Join the Online News Association and Gather for a meetup for community engagement professionals working in small to mid-sized newsrooms. Meet up with others working in engaged journalism, to discuss how to work in relationship with communities — not just about or for them — how to get buy-in for community engagement in a smaller organization, how to level up in or start a community engagement career, and more. Expect to leave with new ideas about your role, inspiration for a collaboration or partnership, new professional opportunities and new professional peers, mentors or colleagues.
This event will be participatory — not a webinar — so expect to have the chance to contribute to the conversation throughout the 75 minutes we’re together. The convening will not only be conversational but an exercise in engagement: Participants will be invited to share the questions that are top of mind for them and gather in small groups to discuss. The meetup will be hosted by Ashley Alvarado (she/her), Director of Community Engagement at Southern California Public Radio and ONA Board Member.
Where will the meetup take place?
This event will be hosted on Zoom. For this particular event, you’ll have the best experience if you join via the Zoom app on a desktop or laptop computer so that you can see more participants in the gallery view.
You can also join by the mobile app and take advantage of the breakout rooms, although the number of participants you can see at one time may be more limited.
Can I dial in by phone?
We don’t recommend joining by phone dial-in, if possible, so that you can see all the breakout room options and contribute to the conversation more easily. If you’re unfamiliar with Zoom, we’ll give a quick introduction in the beginning of the call and have staff on hand to troubleshoot, and we also suggest checking out the Zoom support site for more help.
Do I have to be a member of ONA or Gather to attend this meetup?
No, there’s no membership requirement. Please feel free to share with others in your network, too.
Will this event be recorded?
We’ll follow Chatham House Rules for the event: in other words, attendees can use what they learn but will be asked to not share the person who originated it or their affiliation. Therefore, we will not record this meetup to protect attendees’ privacy.
I can’t make this event; how can I connect with the community?
We encourage you to mark your calendar for ONA21, happening virtually June 22-25, which will have a number of sessions for community engagement professionals. You can also join Democratizing Journalism: Insights from Chicago’s City Bureau on Tuesday, May 11, the first of Current’s Local That Works webinars, which Gather is co-organizing. Finally, if you’re not already a member of the Gather community, you can join now for resources, access to members-only content and access to the Slack workgroup and newsletter.
Can I suggest a discussion topic for the meetup?
Please do! You’ll have the opportunity to let us know what questions you’d like to discuss at registration.