LOW PROFILE headed to Bath last week to meet with some different groups in Bath to get a sense of the city and the people that make it up. The face to face visits with members of different communities proved really useful in understanding the sheer diversity of people living in Bath. The first of the meetings was with Lisa Speigel, founder of Bath Mums.Bath Mums is an online platform for people in Bath to share their knowledge and recommendations for all things children related. The site has grown to have over 5,000 registered members looking for everything from school open days to classifieds for cots and sharing ideas and experiences in the forums and is used by Dads, Uncles, Aunts, Grandparents, childminders and even more.

Lisa set up Bath Mums 4 years ago as a new Bath resident with her 2 year old boy. She took him along to everything she could find, groups, nurseries, libraries, children’s centres until she started to build a comprehensive listing of Bath and what it has to offer children. Lisa has seen the website grow and become a full time job for her and see’s her role as a facilitator, “people didn’t realise they needed Bath Mums until they had Bath Mums.” Now the users of the website have created their own groups to meet up and enjoy workshops, sports or just to relax and talk.

It was great to find out more about the democracy of groups and how Lisa felt it should be managed to be as generous as possible. In the forums, referred to on the website as Mums Chat, everyones voice is equal. There is no reply count, no moderators and most importantly no hierarchy. Lisa is committed to ensuring Bath Mums remains open and inclusive for everyone. It was a pleasure to meet her and really interesting to find out how she had grown a solution to her own problem into a vast network that aids over 4,500 registered users and 15,000 readers a month.

Don’t forget, if there is a group of people in Bath you want to let us know about or you wish existed then follow this link and suggest them now!