How to create a virtual community during Coronavirus
Gather a women’s circle virtually with best practices from the Global Sisterhood team during the Coronavirus
At Global Sisterhood, we embrace circles of all kind all over the world. Coronavirus has pushed us to think more deeply about creating safe containers virtually since many women in our audience will not be able to gather with their sisters in-person.
At Global Sisterhood, our intention is that women have safe spaces to come together to heal, and for us, it’s no matter if it is in-person or virtual. If done correctly, virtual circles are incredibly potent, transformative, and rich with sisterhood. And, one could argue, with all this craziness and fear spreading, we need to circle more than ever!
Over the years, our in-person circles have been increasingly replaced with over-the-screen circles, partly because of ease and partly because of the demand of our global audience. We have practiced loads of techniques and are offering our best ones to you. These techniques will ensure a tightly held container, ease of participant experience, and transformative experiences.
Virtual Circles can be a tremendous value to an existing circle, perhaps if you want to do a check-in during the full-moon, use it as a supplement to your work, or do a monthly new moon circle online. During the Coronavirus outbreak we ask all of you to think wisely about whether or not you should host a circle in-person and make the best decision for your community.
Technology:
While there are plenty of video platforms one could use to experience an online circle, we like Zoom. We prefer this interface because women can dial-in with their mobile device or laptop, you can control who speaks, who gets to be shown on camera, you can record the presentation, and show your computer, slides or other learning material with ease. You can also have up to 100 people on a call at one time.
Invitation:
Depending on whether you are charging for your circle of not, there are many ways you can choose to invite people to your Virtual Circle. We recommend either selling tickets on Eventbrite or on your website or letting your circle know the appropriate event time and link (which you can find on Zoom). You will want to send an email once people register to let them know the meeting’s correct link (Zoom has plenty of tutorials so we will save that for you).
Planning for your Circle:
Like any circle, you will want to choose the theme or the conversation topic for the circle. Perhaps you will be holding a New Moon Circle so your theme will be aligned with the HerCIRCLE monthly theme, or perhaps you are making one up. Either way, you will need to think about the conversation topic and where you want to lead the women on the call. From there, you can decide if you would like to do a ritual, meditation, visualization or sharing which would likely be a healthy combination of all of them.
Outline:
Since we have done many of these circles, we put together our average call. For example, a circle that is one hour and fifteen-minutes looks like this:
[-0:05] 5 Min before the call: Login and set the vibe with a placeholder (see below) - show a slide or tell everyone to wait patiently, grab a tea and a journal. We always put up a beautiful slide that lets people know this and looks more professional; however, this is not necessary. You can always put on some music in the background while everyone waits.
[0:00-0:02] Start Time: We give an extra minute or so to make sure everyone is on and comfortable and that users aren’t having issues getting onto the call.
[0:02-0:12] 10 Minutes: Signature Heart Meditation or a guided meditation, grounding the energy and getting everyone ready for the circle
[0:12-0:17] 5 Minutes: Circle Rules, How to Share, Sacredness of Circle
[0:17-0:27] 5-10 Minutes: Theme Discussion, depending you can bring on one or two minutes to say what the theme means to them
[0:27-0:57] 25-40 Minutes: Ritual - Guiding the women through an exercise, often this is a combination of a Guided Visualization + Journal Reflections + Sharing
Sharing will likely take up a good portion of time, remind women to keep their shares brief if you have a good amount of women on the call, otherwise be realistic about how long each women can share. Don’t be afraid to use something like a bell to get them to wrap it up.
[0:57-1:07] 5-10 Minutes: Closing thoughts and reflections
[1:07-1:12] 5 Minutes: Closing Meditation
**Of course all of this is open to flow and ease.
Sharing:
Sharing in a Virtual environment can sometimes be nerve-wracking for people, or uncomfortable. If you know the women in your circle, you can ask them by name if they would be willing to share, letting them know that whatever they decide is ok. Like an in-person circle, if the facilitator is able to be authentic and vulnerable during the experience, it creates an open container for participants to be more willing to share.
How to get women to share virtually: There is a feature on Zoom called “Raise your hand” - we suggest all women who are wanting to share “raise their hand” - that way we can call on them. If they can’t figure it out they can type in the chatbox or raise their hand on camera, often you can scroll through and choose the correct people.
What to keep in Mind
We recommend familiarizing yourself with Zoom or the video platform you are using before your call. Learn how to show slides, call on people, mute participants and unmute them. All of these things are helpful and you don’t want to be overwhelmed learning it all on your first go-around.
We hope this is helpful! Please ask us more questions and we can add the answers to this write-up.
If you have experience leading virtually please post your tips below!
Love,
Shaina