
Communication skills. After understanding that the LAN is a community and that it is the responsibility for the individual community ambassador to participate, it is important to understand what a community ambassador is. Like any ambassadorship, the community ambassador represents a group of persons greater than the self. In this case, the community ambassador is the point of contact and voice of the RLUG, RLOC or RLFM they represent. This person is granted additional access to the closed LAN forums where they will engage with other community ambassadors and representatives from the LEGO Group. The community ambassador will then speak on behalf of the community they represent and ensure that the people they represent are informed and included. Representing a group of people and not the self is not a simple task and takes a variety of skills. It takes being able to appropriately frame and present feedback, to create and manage relationships with other AFOL communities and the LEGO Group, to manage community member expectations, and to communicate effectively with others on the LAN and with the community you represent.
Innovative. With hundreds of community ambassadors, the LAN is a network of persons representing some of the most active, engaged and thriving AFOL communities in existence. This provides a platform for two-way communication for engagement, knowledge sharing, and collaborations that the community ambassador must choose to be part of. It allows each community ambassador to learn from other experts but also share their learnings for the mutual betterment of other AFOL communities. Besides the opportunities presented through the network of other community ambassadors, it also provides the unique opportunity to directly engage, knowledge share and collaborate directly with the LEGO Group creating unique opportunities that couldn’t be possible otherwise.
Community representative. The ability for a community ambassador to gather insights from their community and bring these to the LAN while also gathering ideas, collaboration opportunities, knowledge and experiences from the LAN and bringing them back to their community members will be the key task. It is this two-way communication and an innovation-and-growth-mindset that are the keys to being a successful community ambassador who can use the LAN as a tool to help their community grow.
Clear division of roles. Whether you are from a recognized community or not, having a board member focused on relationship building and communication can be a valuable addition. For recognized communities, this person is the community ambassador and choosing the appropriate person, through election or appointment, can be critical for community growth. Within the community it is a team effort because while having a person with the skills needed to succeed is important, it is also necessary that the community supports this person. Each community will do this differently, but it can include diversifying club roles to not overwhelm an individual, providing time in community meetings for LAN topics/opportunities to be shared, general support and feedback.
While every community ambassador will perform the role differently, the hope is that it is done in a way that encourages community growth through knowledge sharing, collaboration, and new opportunities for the community they represent and its members.
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