Setting up Zoom social groups protocol

This page describes protocol, or, how to do things with QueerCare. You should check how to read protocol well if you're new to QueerCare.

This page is specific to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be updated rapidly.

This is a protocol for setting up online social groups to allow people to maintain some level of social contact while self-isolating. It is divided into two sections: one on how to gather information for participants for the general scheme, and one to form small groups of participants from that information who will actually be socialising together.

How to gather information on potential participants

You should collect the following information on participants, via a Google form or similar survey:

• Name (first and initial)
• Pronouns
• Names of anyone they would like to avoid (this is so we can avoid matching people up who have some history together)
• Interests (it may help to have a selection fixed options plus a write-in box, so as to ease administrative load on you)
• Days of the week they would like for this to be on, and whether they would prefer afternoon or evening (this should allow for participants to select multiple options)
• Contact details (possibly limiting this to one form of contact, such as e-mail)

How to form a social group

1. Go through the list of prospective participants, grouping by interests and preferred times
   • If you have the ability, it might make sense to write a small computer script to process the information, rather than processing it by hand. If you do this, make sure to keep track of everywhere personal data ends up; this will need to be deleted promptly when the socials are over.
2. Identify groups of 10 people, none of whom are trying to avoid one another, who have at least one shared interest and time slot in common.
3. Find a facilitator for the group who is free at that time and has capacity for running the group.
4. Have the facilitator contact the members of the group individually with the following form message:

   Hi, this is [name] from [organisation], contacting you about a possible Zoom social group. We would meet at [time] to talk about [topic]. Would you be interested in joining?

5. Depending on the responses:
   • Assuming more than five people respond "yes", you have successfully formed a group! Now your facilitator must take responsibility for running the group according to running a social Zoom call protocol.
   • If fewer than five people respond "yes":
     1. You should attempt to find others in the list who meet the criteria (no conflicts with members, interested in that topic and free at that time) and contact them with that form.
     2. Continue contacting people until either you have at least five people or are sure there is not enough interest.
     3. If there is not enough interest to form a group, you should let those who did say "yes" know that the group isn't happening.