Kids in the Capital is a growing and active community with contributors from all over Ottawa sharing their experiences with their children and we're constantly thinking about ways to create more opportunities for regular interaction. To that end, Lara and I are working to introduce several new elements of community that we think will foster an even greater sense of involvement in and around Ottawa. Our first step in doing this may seem like a small one on the surface, but once you see the activity that's already taking place, you soon realize that it's a terrific opportunity to share with other parents on a daily basis!

We'd like to invite everyone to join us in our brand-new Facebook group! This is an area we've set up as a "closed" group. What that means is that you have to request to join and you can only see posts if you're a member. The advantage of this setup is that it gives us a safe place to talk about challenges we're experiencing with our children/families, get support and sometimes really helpful hints for handling the situations we find ourselves in as parents.

Anyone in the group can post to the group and share information or concerns they're having. Lara and I will also post a question each day for everyone to participate in if they want. (Feel free to suggest some questions in the comments!) Sometimes we'll ask fun questions. Sometimes silly. Sometimes we'll ask people about themselves. And occasionally we're going to try to highlight some of the businesses in the Kids in the Capital community and give the opportunity for them to share what they do.

To avoid spamming our members, we have established some guidelines that I shared in a post yesterday:

"We will be having a "question of the day" each day to promote discussion and we'll plan to solicit information about businesses periodically as part of that. Outside of those regular posts, we'd ask that people refrain from self promotion since this group has the potential to grow fairly large and we don't want people to feel spammed. We'd like everyone to respect the purpose of this group, which is to provide tips and support. But that can occasionally lend itself to sharing business info, so when it's part of the natural flow of conversation, we would have no problem with it."

That's the scoop on this new group! Please stay tuned next week when we announce another community-building aspect that will give everyone a chance to give back.

Will you join our group? And do you have any suggestions for our "Question of the Day"?