Hi all, welcome to July’s community update.
Now that the football is over (😭), we head into one of the quieter times for the community—along with Christmas—when people tend to make the most of shorter work hours or better weather in their home countries by taking a holiday or heading home.
Generally, we find these times to be quieter in the community. However, that’s not to say we don’t still have a lot going on.
Since making the community admin-approval only, introducing stricter admission criteria, and securing some of the entry points, I’m pleased to announce that we have been spam-free for a couple of months. This makes the community a safer and more trusted space—and means less work for the admins too.
The book club (BCN Book Club) has chosen The Fury by Alex Michaelides as its book for July. Beach volleyball (BCN Meet-ups) is still going ahead despite the heat, albeit at a later time each weekend. Likewise, demand for football (BCN Play Sport) is always strong. If you’re interested in playing each week, you can sign up to the Spond group here, where matches are published first.
On that note, I wanted to say a huge thank you and all the best to Nijo, who is leaving Barcelona to pursue a wonderful opportunity. Nijo has been a big contributor to the community across both the book club and sports communities, and he will be missed.
We have our free monthly meet-up this Friday, back at D9 Aribau, with a free drink if you arrive before 8:30pm. You can sign up via Meetup or our new Luma platform. We would prefer to use Luma, as it does not cost us money and is more user-friendly, but Meetup’s reach is very strong. At the time of writing, we have 150+ people registered, so it should be a fun event.
We have also secured the Lemon Tree chiringuito for our September and October events. We think this space is more conducive to meeting new people and having conversations because it is outdoors. One of the most common complaints we receive is that people cannot hear each other in indoor venues once they get too noisy.
We are also going to organise a smaller guided tour of the MoCo Museum in August (TBC), with an exclusive rate of around €15 for BES community members. If you are interested, I will share the event in the main group and the meet-up group in the coming days.
I also wanted to take a moment to share a project Brata has been working on: BarnaPulse.com. It is a nice resource that gives you an overview of what is going on in Barcelona.
Bizcelona, the entrepreneur and freelancers community, has paused its bi-weekly coworking events at the excellent Eixample 46 until after August. Those looking to grow their professional network can sign up on the website. The ethos is “give before you take”, and we are looking to develop this further this year as we create a trusted network of professionals and skills to help people reach their goals of financial freedom.
Finally, our subreddit, r/bcnenglishspeakers, is now over 1,000 members 🥳. I wanted to create a space where people could ask questions, get the latest news, and not have to worry about overzealous mods.
That’s all for now, but if you have any thoughts or feedback on how we can make the communities better, you can drop an admin a message in the groups.
Cheers,
Owen
