One-Time vs. Series

Introduction

Closely related to whether you are building for connection or community is looking at whether you should plan for a one-time event or a series of events to bring people together. This could be dictated by the goal you have for the group you want to bring together: If you want to build community, you have to do it over time; or it could be dictated by the literal amount of time you have: We have one week between now and the election, and we want to connect people across political lines as we watch the election results. Together we will look at what’s possible for one time gatherings and series of gatherings, and we will consider their limits, too.

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Video transcript

When I think about one time gatherings, I consider that there are a few distinct possibilities in this approach: In a one time gathering, you can build connections, you can offer skill-building or training, or you can begin to build trust. You might also use a one time gathering as a launching off point to a larger series: instead of asking a potential new partner to join in all of your regular meetings, instead you can name your intentions and invite them to a brief meet and greet, saying: Hey, I’d love to be able to explore the possibility of our organizations collaborating- I see overlap in X. Would you be up for getting people from our orgs together for a happy hour? That way we can get to know one another and see where there might be synergy.

We find that the best thing you can do is name for the group what your intention is and what is possible together. Perhaps you want to bring together people from multiple different faith traditions in your neighborhood. You can start with a one-off meal together, and explain why in the invitation: We believe that there is so much possibility for the work we can do to better our neighborhoods if we work side by side. We’re inviting you to a meal where we can get to know one another and begin to explore together what each of us are passionate about and how we can work collaboratively beyond our first meeting. There’s something powerful here, too: this launching off point doesn’t force us to land in a particular place, it’s intentionally open ended, allowing the people who come together to design what’s next for them.

There are times, though, where it makes the most sense to start with a series of gatherings from the get-go. We turn to this approach for two reasons: when we are digging into a complex topic or issue, especially one that impacts people differently based on their identities, or when we are looking to build real community with one another. For building community, it might be sufficient to set up a monthly meal together for the stakeholders in the work you’re trying to do: As we seek to increase funding for mental health support in our town, we want to have a monthly meal together to give us the chance to just connect as people, and to be/stay in relationships throughout this important work.

If you’re tackling a complex topic or issue, you might invite people to a bounded series to have a discussion that arcs to greater depth over time, but that has a clear objective and end date. Especially when addressing an issue that brings people together across identity lines, we find it’s helpful to have a minimum of five suppers: three of which bring everyone together in what we call a bridging gathering, and two of which invite people to gather specifically with those in their own identity groups, which we would call an affinity supper. We’ll dive deeper into affinity gatherings in the next module.

Case Study

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is home of the Scarboro 85: a group of 85 students who, in 1955, were the first to desegregate their public school in the south. The story of this group of students has been largely silenced: as not even residents across Oak Ridge are familiar with this history. There is a coalition of local residents who are working on a monument for the Scarboro 85, and decided to host a series of gatherings about the history of racism in Oak Ridge.

The desire to dig into such a painful history necessitated that this group design for a series of gatherings. In the fall of 2023, the first series launched: 4 dinners together for residents of Oak Ridge across racial lines. Together, they considered: How were you raised to think about race? What other stories might be silenced in Oak Ridge right now?

This group left their series in deeper community with one another as well, and is planning for a second iteration of the series of meals they engaged in, where they can widen the circle and invite others in their town to the same kind of storytelling and personal examination.