CB.2:1 - Problem frame

Use this pattern when a group could benefit from mutual help or shared activity, but people have not yet found a workable way to participate together. A new professional group has interested names but unanswered questions. A local gathering attracts visitors who leave without making a useful connection. An existing group starts a new activity for which its old habits do not suffice.

The organiser’s task is to arrange a bounded exchange in which someone offers a relevant contribution, another person can use or respond to it, and the participants can understand what happened. The result may be an answer, a comparison, an introduction, an agreed action or a valued conversation. Choose it from the participants’ purpose.

This is the mutual-participation branch of Community Building. It begins with a credible purpose and participation conditions, such as those supplied by CB.1. It creates a first workable relationship around an activity; it does not require a formal organisation or equal contributions from every participant.

First useful result: a completed exchange with a known use or honest remaining gap, a feasible opportunity to continue, and an account of the help the organiser had to provide.

Ordinary non-use. When people can obtain the needed result independently from a resource or learning provision, use that route. When a timely accountable answer is required, obtain the appropriate service. Use CB.1 if the proposed mutual activity has no credible benefit or cannot obtain its essential contribution.