As you collaborate with external partners on storytelling projects and other work, you are building your group’s network. It’s very important to keep track of your group’s connections and which individuals on your team are connected to which organizations.

At the end of the day, connections are between individuals and not groups.

If one member on your team has a connection with a fellow community-based organization in your state, it is important that that member of your team is involved when reaching out to that CBO. It can erode trust between individuals to share contacts without permission or to treat connections as if they were between groups.

You can keep track of your network in a number of ways, but a simple spreadsheet is a great option: