Thank you for hosting a Community Circle! We’re so excited to hear more about the conversations that you host.
As host, you’ll act as a connector and a facilitator. Our goal is to provide you with enough structure to make you feel comfortable hosting and enough flexibility to give you control in how you lead your groups. We’ve divided the groups based on topic and what outcome they’d like to have: conversations, creating a resource or working on a project.
You will handle organization of the group, facilitation of healthy conversations and reporting back to ONA. Additionally you will:
- Ensure your small group connects in a way that works for them
- We’ll give you contact info and you will follow up
- You get to decide what works best for you
- Facilitate so that everyone in the group can participate and be heard (See facilitation tips)
- Help us understand who took part and what you’ve done
- Share resources and do some basic reporting back to us about what you’re doing and how people are participating (More on creating resources)
- Who, where they’re from, how often you’re connecting (More on reporting)
- We’ll also create a collaborative Google doc for each circle
Getting Connected
Each Community Circle can decide how best to keep in touch: email threads, Slack channels, periodic video calls and/or open documents are all good options.
Your group assignments and your Slack invite will both come to you by email. If you’d like to use Zoom but need an account to use, please contact adam@journalists.org.
Code of Conduct
Everyone signed ONA’s Code of Conduct when they applied to be a part of the initiative. We recommend that you remind people about the code when you get started, since some people may not remember that they signed it when applying.
Online News Association leadership and staff are committed to providing a vibrant learning environment, welcoming people from as many diverse backgrounds as possible. As a host, we expect you to also uphold these standards in your facilitation work.
If there are violations of this Code of Conduct, you can email conduct@journalists.org or your host contact, Jen Mizgata, at jennifer@journalists.org. We can address those issues.
