Sport and Management Group

Dear ambassadors/supporters of the Sport and Management Group,

I would like to share a few further suggestions for creating content and attracting new members to the group:

(1) Using the Connect@AOM platform and creating content

In the attached document, you will find a description of the main features of the Connect@AOM platform, an illustration of how to invite new members to our group via the platform, and some general suggestions for posting. Although many of you are already familiar with these things, the document may be useful for those who are not yet using Connect@AOM, and especially for new members, whom you might want to direct to this document.

In this regard, I would like to highlight the following points for all ambassadors of this community:

• All 12 ambassadors have been given moderator rights in Connect@AOM, so please read in the attached document what this means for you.
• I would particularly like to draw your attention to the metrics that AOM uses to monitor the progress of communities, as these will be decisive for our further development and our chances of eventually becoming an Interest Group. The key criteria are:
• number of active members (log-ins, posts, replies),
• volume/number of new conversations/posts per month,
• engagement rate: average number of replies or likes per post,
• member satisfaction (via a brief survey 3–6 months post-launch).
• There are now effectively no obstacles for all of us to start contributing content to this community. Each of us should therefore think, within the area where we have taken on a coordinating role (calls, editorials, grants, support for young scholars/PhDs, Teaching & Learning, etc.), about how to post relevant news on a regular basis. My suggestion would be that we aim for at least one new post per month from each area (we agreed on these areas and their coordinators before the community was established, and I also listed them in the first post a few days ago). In this way, with relatively little effort from each individual, we could reach, for example, about eight new posts per month, which in my view would already be a very good start. With this, ambassadors will provide the initial momentum, and as our membership grows, I believe that other members will also start posting more regularly. I therefore kindly ask each of you to make a simple plan of what you could post in, for instance, the next two months. Thank you for helping me with this.

(2) Attracting new members to our group

The second important point of this message is attracting new members to our group. The attached document explains how you can use Connect@AOM to invite existing AOM members. However, this is not the only way we can make others aware of our group:

• Each of us can post an invitation to join this community in the Divisions and Interest Groups (DIGs) to which we belong (each of us is a member of at least two DIGs). In this way, we should try to get the message out to at least the largest DIGs. Since there are already 20 of us in the group, I believe this will not be too difficult, and it would be good if such messages to the largest DIGs came from the more established members of our group.
• On the Connect@AOM platform, one of the functionalities is also the events calendar. By adding an event to the calendar, information about our activities will not only reach our own members, but the events calendar will also be visible to all AOM members.
• A particular challenge is attracting colleagues who are currently not AOM members. Here, we have little choice but to reach out to them through other channels:
• Chad and I have already discussed his help with setting up a directory of potential new members in the field of sport management.
• It would make sense to develop an email list of non-AOM colleagues whom we know are working in this field and let them know about the main events by email.
• I would also kindly ask you, within your possibilities, to spread the word about our community on the social media you use (most likely LinkedIn in particular).

Thank you for your kind support with this project.

Best regards,
Tomaž

------------------------------
Tomaz Cater
Full Professor
University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business
+386 1 5892 521
------------------------------

Another easy way to invite new members is to send them an email with a direct link to our group (https://connect.aom.org/communities/community-home?communitykey=206207e3-0d90-4947-8c58-0199f235726b). If they are signed in, a blue "Join" button will appear on the right-hand side of their screen, and all they need to do is click it. The same can be done via the AOM homepage if they click on Communities => Member Affinity Forums and then locate Sport and Management Group.

------------------------------
Tomaz Cater
Full Professor
School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana
Ljubljana
+386 1 5892 521
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-19-2025 12:21
From: Tomaz Cater
Subject: Using Connect@AOM and inviting new members

Dear ambassadors/supporters of the Sport and Management Group,

I would like to share a few further suggestions for creating content and attracting new members to the group:

(1) Using the Connect@AOM platform and creating content

In the attached document, you will find a description of the main features of the Connect@AOM platform, an illustration of how to invite new members to our group via the platform, and some general suggestions for posting. Although many of you are already familiar with these things, the document may be useful for those who are not yet using Connect@AOM, and especially for new members, whom you might want to direct to this document.

In this regard, I would like to highlight the following points for all ambassadors of this community:

• All 12 ambassadors have been given moderator rights in Connect@AOM, so please read in the attached document what this means for you.
• I would particularly like to draw your attention to the metrics that AOM uses to monitor the progress of communities, as these will be decisive for our further development and our chances of eventually becoming an Interest Group. The key criteria are:
• number of active members (log-ins, posts, replies),
• volume/number of new conversations/posts per month,
• engagement rate: average number of replies or likes per post,
• member satisfaction (via a brief survey 3–6 months post-launch).
• There are now effectively no obstacles for all of us to start contributing content to this community. Each of us should therefore think, within the area where we have taken on a coordinating role (calls, editorials, grants, support for young scholars/PhDs, Teaching & Learning, etc.), about how to post relevant news on a regular basis. My suggestion would be that we aim for at least one new post per month from each area (we agreed on these areas and their coordinators before the community was established, and I also listed them in the first post a few days ago). In this way, with relatively little effort from each individual, we could reach, for example, about eight new posts per month, which in my view would already be a very good start. With this, ambassadors will provide the initial momentum, and as our membership grows, I believe that other members will also start posting more regularly. I therefore kindly ask each of you to make a simple plan of what you could post in, for instance, the next two months. Thank you for helping me with this.

(2) Attracting new members to our group

The second important point of this message is attracting new members to our group. The attached document explains how you can use Connect@AOM to invite existing AOM members. However, this is not the only way we can make others aware of our group:

• Each of us can post an invitation to join this community in the Divisions and Interest Groups (DIGs) to which we belong (each of us is a member of at least two DIGs). In this way, we should try to get the message out to at least the largest DIGs. Since there are already 20 of us in the group, I believe this will not be too difficult, and it would be good if such messages to the largest DIGs came from the more established members of our group.
• On the Connect@AOM platform, one of the functionalities is also the events calendar. By adding an event to the calendar, information about our activities will not only reach our own members, but the events calendar will also be visible to all AOM members.
• A particular challenge is attracting colleagues who are currently not AOM members. Here, we have little choice but to reach out to them through other channels:
• Chad and I have already discussed his help with setting up a directory of potential new members in the field of sport management.
• It would make sense to develop an email list of non-AOM colleagues whom we know are working in this field and let them know about the main events by email.
• I would also kindly ask you, within your possibilities, to spread the word about our community on the social media you use (most likely LinkedIn in particular).

Thank you for your kind support with this project.

Best regards,
Tomaž

------------------------------
Tomaz Cater
Full Professor
University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business
+386 1 5892 521
------------------------------