The community meeting

What it is

One meeting a week, every week. It is the only thing we ask people to try to keep, because everything else grows out of the conversations that happen in it.

Each week has a chosen topic. The topic gives the meeting a spine, but it is not a lecture and nobody is expected to have prepared.

How an hour runs

• A short introduction to the week's topic, by whoever proposed it.
• Open discussion on that topic. Questions at any level are fine.
• Member updates — what people learned, are building, or are stuck on.
• Anything the community needs to decide together.

The moderator changes every week

Someone different guides the discussion each time. This is deliberate. A meeting with a permanent host becomes that person's meeting, and everyone else becomes an audience. Rotating it keeps the room shared, and it gives people practice at running a conversation.

You are not expected to volunteer in your first weeks, and nobody is put on the spot.

Guest speakers

When we can arrange it, we invite someone in — a developer, a researcher, a student further along than us, or someone working in industry. They join the discussion rather than presenting at it. If you know somebody worth inviting, say so.

Member updates are the point

The half of the meeting where members talk about their own week is the half that matters most. It is how people find out who is working on what, and it is how project teams end up forming. What you share can be small.

• Something you learned
• Something you are building
• Something you discovered and thought was interesting
• A problem you cannot solve
• A project you want honest feedback on

If you cannot come

Say so in the channel, and read what gets posted afterwards. Missing a meeting is not a problem. Disappearing without a word for a month is what makes a community hard to run.