Virtual event facilitation checklist

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"The info is always timely, actionable, and never stale." - Aishwarya Borkar, Change.org
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"Making social change always felt so overwhelming until I started reading this newsletter." - Meghan Mehta, Google

Welcome! This guide is about how Soapbox Project facilitates virtual gatherings, generally known as Action Hours. Our core values are courage and joy. Our three outcomes are learning, connection, and action.

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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:

  1. Welcome
  2. Connection
  3. Learning
  4. Action
  5. Momentum

Here's how we think about infusing courage, joy, and purpose into each of these pieces!

Welcome

Connection, learning, and action

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

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.

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Your job as a facilitator is to be a courageous, charismatic channel. This means you:

  1. Hold the vibe. Model courage, joy, and curiosity wherever you can.

  2. Proactively check in on corner-sitters. For in person events, 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. For virtual events, the best way to do this is to leave time for quieter people. If volunteers are raising their hands to share an insight, wait an extra 10 seconds in case quieter people decide to speak up. When there is “awkward” silence, just wait it out. This is hard but very powerful.

  3. 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.
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  4. 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.

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Virtual facilitation checklist

Here's a link to a virtual event template you can duplicate and modify.

Welcome

Connection, learning, & action

Momentum

After the event: the afterparty‍

Here's the link to your own facilitation checklist!

Fight climate change in a way that works for you.

đź’Ś Thinking about sustainability can be overwhelming after a busy workday, so we're here to help. Join over 7,000 other busy people and subscribe to Changeletter, a bite-sized action plan that'll take you 3 minutes or less to read every week.
Headshot of Ash Borkar (a woman with glasses and a cardigan)
"The info is always timely, actionable, and never stale." - Aishwarya Borkar, Change.org
Headshot of Meghan Mehta speaking at Google with a microphone in her hand
"Making social change always felt so overwhelming until I started reading this newsletter." - Meghan Mehta, Google

We're ready when you are.

Get our free bite-sized climate action plans before you go!

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