Host Guide#

Welcome to the Host Guide, a place for call hosts to get help, info, advice and best practices for conducting engaging and effective meetings.

Check the Suggested Meeting Script section if you want a TL;DR for quick tips to follow for running a great meeting, and peruse the other sections for basic info and additional context.

⏰ Basic Meeting Event Info#

You can check the Jupyter Community Meetings calendar for the exact time of each meeting in your time zone.

Each meeting should have a collaborative public agenda document (for example on HackMD). The agenda link should be included in the event’s description in the shared Google Calendar.

🎯 Meeting Purpose/Goals#

Meetings are a way to connect members of our community. All participants should feel welcome and be heard. In line with that:

Meetings should be…

  • Positive and friendly

  • Welcoming and open to people from diverse backgrounds

  • Newcomers in particular should be welcomed and encouraged to chime in, discuss, participate, or to simply observe if that is their preference.

💬 Topics#

Each meeting should have a list of topics that are generally discussed. Contributors can propose topics before or during the meeting.

(If using this document as a template, replace this section with a list of topics that are discussed at your meeting.)

💪 Host Responsibilities#

The host should facilitate the flow of a meeting. That means:

  • Soliciting topics for the agenda:

    • Share the agenda document in the chat multiple times. On Zoom, for example, new participants do not see previous chat messages.

  • Going through the agenda:

    • Do time checks/pause + move on to hit all items when there are time concerns

  • Guiding discussion:

    • Read chats aloud for participants + the recording

  • Maintaining order / Making sure everyone has a chance to speak:

    • Interject when someone has their hand raised

  • Mention/link to the Jupyter Code of Conduct and how everyone is bound to it (including the host)

Partner with another contributor (a meeting facilitator) to do the following:

  • Log in as the “Project Jupyter” host account so you can manage the meeting, by removing spammers, muting, recording, and more. Request access from the Jupyter Security Team.

  • Record the meeting, if that is intended. The host starts and stops the recording. These are posted to YouTube.

  • Remove unwelcome recording bots:

    • Per the Jupyter community page, participants should not record meetings on their own. The host should ask participants that look like AI recording bots:

      • To identify themselves and state whether they’re recording

      • If they get no response from the account, the host should assume it’s recording, and remove it from the meeting.

✏ Suggested Meeting Script and Checklist#

⏳ Prior to meeting start#

  • If you can, log in to Zoom with the Project Jupyter account (request access by emailing security@ipython.org). This is necessary in order to record and manage meeting participants. Alternatively, provided that someone who has host privileges logs onto the call, they can grant host privileges in real time at the start of the meeting.

  • Make sure you have a stable internet connection, a good quality microphone, and a quiet environment.

  • Check and share the [meeting agenda](insert agenda)

    • The agenda is a collaboratively created document made by the participants. Ensure a section for today’s meeting is created, with today’s date and a table for participants to record their names (which can be copied/pasted from lower entries). The agenda will also be used as meeting minutes.

🎙 Start the Meeting!#

Hello and welcome to our [full date] Jupyter [TOPIC_HERE] call. I’m [host name] and I’ll be your host today. This is a place to for all contributors to connect with each other and the community about [TOPIC_HERE] topics. A special highlight and welcome to all first time > participants! We want all newcomers to feel welcome, we invite you to join in on discussions, introduce yourself, or add items to the agenda.

Please keep in mind that this call will be recorded and posted to YouTube for the community to view. This call is a part of the Jupyter community; we follow the Jupyter Code of Conduct, which you can read about at jupyter.org/conduct[Meeting host insert link in the meeting minutes template]

If you have a topic you’d like to discuss, please add it to the agenda. (Share agenda link in the chat)

Prepare to start the recording:

Before we start the recording, does anyone have anything they’d like to say off the record? (Say «We will now begin recording/The recording has ended» before starting/stopping recording :)

🎺 Closing message#

Thank you to everyone for joining! I’m happy to have you all as a part of the Jupyter community. If you have any feedback, please direct it at [platform/link - could be Discourse, SSC rep email, Subproject email, Team Compass]. We’d love to hear what you think about the call or how to improve future meetings. Our next call will be [day, month]. Check out the Jupyter community calendarto see what other types of meetings are happening in between.

The following message is recommended for Community Calls or similar events that engage with the broader contributor community:

If you have any interest in sharing in future [title] calls, please do! It doesn’t have to be a big share, a polished share, or a technical share, just show off what you do with Jupyter that excites you. Submit topics here [platform/link]. If you’re interested in hosting a [title] call, feel free to reach out. It would be great to get different people interacting with the community.

After the recording ends:

If you have anything you would like to add off the record, please feel free to discuss that now.

🎉 After the Meeting#

Congratulations 🚀 on a finished meeting. Pat yourself on the back. Contributions like yours help to make the Jupyter community better!

A few post-meeting items for either the host or meeting-facilitator to complete:

  • Finalize meeting minutes: Go back to the notes and make any needed additions, corrections and formatting needed in order to make the notes easy to understand by someone who did not participate in the meeting.

  • Publish the minutes: Convert document to markdown and publish it to the relevant location [insert name] [(link to minutes location)].

🌅 The Jupyter community depends on volunteers like you, so again we would like to thank you for helping Jupyter bring open source tools for interactive computing to the world.