WELCOME TO THE

CIRCLE WAY

Steps to starting your own Confidence Society™ 

Phase 1 - Identify the Members

• Connect with people in your community, school, or online with those headed to the same school. 
• Ask them if they would like to meet regularly to work through this workbook and/or discuss other books or subjects. 
• Register your group at www.TheConfidenceSociety.com/group

Phase 2 - Plan for First Gathering

• Decide amongst yourselves how often you want to meet, when, and how much you want to read in between meetings.
• Each meeting there will be a Host, Guardian, and Scribe. These roles will rotate every meeting to encourage people to try out new positions, practice skills, and share power.

Host

Organizes a place to meet, prepares the space, and sets the stage and conversation for the meeting. There are discussion questions to get each meeting going. Use these to get the conversation going. At every meeting, the Host can open with a poem, silence, or a sound. Something to set the tone.

Guardian

Takes care of the group and has a signal to pause: a bell or gesture. It is their job to maintain a healthy dynamic amongst the group. If conflicts arise, they pause the group and ask everyone to take a breath before continuing. They may also redirect the conversation if trying to resolve the conflict will not serve the group. If one individual is talking a lot, they may also ring the bell and ask them to give others a chance to speak. 

Scribe

Their job is to document highlights, aha moments, and discoveries so the group can reflect later. This can be in any form the scribe prefers, writing, graphics, or notes.

For this first meeting you will be the host.

• Ask someone else to be the Guardian.
• You can take a volunteer during the first meeting or appoint someone ahead of time to be the Scribe. 

Phase 3 - The First Circle

• The host tells the story of how they came to bring the group into being. 
• Everyone introduces themselves. 
• Come up with agreements for the group. Here are some agreements to get started: 

• Take ideas from the group, have the scribe write them down after they have been agreed upon. 
• Discuss the questions found at the back of the workbook or by clicking this link:

• The guardian can keep track of the time and beginning the closing so the circle ends on time.
• End of the meeting
• Assign roles for the next meeting and
• Go around the group and check-out with one of the questions below: 

“What are you taking away with you?” 

“What’s your next step?” 

“Use one word to describe how you’re feeling right now.”