To encourage all DWeb Campers to connect more deeply with others and reflect on Camp activities/discussions throughout the weekend, we invite participants to be active facilitators for home groups, or small sharing circles with the same few people at the end of each day.
If we're successful, participants should:
- feel safe and free from harm, and know where support is available
- feel welcomed, listened to, and have space to share themselves
- feel included in conversations, content, and activity
- not feel dominated by other participants (including facilitators)
The role of a Weaver is to facilitate a Home Group.
A Home Group is a small sharing circle for a group of ~10 people to regularly meet at a time set aside each evening (Thurs 5:30pm, Fri 7pm, & Sat 7pm). Each group will explore a question, a discussion topic, or participate in an activity together, all of which will be provided.
Throughout the conference, we also encourage weavers to please keep their eyes open to other moments where gentle facilitation and community weaving might help.
In our mind, facilitation includes, but is not limited to:
- Holding space for small groups, where people feel included, safe, connected, listened to, and able to share themselves
- Structuring small group activity so everyone gets an opportunity to speak, with everyone else listening, without needing to "push" for a space
- A common pratice is to sit everyone in a circle, the facilitator offers a focus question, and then everyone takes turns around the circle speaking once and passing on to the next, while everyone listens, and when the round completes the facilitator starts another round with a new focus question
- Noticing when people are feeling avoidant, unsafe, insecure, etc and then asking them if they need any support or want someone to listen to them
- Not allowing any conversation to be dominated by louder voices
- If anyone takes up too much space, politely asking them to "pinch off" their current thread to let others participate in the space
- If a discussion happens that is limited to exclusive content (for example, a highly technical back-and-forth that excludes non-technical participants), politely re-directing the conversation back to more inclusive topics
If you're interested, please let us know via weavers@archive.org.
We'll follow up with you as we go.
To support our success in holding this event together, we'll be having a small "facilitator training" session at the beginning of the event, to help share good practices and bring us all together on the same page.