This program is designed for highly-curious, passionate, and business-minded people who are serious about building, growing and leveling up their communities. In more detail:

• Fully committed to growing an existing community for the next 5+ years.
• Main business or responsibilities involve growing a community, ideally full time or willing to dedicate full time to it (either as a founder, director, or manager).
• Business-minded individuals who already have initial community traction and are thinking about the next steps to make sure their communities continue to thrive (e.g. sustainable models, building lifelong engagement, identifying the right metrics, etc.)
• Interested in building high-growth, high-impact communities in terms of reach (how many lives it could touch) or depth (relevance of relationships and interactions).
• A builder or leader whose community has had some level of success, but also has awareness of the shortcomings and challenges they must tackle in order to grow further.
• Ambitious and open-minded, willing to learn and share in order to take their existing communities to the next level.
• Highly curious, and believe that actively participating in a learning community is the best way to accelerate one’s learning curve.
• Eager to help others and add value first. Thrilled to be both a mentor and a mentee with Fellows who have a range of expertise.
  

ODCB is an annual membership that costs $2,990/year. After acceptance, we are happy to support you in working with your team (if working as a Community Builder full-time) to expense some or all of the cost through L&D.

After the four-week onboarding, ODCB will be there for you as long as you need it. This is what a sample week could look like a month or two years from now: 

• On Monday, there's a fireside chat with a world-class speaker (at ODCB1 we hosted renowned experts from Waze’s Head of Community Hila Roth to Reddit’s VP of Community Laura Nestler). If you are busy, you can attend while you respond to emails or watch the recording later (it will be in the Directory for you to watch at your convenience).
• On Tuesday, you meet for 60 minutes with your core Masterminds group (a curated group of peers!). You've met twice a month for the past quarter and the intimate conversations you've had have been tremendously helpful in understanding how to grow and engage your community.
• On Wednesdays, there's no official programming, but you are looking to hire a couple of junior community managers. You set up a couple 1:1s with Fellows across the On Deck network to help you in your search. Maybe you end up hiring someone! 
• On Thursday, a couple of Fellows scheduled sessions on the latest community platforms and how to measure impact. They look great, but you gave a talk to the community on IRL community events last week. You decide to take it easy and focus on unblocking that big project at work.
• On Friday, there's a learning session with a top-notch expert (at ODCB1 we had David Spinks talking about his book, Business of Belonging and Daniel Stillman talking about the art of conversations design), but you decide to skip that one as well (and watch the recording later) to attend the social with those in the same industry as you that happens every Friday afternoon. 
• You're starting the Engagement module next Wednesday and it'll be a bit more intense for the next six weeks.

Even with the most unpredictable professional schedules, ODCB strives to be a malleable community offering you value at every level of engagement. We are there for you and offer support, accountability and flexibility when you need to rest or refocus.

• We are not a traditional course or a bootcamp. We don't assign mandatory homework or have recurring instructor-led programming. Most of the sessions are in the form of fireside chats or one-off workshops. None of the programming is linear, so you can pick and choose what you want to attend without having to worry about being "unprepared" for a session.
• We are big on peer-to-peer learning. Much of the value comes from other Fellows! Whether this is through the resources shared on Slack, community hosted sessions, or from advice and support given during your recurring small group meetings, there are a ton of ways to learn — not just through official programming.
• We're a self-paced, choose-your-own-adventure type of buffet, which means you have a ton of autonomy. Outside of a few core events, nothing is mandatory. There is no concrete, one-size-fits-all, week-to-week path. You will be able to make ODCB whatever you want it to be! Some can find this freedom intimidating, but we hope this allows you to pick and choose the programming that's most relevant to what you need and want to learn.
• We don't expect you to go to everything. We pack a lot into the membership. There are a number of different formats that might pique your interest, some being more interactive than others. It's a lot to take in at once, but we recommend that you prioritize the first 4 weeks to avoid becoming overwhelmed!

Our goal is to make the Fellowship accessible to the absolute best talent, no matter their financial situation.

All Fellows have the option to pay in installments (with no interest or additional charges). We also have a limited number of scholarships available thanks to our Access Fund. Information about scholarship applications is provided to Fellows who have been accepted closer to the kickoff date.

Between attending your sessions (socials, fireside chats, workshops) and making the most of peer-to-peer interactions, you should expect dedicating on average 5 hours a week. Of course, you can put more hours in if you're deriving value from it.

Beyond workshops, ODCB is a choose-your-own-adventure buffet. You get out what you put in: often, the biggest contributors are also the biggest beneficiaries.

Depending on your schedule and interests, you could choose to:

• Attend everything and “gorge” yourself on knowledge until you explode
• Tune in at your leisure to attend sessions that interest you
• Or just search the Directory and connect with interesting people one-on-one

Most ODCB Fellows have full-time jobs, so our programming is designed with that in mind.

Yes: ODCB will be run entirely remotely. This enables participation from all corners of the world. We’ve mastered the playbook for building remote communities and relationships online and will apply the same approach here. Post-COVID, we’ll return to organizing offline programming like dinners, small gatherings, and retreats, but the core Fellowship will remain a remote-first experience.

You can! The sun never sets on ODCB. We offer a wide range of scheduling options for our learning and socializing sessions, so you can find a time that works for you, wherever you are. While most of our live programming mostly happens on U.S. Pacific hours, we will also make sure to host sessions in times suitable for both EMEA and APAC. The majority of sessions are recorded and made available later in case you can’t attend live.

Once we have multiple tracks running concurrently, we’ll help you assess which track is most suitable for you via onboarding and goal setting sessions. This will help you clarify what is most suitable to ensure you get the most value out of the track.

We accept applications on a rolling basis. Upon acceptance, you’ll be invited to join the next onboarding cohort. There are currently three onboarding cohorts in place per year. The deadline for the next one is September 12.

After one year of membership, you will have the opportunity to renew your membership. If you choose not to renew your membership, you will lose access to all On Deck platforms, networks, and content.