Quick-Start Guide for Jumping into the Community

Welcome to the neighborhood! We’re so glad you’re here. Below you’ll find a “quick-start guide” with links to help you jump in and get to know the community and our members.

Discussions

This is our community water cooler - a place for casual conversation where we exchange ideas, jokes, wonder out loud, ask questions, laugh, and inspire one another. Feel free to share a thought, a “like”… or anything else. Outsiders can see the titles, but only members can read what we write in discussions.

These are the current discussion topics, so you know where to head. Feel free to message our community manager Frances Kraft or any Weave staff person to suggest a new topic.

• Introductions: We all love stories and meeting new people. Stop in to share your story or to be fascinated by what other members are bringing into our shared space.
  
  
• Ask and Offer Marketplace: Interested in sharing a skill you’ve mastered or do you need someone else to lend you their expertise? This discussion is a place where we exchange information, skills, questions, challenges, resources, and more.
  
  
• Community Updates: Come here to learn and discuss the latest news about our community, hosted by the Weave team.
  
  
• Discussion of the Week: Every week, we offer a question or thought-provoking idea that we can chew over together. Watch the community think together and join in as you feel the urge.
  
  
• Weaver News: A space for you to share stories, updates, and events (past or upcoming) about the weaving happening in your community. Photos and videos are encouraged!
  
  
• Weave Been Thinking: Whatever is on our minds, from trivial to serious, is fair game in this discussion (provided we stay within our community agreements). Come here to be inspired, challenged or provoked…

Circles

We hope every member will join a Circle of six or seven other members to get to know people and explore what weaving means in our lives. Circles meet every other week for four sessions on a platform called Circles (a more intimate video chat environment than Zoom.) Members can learn to be Circles guides after their first Circle and then they will be the ones keeping each 75-minute session on track, and introducing readings, videos and images to spice our conversations.

After the First Circle ends, members can choose to “go deeper” and explore topics like Leadership or Weaving Across Differences, or join a Circle of folks with similar interests, like education or homelessness. Each Circle runs over four sessions, and then members decide if they want to continue. Join a Circles group.

Events

Visit our community calendar and join an upcoming event or share an event you are holding that has to do with weaving! We have member-only events, outside events posted by members, and Weave Community public events that you can share on social or with friends not in our community.

Why don’t you attend one of our recurring events?

• New Members Welcome: This welcome hour happens every few weeks. Come meet folks and find out more about the community and Weave. https://community.weavers.org/calendar
  
  
• Our Weekly Community Hour: On Wednesdays at 7:00pm Eastern Time Weave members on the hub gather via online video to share space with each other, learn together, and discover what’s at the heart of weaving. Sometimes we discuss a set topic, other times we just let the conversation flow.Get the link and join us.

The Member Directory and Map

Meet others over something you share by visiting our member directory. You can spot nearby members on a map, search for others with similar interests or experiences, and reach out in a private message to say hello. Interested in gathering those who live nearby to start a local group in your area? - begin with some private messages to folks and contact Community Manager Frances Kraft for assistance.

Groups

We offer Local Groups and Topic Groups to allow members to gather by interest and location. Each Group has its own community space connect, share resources, create events, and more.

Blogs

This is where Weavers share stories and explore ideas in more depth than in our discussions forum. Find a thought-provoking story? Post it and explain what intrigues you. Want to test an idea or essay before sending it into the world? Share it and get feedback from Weave staff. Blogs are public to the world.

Resources

The Resources collection is curated for Weavers, by Weavers, and it has one focus: How do we show up for others and put relationships first in all that we do. Like Wikipedia, it’s only as strong and wise as we make it. It’s meant to grow as we grow. It is starting with a few topics proposed by Weavers like you.

• Explore and share a resource

How do I …?

Looking for tips to navigate the website? Check out our “How do I …” directory for step-by-step instructions on how to interact with key parts of the site.

Anything else?

Contact our Community Manager Frances Kraft at weavehelp@aspeninstitute.org.

A bit about Frances

Traveler. Lifelong learner. Mom. Equally at home on a farm or big-city streets. Always ready for the next adventure.
I look for opportunities to slow down and listen to stories in circle, in small groups, and one-on-one. I am constantly amazed at the transformation and growth in myself and others when we listen to understand other perspectives and experiences. Reach out to me anytime!

- Frances