How to run the room. The session-by-session agenda is in Session Plans; printable handouts are in the facilitator kit.
Before each session
- [ ] Room set: small tables, screen visible from every seat, a clear wall for sticky notes
- [ ] Test the projector, Wi-Fi, and the demo chatbot account (the facilitator’s own account, never a participant’s)
- [ ] Print: sign-in sheet, the day’s handouts, feedback slips
- [ ] Food out before people arrive
- [ ] Know the accommodations people requested
- [ ] Have the local 311 website, open data portal, and council agenda page bookmarked
The first five minutes set the tone
Say these things out loud, every time:
- “Nothing here is being recorded or stored unless you choose to share it.”
- “There are no dumb questions. Most of us are figuring this out.”
- “We’re not here to sell you on AI or scare you off it. We’re here so you can decide for yourself.”
Voice and language
- Kitchen table, not conference room. “Chatbot,” not “large language model,” until someone asks.
- Physical analogies beat definitions: the phone keyboard, the overconfident intern, the pattern-matching guess.
- Never make someone feel behind. If a participant uses a term, check the room: “Has everyone heard that one?”
Hard moments, and what to do
Someone asks a specific legal, medical, or benefits question. Take it seriously, then redirect: “That’s exactly the kind of question where a chatbot can sound right and be wrong. Let’s write down the question, and I’ll help you find who can actually answer it.” Keep a short list of local tenant advocates, legal aid, and benefits navigators.
Someone shares that they’ve been scammed. Thank them. Don’t ask for details they don’t offer. Say it happens to careful people. After the session, offer the local fraud reporting line and their bank’s fraud number. Never make it a teaching example without their permission.
Someone is angry at the city, a landlord, or a specific person. Validate the frustration, then move it onto the Problem Brief: who has authority, what evidence exists. If the anger targets an individual private resident, gently steer: “We keep briefs about institutions and places, not individual neighbors.”
Someone wants to use the data to find out about a specific neighbor. Clear and kind: “That’s over a line we don’t cross. We look at patterns and institutions, never individual people.” Point to the Safety Doctrine.
The demo goes wrong or the Wi-Fi dies. Say so. “The tech just failed, which is its own lesson.” Every Learn session can run on paper: the sort cards, the phone-keyboard exercise, the scam examples.
Someone dominates the conversation. “Thanks, let’s hear from someone who hasn’t spoken yet.” Use small groups and sticky notes, which give quieter people a voice.
Political arguments start. Bring it back to the shared, concrete problem on the table. The program is nonpartisan; the problems (streetlights, scams, broken sidewalks) usually are too.
After each session
- Read the feedback slips the same day; change one thing for next time.
- Update the public problem log.
- The data steward files or shreds the sign-in sheet per the stewardship rules.
- Thank the connectors personally.
Growing new facilitators
From the first cohort, invite two or three people who asked good questions or helped others. Have them co-facilitate one table next cycle, then one section, then a whole session. Pay them the same as any facilitator.