Connecting a community

May 22, 2012. A Tuesday. Do you remember what you were doing that day?

Tandi Glenn Smith does. It was that day she created the What’s Happening in Trussville Facebook group, a group that has blossomed to more than 26,000 members and still, four years after its inception, serves as a group where you can, yes, find out what’s happening in Trussville, but also a little more.

“You can still find out about community events, but you can also post lost-and-found pets, garage sales, ask for recommendations for businesses like plumbers or electricians; businesses can post about their services; people can praise others for excellent service, for buying them coffee at Starbucks and other things,” Smith said.

Through her work as the owner of a social media marketing company from 2008 to 2011, Smith — a fifth-generation Trussville resident — was always trying to come up with new and fun ways to connect on Facebook, she said. 

“One day, after reminiscing with someone in the grocery store about growing up in Trussville, I decided it would be cool to create a group where we could all share our memories on Facebook,” Smith said. 

“I called it Trussville, Alabama — The Good Ol’ Days. What’s Happening in Trussville is actually a spinoff of that group. I decided to create it when people started asking questions related to present-day Trussville. My original thought was that it would be kind of like a calendar of community events. However, it has grown into so much more.”

The first year was wonderful, Smith said. The group was still relatively small, and friendliness was the order of the day.

The second year?

“The second year was horrible,” she said. “There were some serious growing pains as we grew and anonymity set in. There was a lot of drama.”

By year three, rules were set, and Smith and the group’s two other administrators — all moms with full-time jobs — were quick to remove anyone who wanted to cause drama.

“As we are starting our fourth year — knock on wood — I think we have finally got our groove and things are running very well,” Smith said.

In fact, Smith said she thinks the group’s popularity skyrocketed because of its positivity.

“I think it is so popular because we keep it positive,” she said. “We do not allow negative comments about businesses or for members to attack each other, and we try to keep the drama to a minimum.”

Those who are members of the group might have noticed a certain mythical animal making an occasional appearance.

“Occasionally a post will get out of hand,” Smith said. “Many times the post starts out fine and has very good replies. But then it evolves into mean or hateful comments. When we don’t want to delete the post, but want the comments to stop, we would post a photo of a unicorn with ‘This post is closed. Have a nice day.’”

Why a unicorn?

“We chose the unicorn because my husband always teases me about living in ‘TandiLand,’ this wonderful, happy, positive little world where everything is unicorns and butterflies,” Smith said. “And that is what I wanted What’s Happening in Trussville to be. Also, we figured it would be harder to be mad at a unicorn. We were wrong. People hate the unicorn.”

But people still love the group — and it has served its purpose of helping members of the community find useful information in a positive and friendly environment. 

“I would guess that hundreds of pets have been reunited because of members of the group,” Smith said. “A wedding ring was reunited with its owner, iPads, phones, credit cards and keys have been found and returned, and people thank others for good deeds.”

The group even helped locate a girl who had run away.

“All the family knew was that she had gotten into an 18-wheeler headed to Jackson, Mississippi,” Smith said. “The post was seen by someone in the group who knew someone who worked as a truck dispatcher in Jackson, Mississippi. They were able to track the trucker down and eventually found the girl in Texas.”

Smith said she believes the group can’t get much larger than it is now. 

“I keep thinking we will reach a saturation point,” she said. 

After creating more than 250 groups and pages on Facebook, she feels like her time creating groups has come to an end unless a great idea for a group strikes her.

In its fourth year, she said she hopes the group she created will continue to be driven by its original mission.

“I hope it will continue to be a positive and helpful resource for the community,” Smith said.