Important note: if you are hosting an official Soapbox event, you'll receive a more detailed version of this with a video and a checklist.
Welcome! This guide is about how Soapbox Project facilitates in-person gatherings, generally known as vibrary pop-ups. Our core values are courage and joy. Our three outcomes are learning, connection, and action.
If you are facilitating an official Soapbox event, please follow these guidelines. If you’re simply seeking to infuse some of our concepts into events you’re hosting, think of these as puzzle pieces for your own puzzle—move them around, try different combinations, and repeat until you’re happy!
Anatomy of an event
It's important that as a regenerative community organizer, you're clear on what your event actually is. That's why at Soapbox, we've broken down our view on the anatomy of an event. This is the same whether it's an in person or a virtual event.
We have the welcome, the body of the event, and then the momentum. The welcome and the momentum will probably apply to your events too. The body may change, but generally, the learning-connection-action format applies to most climate or social justice gatherings.
A Soapbox Action Hour is composed of:
- Welcome
- Connection
- Learning
- Action
- Momentum
Here's how we think about infusing courage, joy, and purpose into each of these pieces!
Welcome
- Print an attendance sheet so you know who's coming
- Prepare with name tags, sharpies, and maybe stickers. Everyone must have a name tag.
- Get a cohesive visual element for all event helpers (e.g. paper chain necklaces, party hats, some sort of uniform that shows who is helping and who is just an event-goer)
- Have something that signals to people’s brain that they’re at a gathering and can relax. We usually use a non-alcoholic bubbly beverage, like sparkling water
- Have 2 welcomers
- Welcomer 1 greets people at the entrance with a smile and some chit chat and helps them “arrive”—this could include asking if they want to put their stuff down, handing them a lil drink, or just giving them a moment to pause and transition into the event
- Welcomer 2 is at the check-in table or station and gets people set up with their name tags and shares an overview of the event purpose/agenda. Check-in station usually has name tags, sharpies, and stickers. Stickers are generally optional but fun
- You might have conversation prompts to help with the “buffer” time of waiting for people to arrive. The goal is for the buffer to feel like “real” event time, not “filler” time. Reward the people who got there on time!
- If people arrive early, give them something to do to help. People love to help! You can put them in charge of holding the vibes, setting up a station, etc. Think of 2-3 tasks that early-comers can do so they’re not just sitting around.
Connection, learning, and action
- These outcomes should already be confirmed 2-4 weeks before your event is live. These outcomes are in order; we like to lead with connection.
- Official Soapbox events usually serve a meal with conversation prompts for the connection piece, transition to a community Q&A with a local environmental justice speaker for the learning portion, and set up a few options for people to take action afterwards. We try to always have one of the actions being writing letters to city council, regardless of the subject. (This is not lobbying; it's establishing civic engagement relationships.)
- Helpers can flit around as necessary; volunteer role are below.
- Have someone in charge of taking photos/videos
- Here is a blurb to introduce Soapbox. You could use this or make your own depending on the context of the event.
This event is (co/)hosted by Soapbox Project, a nonprofit organization that creates joyful community spaces to heal the climate crisis through connection, learning, and action. At Soapbox, we believe that climate anxiety and loneliness are two of the BIGGEST barriers to taking action on climate change, so our goal is to help you make friends in a space where you belong, learn something new, and do something to help your community before you leave.
Momentum
- Print a QR code if you’re going to offer access to a WhatsApp/community chat post-event so people can join it
- If so, have a prompt for them to post in the group before they leave for the evening
- This will vary city by city, so if you're hosting an official Soapbox event, make sure you’ve chatted with someone from Soapbox HQ about your WhatsApp/community group plan
- Announce any upcoming events
- Optional: ask guests to record video testimonials
- Invite guests to clean up if they’re lingering. People love to help!
Facilitation principles
These are Soapbox Project's facilitation principles! If you're running your own organization, it's important that you come up with your own definition and corresponding principles.
Your job as a facilitator is to be a courageous, charismatic channel. This means you:
- Hold the vibe. Model courage, joy, and curiosity wherever you can.
- Proactively check in on corner-sitters. If you see someone who looks lost/confused, check in on them! You can say "hey, how's it going?" and ask them if they need any help navigating the space. You can even float around and make sure people are expanding the circle if someone is sitting/standing/hovering on the outskirts.
- Be a channel not a dam. Our main principle of dealing with conflict in this space is to see how we can leverage it to make things better. Direct people’s energy instead of shutting it down. It’s a good idea to jot down some sample “spicy scenarios” that might come up before the event and what your response(s) might be.
- Use your best judgment. This is a high-trust environment, so you can use your discretion to deal with tough scenarios. For Soapbox events: we just ask that you share afterwards with Soapbox HQ what you did/said, so that we can decide if that should be standard practice going forward.
Common volunteer roles
- Locator - help secure a location
- Food wrangler - find a meal/snacks and help with food service as necessary
- Space steward / beautifier - Set up: decorations, photobooth, chairs, and food-related stuff. Clean up: Help with dishes and other clean-up activities making sure we restore the space to the way we found it
- Welcomers - You are basically a reverse-bouncer greeting people and welcoming them into this space so they KNOW it is for them!
- Vibeholders / moderators - Float around the event, proactively check in on people (especially if they look lost or confused), and contribute to folks having a good time! If conflict arises, you will help de-escalate (unlikely but great to talk about). Generally speaking, everyone should be a vibe holder but we want at least 1 person dedicated to holding the vibes.
- Paparazzi - Photos: Take pictures and upload them to a shared drive after each event, help with film cameras at photobooth if necessary, help us get the vibes of this space out into the world! Video: Take vertical mobile videos (IG Reel/TikTok) for social media
9 tips to make your event be in the world's top 80%
- Introduce yourself! And others! If you are hosting an event, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR INTROS! “Event” includes “business meeting”. It includes “cocktail party.” It includes “networking session.” It includes “standing around in a circle, and one person joins the circle, but they’re standing kind of awkwardly and you invite them in.”Nick Gray in his book The 2-Hour Cocktail Party goes up on another hill in the same mountain range to die: have name tags.
- Share clear instructions on how to access the venue. Have a contact number or ways to get in touch with the host especially if doors will be locked after a certain point.
- Give people time and space to put their stuff down. Especially if you're hosting an event after work. No one wants to lug their backpack/bicycle helmet around.
- Ask if everyone can see and hear 👁️👂🏾Precursor: if you’re hosting the type of event where people have to register, include an open-ended field that asks about any accessibility needs OR PREFERENCES. You’d be surprised at what you learn. It will probably make you a better facilitator for the audiences you serve. Good times to ask if everyone can see and hear: when you’re doing audience Q&A and someone asks a really good Q but they’re quiet as a mouse. Or when you’re making an announcement. Or if YOU can’t see people in your audience.
- Have places for people to sit! Specifically, try have enough chairs for EVERYONE to sit if they want to. Your event is not inclusive if you don’t have chairs.
- Give people a way to visually identify facilitators or other support people.
- Make your event purpose legible and deliver on the purpose. Tell people (either in the beginning of the event and/or in the event description and/or in pre-event emails) what the event actually is. What’s the structure? What’s happening? Are we going to learn stuff? Socialize? Dance till we drop? Mentally prepare people for what the event holds, especially if there’s a vulnerability component. AND THEN ACTUALLY DO WHAT YOU SAID YOU’D DO. It's good practice to reiterate your values and event purpose multiple times.
- Be conscious of auditory needs and overstimulation. Some people (most people I’d even say) can’t focus when there’s multiple auditory inputs. Music can be fun in the beginning or end of an event, or when there's "filler" time. But if you're facilitating conversations, cut it off. Also, it's a good idea to have earplugs at your event or prioritize venues that have sound dampening.
- If you are serving food, LABEL IT… The only other acceptable alternative I can think of is announcing what's in the food before everyone eats. Or having an early sign up where you collect dietary needs.
These tips don't even include moderation best practices; we'll get to those later in the vibrary trainings.
If you're hosting your own Soapbox event, you'll also receive a checklist of what you'll need to bring day-of, a video explaining some other tips, and a volunteer sign-up spreadsheet. You'll also get access to our event tools, marketing assets, and more!
