Foreword
Before anything else is written, it should first be
acknowledged that no community is built by one person.
DFW Nerd Night is the
product of hundreds of people agreeing to care about a community. My first and
most important advice is to treat each person as you would yourself, so that
they feel permission to add their energy, ideas, and love to the community you
want to create. To do so is to transfer ownership of the community to all of
its members, and thus ensure that each member of the community is committed to
its success.
This community could not exist without the contributions of
many, many people, and each of them deserves thanks and consideration. DFW Nerd
Night would not exist in any recognizable form without the loving contributions
of my wife, Amy, and her suggestions for connecting with charities across DFW.
Additionally, were it not for Andrew Christopher Enriquez’s steadfast
dedication to the creation of an ideal community based on love and respect, I
would have lost the drive to build this group long ago.
To both of them, and to Nate, Heather, Emmanuel, Bryan,
Jeremy, my brother JJ, Brian, Shawn, Mark, Jody, Donny, Phillip, Cody, and each
you I’m forgetting, thank you for at least temporarily believing what I asked
you to believe – that if you treat
people as the best versions of themselves, you’ll be rewarded by their being
exactly that. The power of our community is in our inclusivity, and in our
willingness to see past our differences and appreciate the commonalities that
bind us.
Above all else, put
people first.
