Grassroots Politics and Game Nights: Hosting an Empathy Circle House Party

Speaker:  Zak Wear  (15 min) 

Empathy Circle House Party Guide  - this is the guide mentioned in the presentation

OTTER.AI Summary 

Zak Wear, a long-time political organizer and founder of Potluck Action, discussed the effectiveness of hosting Empathy Circle house parties. He emphasized that house parties are ideal for introducing friends and colleagues to Empathy Circles, which are engaging and useful. Zak outlined a six-step checklist for hosting: choosing a facilitator, setting a date, creating an itinerary, inviting guests personally, confirming attendance, and having fun. He also highlighted the importance of confirming RSVPs to minimize no-shows. For chapter organizations, house parties can lead to fundraisers, with strategies like crowd fundraisers and dedicated fundraisers. Zak encouraged sharing experiences to improve collective intelligence.

Transcript

https://otter.ai/u/gSgVpGcWXxHH_-8k7Ek_4j2PAA8?view=transcript

Action Items

• [ ] Send the basic printouts or worksheets to the group by Monday.

• [ ] Open the Google Doc with the house party guide.

• [ ] Email Zak about the experience of hosting house parties and what was learned.

Outline

Empathy Circle House Parties Introduction

• Edwin Rutsch introduces Zak Wear, highlighting his roles as a trainer and founder of Potluck Action and the Empathy Circle app.

• Zak Wear begins discussing the importance of hosting Empathy Circle house parties, emphasizing their effectiveness in grassroots political campaigns.

• Zak mentions his limited preparation time and apologizes for not being able to share his screen due to technical restrictions.

• He encourages participants to open the Google Doc for more detailed information and resources.

Benefits and Logistics of House Parties

• Zak explains that house parties are a fun and engaging way to introduce people to Empathy Circles, emphasizing the importance of personal invitations.

• He clarifies that house parties can be hosted in various locations, not just homes, and highlights the significance of inviting peers for a meaningful experience.

• Zak reassures hosts that they do not need to be perfect; hosting a house party with familiar peers will enhance the experience.

• He suggests that house parties are a strong foundation for forming chapter organizations and provides guidance on hosting multiple events.

Step-by-Step Guide to Hosting a House Party

• Zak outlines the basic steps for hosting a house party, including choosing a facilitator, setting a date, and creating an itinerary.

• He emphasizes the importance of personally inviting guests and confirming their attendance close to the event date.

• Zak addresses common concerns about confirmations, explaining that they help ensure attendance and are essential for organizing.

• He reassures hosts that confirmations are a polite and organized practice, even if they feel forced initially.

Basic Itinerary and Additional Tips

• Zak provides a basic itinerary for a house party, including welcoming guests, introducing the Empathy Circle process, and scheduling future events.

• He advises against serving a meal before the Empathy Circle to avoid distracting participants.

• Zak introduces the Empathy Circle game created by Bill Fuller, which can be included in the itinerary.

• He briefly touches on community organizing and the effectiveness of house parties in engaging with democracies.

Fundraising with Empathy Circle House Parties

• Zak discusses the role of house parties in community organizing, particularly in fundraising activities.

• He recommends hosting at least two Empathy Circle house parties before organizing a fundraiser.

• Zak explains two types of fundraisers: crowd fundraisers and dedicated fundraisers, providing details on each.

• He emphasizes the importance of small donations from new donors in generating buzz and potential partnerships for the causes supported.

Closing Remarks and Call to Action

• Zak encourages participants to check out the guide and share their experiences with him via email.

• He highlights the collective intelligence gained from hosting house parties and the importance of continuous improvement.

• Edwin Rutsch appreciates Zak's insights and emphasizes the potential for building an empathy movement through hosting house parties.

• Edwin encourages everyone to host a house party and contribute to the growth of the Empathy Movement.

Transcript

https://otter.ai/u/gSgVpGcWXxHH_-8k7Ek_4j2PAA8?view=transcript

Edwin Rutsch  

So your empathy circle facilitator, trainer, I just got your just in our last training, you became, became a trainer, and you're also the founder of potluck action, which is at potluck action.com and the empathy circle app. And you know, we've known each other for quite some time, I don't know, eight or 10 years or something so great to know you Zach and take it away.

Zak Wear

Thank you very much. Edwin, all right, so right now we're going to dive into details about hosting empathy circle house parties. So house parties are very near and dear to my heart. All right, because I professionally organized grassroots political campaigns for about 10 years and so at different states across the United States, I worked for candidates at local, state and federal levels, including Bell initiatives and so, and I named that because house parties are a very effective way of participating in our democracies, all right, so it's also a great way to invite friends, family, neighbors and colleagues to come play with an empathy circle. And so important for me to note, 

I'm a substitute speaker today, so I only had a couple of days to prepare, and it's all be writing, reading quite a bit from the house party guide that I just linked in the chat that showed up before my bio there. And so that said, the guide is made to be entertaining, so we'll probably do fine here. And one more disclaimer before I dive in. I also owe you a couple of basic printouts or worksheets, so you'll find those in the Google doc by Monday. Sorry. So with that, let's, let's, let's, let's go right on it. 

So alright, so, oh, I should actually go ahead and share the screen for this document. That would be a very nice thing to do. Oh no, but I am not allowed. I always forget this that my operating system doesn't allow me to share screen, all right. Well, I invite you all to go ahead and open the Google Doc. Apologies for that. I always forget my operating system zoom doesn't allow my operating system to share screen. I always read that. All right, so sorry, so let's go and check out the gut. So house parties again, they're great way to just invite friends, family, neighbors, to empathy circles. 

Why? Because empathy circles are fun, right? A lot of people seem to keep participating in empathy circles because they're fun and interesting, they're also useful, right? But they're fun and interesting, and so at the same time, most people will only try empathy circles if they're invited to one, right? This is a social activity, so practically speaking, right? In order for someone to try empathy circles, they need to be warmly invited by a friend, neighbor, colleague or family member, and from this point forward, I'll just use the word peers or guests right to describe those folks. 

So you don't need a house to host a house party. Okay? So, so great parties can be hosted in small apartments, cafes, restaurants, at work or at church. Personally, inviting your peers is the thing that makes a house party, as opposed to some other kind of events. Also consider that someone's first empathy circle is going to be more meaningful when they do it with their peers. And so if you're feeling worried about being a good host or doing everything right, uh, just, just consider that your party will be a much better experience overall than doing their first circles with strangers. Of course, it's perfectly fine to do your first circles of strangers. I did that, right? My first circle was with Edwin and and gang. 

Right? A lot of us did that in the community, but just know that if you host a house party, you're already ahead your your guests are already benefiting and will have a much better experience than otherwise possible. So, so Alright, so if your goal is to just host, you know, one party, you know a one time event where you just want to introduce the empathy circle, that's wonderful, right? But if you decide you want to do more and consider goals like forming a chapter organization, then a house party series is a very strong foundation for a healthy and effective chapter organization. And you'll see in the guide includes guidance on fundraisers as well as. Parties with political candidates, and that guidance is designed to support your operations and growth as a chapter in particular. All right, so moving on to the party checklist. Here. Steps are pretty simple. 

Choose who's going to facilitate your circles. You should have a facilitator for every three to five people attending. If you're the only facilitator, then just keep the party small, and that will maximize how much everyone can participate. Step two, set a date for the party, then decide on your itinerary. There are a number of example itineraries in the guide, and then make a list of who you're going to invite. All right. Again, this can be friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, and then personally call or text everyone on your list to invite them. Okay, so this is a very important step, um, and just think about this way, if you were planning Thanksgiving or some holiday like that at home, would you make a Facebook event and invite your friends that way?

 Probably not, right. So, same thing. This is a special occasion. It's a private party, and of course, no pressure or love lost if folks can't make it, whatever the situation, just warmly and personally invite all of your guests next a day or two before the event, make sure to personally call or text everyone who RSVP to confirm that they're coming. And this is the most important step now as an organizer since time immemorial. You know, folks like me will hear anxieties along those lines of like well, but Zach, it might feel forced to confirm everyone the day before. I'm afraid they won't show up if I do confirmation calls. Almost everyone, including myself, feels that way at first when doing confirmations formally. But after you host a first party, I'm sorry, after you host a few parties, completing this step will feel natural and normal, and confirmations are just about being polite and organized, that's it. 

People forget, right? They might even put your event in the calendar and they forget about the event. So checking in is also a good way to tell someone that you're excited to see them, which, by the way, like, I love that Ruth sent me one of those emails yesterday, which she just told me that she was excited to see me, and I loved that so much. It made me really happy. It really started my day off really well. 

So just just as a forwarding, if you don't do confirmations, okay, what's the consequences? What if I don't do confirmations, just don't be surprised if up to up to half of your RSVPs may flake. Half your RSVPs may flake or not show up if you don't do confirmations, and because this is a new activity for your peers, you can expect more flaking than other events that you may have hosted in the past. 

One more, one or two more quick things on this is, you know, over the years, I can't tell you the number of times when hosts like beat themselves up because only 80% of the RSVPs showed up, there's always room for improvement, but if 70% or more of your RSVPs show up on average, then you're doing a good job, and you should be proud of your activism. Okay? And Alright, and then it's step six. Have fun at the event, of course, invite interested guests to future events, and optionally my emails in that Google document, I would love to hear from you about how, how the house party, or multiple parties, if you do that, went for you, and what you learn will help me and all of us collectively, because we can keep maturing that collective intelligence. Alright, so basic itinerary. 

There's a lot of different things you can do with your itinerary, but this is just the basic one. You know, structured to be just a little over an hour. Welcome your guests, introduce the empathy circle process. Obviously, I'm not covering facilitating circles in this, in this presentation or the guide, right? But after you do the circle, you know you could do a little time of reflection. And a really effective thing to do is to pass around a scheduling poll to folks right then and there. 

Right? Um, you know, no pressure. You know, they could just, like, check off, like, yes, no, maybe to some particular dates coming up, because that is the best time to collect that information. You're going to save yourself a lot of energy. And you'll, you'll, more people will come if you do that. Alright, so say you want to add a meal to the situation. 

Okay, so food, go for it, but do it after the empathy circle, right? Because would you want to pound down a dinner and then do your first empathy circle? Probably not, right? So, and I get it, it's logistically easier to feed everyone first, but, but if you want to include, include a meal in particular, then just consider organizing the circle afterwards. Alright, we got the empathy circle game, which Bill fuller made this wonderful, simple and sweet little board game. 

I just linked to that board game and and that just fits nicely into the basic itinerary, you know, particularly, you know, maybe, maybe the itinerary may be a little longer playing the game, alright? So as time allows, here, I'm going to go ahead and touch on community organizing a bit. And if someone could read those actually, I got it real quick. So it's Jonathan's comment there, there's Google doc again, and oops, I I just DM that to Sally. Apologies. I should just ask someone else to do that. Alright, there we go. 

Okay. So, alright. So with community organizing, so house parties in general are one of the most effective activities in community organizing or engaging in the in in our democracies. And so if you want to start, I'm going to actually focus a bit on fundraising aspect here. And fundraising is you can definitely host, you know, one off fundraisers without becoming a chapter organization. But if you're starting to go in that direction, you're like, all right, I want to start experimenting or discussing forming a chapter organization with my peers.

 Then fundraisers are a really great activity for that so and why? You know, with an empathy circle, you can share really deep, insightful and inspiring conversations about causes that you're interested in, right? And so my my recommendation is to host at least two empathy circle house parties before your first fundraiser. And there are two types of fundraisers in the guide. There's the crowd fundraiser and there's the dedicated fundraiser. And so with a crowd fundraiser, basically you can print out kind of a bingo like card. 

You can invite your guests to think of causes that they're generally interested in. And, you know, they can be able to do little research, or, you know, kind of come up with a couple little stories about the causes they're interested in, and then bring and tell those stories and share that information at the empathy circles at the party. And while people are doing the circles, they can just write out, like, small, not obligatory, of course, you know, but like, small monetary pledges while doing the empathy circle. And so that's just a very simple way of everyone to, like, feel engaged, and to feel like they're being effective, and they truly are being effective, right? 

And so like, say, for example, one of your guests, she knows she wants to donate $20 total at the party, and maybe she pledges all $20 to one cause on your bingo card, or she splits up $5 between four different causes. Now you know that said, if you donate small amounts to more causes, that is a very good thing, but just to be perfectly fair, the downside is that now you're doing four different financial transactions instead of one. 

And I'm already hearing voices people telling me like, you know, I got time for that on date night. Zach, I got empathy circles to do here, you know. So, no sweat, no minutes. Thank you very much. You know. No sweat, no problem. Just do one donation then, you know. But if you're particularly cozy with your computer or cell phone, then consider doing as many tiny donations as you can, because if you do, you're kind of hacking the system in a very good and constructive way. 

Right? Guides meant to be entertaining, right? So not actually hacking anything. But when, when you do that, the the causes that you're donating to, they're going to notice that information, right? Getting a donation from a new donor is one of the most important events to the organization that you're donating to, right? And so by donating together as a Chapter, you are generating. Using buzz, right, and opening doors for for relationships and potential partnerships, right? 

And so you know that said, almost any charity, political campaign, religious organization, you name it out there, they would much rather have a $10 donation, right? Sorry, they'd much rather have $10 donations from 10 new donors than $100 donation from one donor. All right, I see on that sign. Thank you all very much for listening. Please come check out the guide, and please feel free to, you know, shoot me an email, tell me about your experiences or otherwise. You know, everyone's always welcome. So

Edwin Rutsch  

I think Zach and you're a long time political community organizer, and what you're saying here is that we can use all those processes and practices to build an empathy movement, and everyone here can host one of those house parties. So you've got 35 or 34 people. Each of these 34 people can host a house party to get the empathy movement keep building it. So I really appreciate all those insights.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai