Okay, so it's not literally in a box. Sorry to disappoint.

If you are here, you have already read the Start Here guide and you know what OHT is, what being a Fellow involves, and roughly what the next few months might look like. So we can skip all of that and get straight to the good stuff.

This is your step-by-step guide from idea to first event. Work through it at your own pace, skip the bits that do not apply yet, and come back to the rest when you need it.

And if you get stuck at any point: ask. The Community Manager and the other Fellows are genuinely there to help. There are no silly questions here.

Your kick-off checklist

✅ Step 1: Get set up on the tools

The Community Manager will get you started. Before your first event you will need:

• A public Slack channel for your community (where members gather)
• A private Slack channel for your core team (where you plan)
• Access to your Notion collaboration space
• A community logo and any brand assets you need

Who to ask: The Community Manager on Slack. They handle all of this and will usually be pretty quick!

✅ Step 2: Do a little listening before you plan anything

Before you book a venue or pick a theme, spend a bit of time getting curious about what is actually missing. The communities that land well are the ones that fill a real gap, not the ones that seemed like a good idea in a vacuum.

A handful of informal chats or a short survey is enough to start. You are looking for:

• Who is not being served well right now in this place, topic, or identity space?
• What spaces already exist, and what is still genuinely missing?
• What kind of gathering would make someone think "finally, this is for people like me"?