Facilitator Guide

This document describes the responsibilities for the person or people assigned to the facilitator role for an open source story, as outlined in the recording section of the new-story issue template.

Onboarding

As a facilitator for Open Source Stories, you will be added to the pool of available facilitators for storytelling scheduling.

Account setup

Currently, we use Calendly for scheduling new stories. To be added to the Open Source Stories organization, you will need to accept the invitation sent to you. If you already have a Calendly account, you will need to create a new account (unfortunately) as Calendly does not support joining multiple organizations.

Setting your availability

You may connect your calendar(s) and set the times when you’re available to facilitate stories through Calendly. You are encouraged to balance your availability with your other commitments; please be realistic!

Recording setup

You will need access to a microphone and webcam. Please use headphones as that helps with audio clarity. If at all possible, we recommend that you connect to the internet using a wired connection to minimize glitches in the recording.

By default, recording is done using Google Meet. If you would like to use another recording method, you are welcome to do so and are encouraged to capture facilitator and storyteller audio channels separately.

While you will be recording video, the video will never be published. There’s no need to worry about the visual aspect of the recording.

Facilitation process

Storytelling sessions should be a fun conversation with the storyteller, giving them the opportunity to tell their story in their own words. Your role is to guide that conversation and to ask thoughtful questions, but keep in mind that the storyteller should be doing most of the talking.

Facilitating a story can be broken down into the following steps:

  1. confirm the session
  2. review storyteller information
  3. draft potential questions for the session
  4. start the storytelling session
  5. perform pre-flight checks
  6. record the session
  7. perform post-flight checks
  8. upload the recording (if necessary)

This information as well as additional resources can be found in the storytelling repository.

Confirm the session

When a session has been scheduled with you, make sure that you have no unforeseen conflicts. Life happens and schedules change. Communicate as early as possible with your storyteller if you need to reschedule or to cancel a session.

Review storyteller information

Familiarize yourself with the information that storyteller has provided during the scheduling process. This can be found in the calendar invitation. You may want to create a notes document beforehand for easy reference.

Draft potential questions for the session

It is helpful to have a few questions prepared in advance to kick off the session or in case the conversation lulls. You can gather prompts or ideas from the story-questions repository. Questions are generally organized into opening questions, main content questions, and closing questions.

Start the storytelling session

Please respect the storyteller’s time and be prompt! Confirm that you are listed as a co-host of the meeting and join the session using the link in the calendar invitation.

Perform pre-flight checks

Before starting the recording, confirm:

  • the pronunciation of their name
  • that they are okay with the session being recorded
  • any topics they wish to avoid
  • that all of their questions have been answered

Record the session

This is the fun bit! Hit that record button and kick off the session with the following information:

  1. your name
  2. your pronouns
  3. the date
  4. (optional) your location
  5. that you’re recording the session for Open Source Stories

Then, introduce your storyteller and ask them to give a brief introduction to themself. Dive straight into things, referencing back to your drafted questions if needed.

Conclude the session by thanking them for sharing their story. Stop the recording.

Perform post-flight checks

Once recording has finished, do the following wrap-up tasks with the storyteller:

  • check in to see how they felt about it
  • let them know that they’ll have the option of reviewing the transcript before publication
  • set the expectation that turnaround time is ~2 weeks
  • ask whether they have any final questions

Make sure to thank them again!

Upload the recording (if necessary)

If you elected to use a different recording method, upload the file to the folder that Open Source Stories shared with you ahead of time.

Tracking progress

Please keep track of your tasks in the GitHub issue. Once you have finished your tasks, assign the issue back to the person listed as the coordinator.