We’ve been thinking of ways to help us all connect here in meaningful ways and have landed on the idea of running regular community calls (thanks @Ian_Barnard for the suggestion!)
click/tap for more background
Last year, we ran a community survey to learn more about what motivates us and what holds us back. Perhaps the most common barrier people reported facing was feeling a lack of confidence: wanting to run or repair at events but not knowing where to start, wanting to improve or expand events but not knowing how and so on.
We created this online discussion space to provide a space for everyone to build confidence through sharing experiences, learning from each other and being in touch before and between attending events. Live community calls seem like a good way to add an extra dimension to this space and cater to people who prefer speaking/listening to writing/reading.
These will be live video & text chats based right here on the forum where we’ll discuss topics related to community repair events (and possibly beyond). Just as a phone call is often much nicer and quicker than an email chain, the hope is that this will allow us all to have in-depth conversations about useful topics, properly welcome new members and get to know each other better.
How these calls will work
We’ll embed a video chat in a normal discussion that we’ll pin to the top of the list of discussions. We’ll be using Jitsi Meet, an open source video conferencing tool which should work in most browsers without needing plugins. We’ll also enable a floating (and optional) live chat sidebar (useful for anyone who experiences technical issues).
Proposed structure of each call:
- Opening round (a chance for everyone to introduce themselves & share anything they’d like to discuss)
- A chance to talk about any burning questions or a topic that someone’s brought on the day
- Discussion of the main topic for that call
- Roundup & close
Total duration: 1 hour
What do you think?
This is going to be a bit of an experiment, so we have a few questions for you:
- What kinds of topics would you like to cover in these calls?
- What days/times would generally work for you? (e.g. weekday or weekend? Any days in particular? Morning, afternoon or evening?)
- We’re thinking of running these once every two months to start with. What do you think?
Bonus question: we’re running a test call on Monday to make sure the technical setup works and to discuss the questions above. Can you join us then?
2019-06-17T17:30:00Z → 2019-06-17T18:30:00Z
(click on the times above to see them in different time zones)
at the bottom left of the forum) 
