Over the past year I've spent a great deal of time and effort to building a local Infinity community with my good friend Tim. In this endeavor we included the help of the "local" Warcor Chris (Reddragon76 on the forums). We started simple and obeyed a few key elements that has helped our community to continue to grow. Looking to start a community where you are at? Lets look at what helped get the Gateway Regional Infinity Players group started.
First, it is important to know that the game consists of game-wide community and a local community. The larger community usually involves company forums, large inter-state competitions, and other forums where players from across the game can interact and discuss the game. Local communities are where players interact in person and usually involve a finite set of players. Local communities are where most games are played and where most practical player interaction takes place.
Advertise. When first building a local group the first key is advertising. You can't have a local group without people. So make sure that the first event run is well known. If possible, run it at a local store and talk to the owner/manager about promoting the group. Post about the event in online forums, social media, and ask other community organizers if they can think of other ways to promote the group. When planning this first event, given people enough time. Don't plan it for a week out and expect people to show. Aim for a month out and keep promoting the event the entire time prior to the kickoff.
Be Open. People are different. There will be people you don't like. There will be people you disagree with. There are people who enjoy parts of the hobby you do not and vice-versa. Unless individuals are creating a toxic environment and pushing players away from the community, be open-minded and accepting of everyone. Lead by example and show everyone that the community and the game can be fun regardless of personal feelings of the opponent.
Be Available. I can't stress this enough. Make certain everyone in the community knows how to reach you when you aren't meeting for events. This could be e-mail, Facebook, phone, whatever. Also, this means that when you schedule an event make certain that you show up and are on time. If you aren't reliable than your players won't be either.
Keep things Interesting for EVERYONE. Listen to the players and run events that they'd like. If you have competitive players run some tournaments. New players? Run some fun scenarios that are also learning experiences for parts of the rules that aren't typically explored in every game. TAG Rumbles, Hacker Brawls, Metal Gear Solid sneaking scenarios, etc. Have established players that like the RPG elements? Run a campaign league! You get the idea. If you don't know what the local players want simply ask them. They aren't going to rebel or bite off fingers.
Let Others Help and Be Involved. Eventually other players will want to be more involved with the group. Let them. There will always be a need for coordination but as the community grows realize that you can't run everything. Demos, Leagues, Tournaments, scenarios, special events, hobby classes, etc. can be very burdensome if one tries to hold it close and keep control of everything. As players become more experienced let them run some tournaments or scenarios. Let them run demos for new players (always a great idea as a fresh perspective can be refreshing to someone looking at the game). Don't be authoritarian. Let others grow and learn the ropes of event organizing. Who knows? You may not be around forever and the last thing anyone wants is for the community to fall apart because one person stopped playing or left.
When standing up a local group it is important to eventually plug the local group into the wider community. This helps them stay on top of game developments, gives them additional resources to research confusing rules, and also learn about larger events outside of the local area. This also helps take some of that burden off of the organizer so they can concentrate on running quality events.
A few larger game communities for Infinity players that aspiring organizers should be aware of:
Official Infinity Forums
Datasphere
WGC Infinity
Mayacast: An Infinity Podcast
A few example of local burgeoning local groups:
Gateway Region Infinity Players
Indianapolis Infinity
Chicagoland Infinity
Illinois Infinity
Central Iowa Infinity
Milwaukee Region Infinity
Infinity Atlanta