Sociocracy 3.0 Community – Frequently Asked Questions

GENERAL QUESTIONS

  • Why do you limit places for the Practitioner and Pro plans?
  • Will content generated in the community be available to the public? 
  • Why do you limit places for the Practitioner and Pro plans? 
  • Why not make all aspects of the community free of charge?
  • What’s the Supporter Version? 

ABOUT YOUR SUBSCRIPTION

  • How do I update my billing address? 
  • How can I cancel my subscription? 
  • How do I get a refund? 

ABOUT THE PRACTITIONER PLAN

  • I already attended a course (or several). What is the added value of this plan for me? 
  • What are the Community Meet-ups about? 
  • What are the Learning Sessions about? 
  • What can I expect from the Q&A sessions? 
  • What kind of level of engagement are you expecting from the members? 

ABOUT THE PRO PLAN

  • What is “pay it forward”? 
  • What can I expect from the PRO Community Meet-ups?
  • What can I expect from the supervision and facilitated intervision sessions? 
  • Who is this plan for? 
  • What are the criteria for selection? 

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Why do you limit places for the Practitioner and Pro plans?

Regular online events are a significant part of both the Practitioner and Pro Lounges. Members choose which events to attend based on their interest and availability. However, in the early days, more people are inclined to attend each event and we want to avoid overwhelming calls with too many people and diluting the experience attendees have. All videos are recorded and we expect that over time, as less people attend each event, we can increase the number of members without compromising quality.

Additionally, getting orientated in the community takes time and sometimes requires some support. We want to be sure we have the time and capacity to give people the help they require.

Will content generated in the community be available to the public? 

The content in the Lobby (included in the Basic Membership) is public. All activity in rooms and groups is private and confidential! 

To join a group or a room, you need to  agree to our Terms and Conditions. These include our Member Guidelines and Terms of Confidentiality for Group Members. We’d like to ensure a confidential environment where you and others can talk in confidence about yourself, your organization and where appropriate, your clients. For this reason, content generated in specific groups or rooms, is only accessible to members of that group or room. 

In the interests of doing all we can to help people learn about S3, we repurpose some content into generic resources that can be shared with the wider world, so far as our time allows.

We expressly ask members of the Practitioner and the PRO lounge to post any questions and articles that are not sensitive due to the fact they include or refer to confidential information that people have shared, in the Lobby. We do the same. This is so that important insights and conversations about S3 remain in the public domain.

Why not make all aspects of the community free of charge? 

Establishing and running this community is more than a full time occupation. We’d like to be able to do this in a way that is sustainable for us, considering the time and energy this project requires. Fees for subscription-based plans go toward remunerating us for our costs and time in developing, hosting and administrating the Practitioner and PRO Lounge.

What’s the Supporter Version? 

We want to balance affordability for you with sustainability for us. Therefore we’ve suggested prices that we believe represent high value to you, and that will enable us to sustain this project in the long-term as the community grows. 

For now we are financing a large part of this initiative ourselves. So if you’d like to support us on our journey developing the community and you’d enjoy contributing more, you can choose the Supporter Version. The only difference between this and the regular price is simply that you pay more for it. 

On the other hand, as always, we welcome you to get in touch if the price is beyond your means. We wish that cost is no obstacle to you being able to join us and we’d welcome the opportunity to explore with you how to make it possible that you can join.


ABOUT YOUR SUBSCRIPTION

How do I update my billing address? 

You can update your personal information and your billing address at any time by visiting our Customer Hub or by following the link in the email you received with the invoice for your payment. 

How can I cancel my subscription? 

You can cancel your subscription at any time by visiting our Customer Hub or by following the link in the email you received with the invoice for your payment.

Enter the email address you used for the payment and you’ll receive a link by email that will lead you to a page with information about your current subscription. There you’ll see the option to cancel your subscription. 

When you cancel your subscription, you will be removed from the corresponding group in Mighty Network. Please be mindful that when you cancel the PRO subscription, you’ll be removed from both the Practitioner Lounge and the PRO Lounge.

How do I get a refund? 

According to our Terms and Conditions, if you purchase an annual subscription and decide to cancel, you can request a refund for any full months remaining, minus 99€ to account for the anticipated price of the e-course we’ve included in this offer.

In the case of monthly subscriptions, we will refund you for the current month, if you write to us and request a refund within 24 hours of making payment. 

To request a refund, please write to us at community@sociocracy30.org.


ABOUT THE PRACTITIONER PLAN

I already attended a course (or several). What is the added value for me? 

A lot! Besides a wide array of opportunities to deepen your understanding through attending or listening to the regular events, you can also complete optional assignments, and exchange with other members about their experience and learning as well. The community platform provides an effective way for bringing together and synergizing distributed intelligence for the benefit of us all. 

What are the Community Meet-ups about? 

These are sessions dedicated to community building and peer-to-peer learning and exchange. They include practical sessions, and utilize formats like Open Space, World Cafe, Wise Crowds and Troika Consulting to facilitate conversations and meet a diversity of learning needs. We meet once a month, online! Timings will vary to increase the likelihood of you being able to attend some of the sessions. 

What are the Learning Sessions about? 

In the Practitioner’s Lounge, we facilitate one online Learning Session each month. The topics we cover relate with our monthly theme and we explore specific S3 patterns, sets of patterns and other S3 related topics. Sessions are recorded and available for members to view afterward. 

Please be aware THIS IS NOT A TRAINING PROGRAM! The content we post and the events we run in this group are designed to compliment, not replace the knowledge, understanding and skills you will gain through studying the Practical Guide and other resources on the Sociocracy 3.0 website, applying S3 patterns in practice, and participating in courses and workshops we deliver.

What can I expect from the Q&A sessions? 

These are twice per month sessions part of the Practitioner Plan and they are dedicated to answering questions you have. Members submit questions in advance and during the call, we invite attendees to share their own experiences and answer questions raised. We fill in any gaps with answers based on our understanding and experience with S3.

What kind of level of engagement are you expecting from the members? 

Depending on your availability and interest, you can choose the level of engagement that is right for you. Of course, you will get a lot of value from attending the online events, engage in the asynchronous conversations and completing the assignments we prepare for you every month. Nevertheless, not everyone has the time available for all this and some of the sessions may not be all for you. You can still benefit from all the valuable content from this group if you: 

  • Watch or listen to the recordings of the monthly events. We edit the sessions to remove the unnecessary information, for you to get maximum value for your time. Timestamps and description of topics we cover will be useful for you to get an idea of the content of the recording
  • Occasionally attend live events. We schedule events at different times and on different days of the week, especially so that people from all over the world are able to attend at least some of the time. It’s a great way to stay connected and get to know other practitioners. 
  • Ask your questions. For the Q&A sessions we collect questions from Practitioners in advance in a document. If your question is clear enough, even if you’re not there to present your question, we will take time to answer it. Plus, you can write your questions & ask for input or advice on the platform. 
  • Interact with articles and questions. A lot of the value is in individual reflection as well. Reading through the posts and articles, reading what others answer and thinking about your own answer to a question is a great way to learn! 


ABOUT THE PRO PLAN

What is “pay it forward”? 

Sociocracy 3.0 was first conceived of as a way to provide freely available learning resources to people in organizations who were wishing to bring greater agility and resilience to their organizations. We’ve come a long way since then but over that time we’ve stayed true to our intention to share generously with the world about what we discover and learn. Being part of our PRO community provides the opportunity for you to also contribute toward this intention and we strongly encourage you to interact with other members in the community, share generously about what you learn, and take the opportunity from time to time to design and run sessions and get feedback from your peers.

Your active participation is expected, if you want to be part of this group!

At least half of being successful with S3 relies on your being able to help others learn about it and understand how to get the best out of it too. This requires an ongoing commitment to learning and improving, and your practice in developing your own skills in this regard, directly enables others to benefit from this too.

What can I expect from the PRO Community Meet-ups?

These are sessions dedicated to community building and personal development that can enrich our ability to help others discover and learn about S3. We meet once a month, online! Timings vary to increase the likelihood of you being able to attend some of the sessions. 

What can I expect from the supervision and facilitated intervision sessions? 

Building on our approach with the Q&A sessions in the Practitioner Lounge, you can think of these sessions as a combination of Q&A and professional supervision and facilitated intervision sessions where we examine and reflect on cases that PRO members bring.

Who is this plan for? 

This plan is for anyone who is working professionally in some way, supporting others to learn about and use S3 and who is committed to giving as well as receiving in the community.

If you want to join this group, it’s important that you intend to actively participate and contribute, build relations with your peers and stay up-to-date with developments.

You will have ideally already participated in some formal training around S3 but there are exceptions to every rule, so please let us know if you’ve not, but believe it’s valuable that you join.

As interest in S3 grows and more and more people take it upon themselves to help others learn, there is a growing need to ensure coherence in learning and that professionals are keeping up-to-date and learning from one another as they go. The PRO community is a key part of our strategy to respond to this driver.

What are the criteria for selection? 

The PRO plan is by application only. You will have ideally already participated in some formal training around S3 but there are exceptions to every rule, so please let us know if you have not but believe it’s valuable that you join.  You will also have experience using S3 patterns and be working with others (or intending to) to help them learn about and apply S3.