Room Supporter Meeting Note: December 1, 2021

Room Support Team Meeting Notes

November 30, 2021

Attendees: @brightWindow2311 @Fristo @PuzichkinCat @cheerfulIceCream @azuladragon34 @theriverissinging @emotionalTalker2260 @Moonlemon48 @Rumplestealskin

For today's meeting, I wanted to talk about some disrespect you may have felt as a community leader. Have you felt disrespected in a group support setting?

The majority of participants felt they were respected in their position as a room supporter by the community members. Two points were made regarding concerns of disrespect within group support rooms.

• I felt disrespected in the room when participants were disrespectful because I reminded them about the guidelines.

  • Paws’ Tips

    • Sometimes our tone or intentions don’t come through in messages we send. Although we may use words like please and thank you, a participant may interpret our words in a way that we didn’t intend. It is okay to use emojis to convey our intentions. However, be mindful not to overuse emojis.

    • Sometimes, a polite, gentle reminder to the room can be effective. For example, you may say, “Let’s be mindful of talking about others who aren’t present in the room. We wouldn’t want others talking about us when we aren’t present either.”

    • There are times when a participant unintentionally oversteps a guideline when they feel they have not been heard or are feeling emotional. Remember to use your active listening skills to try to direct the participant’s comments to meet the room’s guidelines.

    • If the participant continues to be disrespectful, you may request a mod to enter the room to help de-escalate the situation.

• In a Sharing Circle session, the room supporter hosting the session mentioned being forced out of a session because someone else wanted to host. The host mentioned this is not a regular occurrence for them.

• RS mentioned being called to the room to resolve conflicts.

  • Active conflict resolution needs to be de-escalated by a moderator. If you are approached by a participant or community leader to resolve an active conflict, kindly urge them to use the Emergency Moderators form.

  • For non-emergency requests, the host can complete the Room Support Request form. Instances where the request form would be helpful is if a room becomes busy and the host would like extra support or if a discussion topic may be difficult and the host would like extra support, for example. Please remember to check the Room Supporter Request dashboard HERE and, if you are available to assist, you are welcome to join the host to offer extra support to participants.

  • Suggestions offered for improvement are:

    • additional support and education for community mods about their abilities/tools to de-escalate a situation

    • which forms to use for the support they may need depending on the situation in the group support room.

If you wish to leave a sub community, please notify your Community Mentor Leader (if any) or your Support Team Leader (if any). If your CML or STL is unavailable, please contact Paws for further assistance.

A Special Message from Cat: The Group Support Team proudly introduces the Writer’s Guild initiative. If you would like to write exciting new discussions for the 7 Cups community, please complete this form to express your interest in joining the program.

Hosting Open Sessions and Scripted Sessions

There are three main discussion types here at 7 Cups; Sharing Circle, Open Chat Sessions, and Scripted Sessions. Today we discussed Open Sessions and Scripted Sessions.

• Paws’ Tips for Scripted Sessions

  • Feel free to mix up the script or even skip questions. You don’t have to ask every question and you are not limited to asking questions in sequence.

  • If you ask a question from the script that gets a lot of responses, you can ask questions and keep the conversation flowing by asking more about those responses. For example, if you are hosting a discussion session about divorce and the participants mention loneliness, it’s okay to ask about those feelings and ask the room participants if they relate to those feelings.

  • The goal of a scripted discussion is to engage participants and give them the opportunity to be heard. Try to avoid question, answer, question answer, which can be perceived as robotic. Remember to use your active listening skills when hosting.

  • Sample welcome for a new participant joining later in the scripted chat: “Welcome X. We’re having a discussion on (name your topic). Our current question is (repeat the question you last asked).”

• Paws’ Tips for Open Sessions

  • Open discussions can be anything at all. Use your creativity when hosting an open session. That can include playing a game, having a session filled with icebreakers, or having a theme for your session. The possibilities are endless, so long as the chat follows the guidelines for group support, like keeping the room safe and supportive, for example.

  • Sample welcome Sample welcome for a new participant joining later in the open chat: “Welcome X. We’ve been talking about/playing a game about (the subject or game you’ve been talking about). Would you like to join us?”

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