Welcome to the February update for the Barcelona English Speakers (BES) community.

After what feels like the most miserable winter of my ten years here, I am certainly looking forward to spring and some warmer temperatures. On the bright side, our reservoirs are finally full, so we can expect a stable water supply for the foreseeable future.

Managing Our Growth

WhatsApp’s 2,000-member community cap remains a constant challenge. To ensure there is always room for new members, the lifeblood of our group, we are actively finding ways to trim inactive accounts or those who have archived the group.

The simplest way to ensure you remain part of the community is to stay engaged. Whether it’s a like, a reaction, a question, or a comment, we want to see you involved. If there is a reason you feel unable to participate, please do reach out to an admin we want everyone to feel like they can contribute.

A New Community Structure

To bypass these technical limits, we are splitting the community into two distinct areas. This change provides more breathing room for everyone, and if you are already a member of these groups, you won’t notice any difference beyond a new community icon.

  • BES Lifestyle: This area includes House & Home, Parenting, Finance, Book Club, Screen Time, Gamers, Wanderlust, Babel, Shitposts, Tech, “Buy, Sell, Rent & Trade”, News & Opinions, Sports Talk, Deals & Freebies, and News Flash.
  • BES Social: This focuses on interaction and events, including Meetup, Play, Sports, Padel Hangout, Music Lovers, and Hiking & Nature.

Group Updates & “Deals and Freebies”

We hit our 2,000-member limit last week, prompting a few immediate changes. We have migrated the old “Classifieds” group to the new “Buy, Sell, Rent & Trade” group. If you haven’t moved over yet, you can join the new group via the BES Lifestyle Community.

We have also launched “BES Deals and Freebies” specifically for giveaways. We noticed that many great items were being claimed by “lurkers” who don’t otherwise contribute to the group. To prioritise the members who make this community what it is, access to this group now requires admin approval. If you have something to give back and want to join, please message an admin.

Note: All groups have now moved to Admin Approval to help us keep spammers at bay. Once you are part of the main community, you will be quickly approved for the sub-groups.

What’s On This Month

  • Book Club (BES Lifestyle): Meeting on 14th March to discuss the book of the month.
  • Screen Time (BES Lifestyle): The cinema rewatch night is currently voting on the next film (the Weird Al Yankovic biopic is currently leading the pack!).
  • Monthly Meet-up: We are back at D9 this Friday. Register here to join us – remember, there’s a free drink for those who arrive before 8:30pm!
  • Bizcelona: Its been a great few weeks as we scale the community and build some interesting connections with likeminded people. We are now starting to scale so if you want to be a part of this movement to create the guilds of old, and trusted connections – you can sign up here.

Thanks for being part of the community.

Owen

TL;DR

  • Community Split: We are dividing into BES Lifestyle and BES Social to beat the 2k member limit.
  • Stay Active: We are removing inactive members to make space; stay engaged (likes/comments) to keep your spot.
  • New Groups: “Classifieds” is now “Buy, Sell, Rent & Trade”. We’ve also launched “Deals & Freebies”(admin approval required to join).
  • Events: Book Club on 14th March and our Monthly Meet-up at D9 this Friday (free drink before 8:30pm!), Volleyball each weekend (Meet-Ups)
  • Bizcelona: growing nicely, great connections – register here.