Learning circles began at Chicago Public Library in 2015, and have since spread to more than 40 library systems around the world. Given the success of last years gathering in Kansas City, we’ve decided to host another event!
This year, we’ll be hosted by Boston Public Library (BPL) at their iconic Central Library for a three day event that brings together about 50 learning circle practitioners and P2PU community members from across North America.
We are grateful to the Institute of Museum and Library Services for their support in making this event possible.
You can’t run a learning circle without setting goals, right? Together, our meeting aims to achieve the following:
All activities - except for the site visits and group dinners - will convene at the Commonwealth Salon, on the ground floor of Boston Public Library’s Central Branch, located at 700 Boylston Street.
We’ll be meeting in the Commonwealth Salon, located on the first floor of the Central Library at 700 Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts.
It's a bit of a splurge to stay close to the library in Boston, but there are plenty of options for less than $250/night along the red line in Cambridge and green line towards Brookline. Airbnb also has some good options around town.
We recommend that you plan to stay at least Wednesday and Thursday evenings to attend the gathering. Site visits will begin Wednesday morning and the facilitator training workshop will begin around 1pm on Wednesday, so you may need to arrive on Tuesday if you want to participate in these events.
The P2PU team will be in town through Saturday, so anyone who is still around Friday evening is welcome to join us for a debrief over beers!
Boston Logan airport (BOS) is located very close to the city, with bus, train, and rideshare connections to the surrounding areas. The Library is located on the Green Line of Boston’s metro system, with easy connections to surrounding areas including Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline.
We welcome attendance from learning circle practitioners, friends of P2PU, and anybody who is committed to peer, community-based, equitable, and open learning. Our only expectation is that those who attend will actively contribute their experience and have an interest in the development of learning circles and P2PU.
This gathering costs $150 per person for us to put on, and your free participation has been covered by somebody else. If you or your organization are in a position to offset the costs of the next registrant, you can do so when you register.
Although we don’t have any funds on hand to support your travel (we wish we did), we’ve worked with a number of participants to help advocate for funding from their organizations. We’re happy to provide more details about the event if it helps you find the money to come.
We plan to record as much as we can and share what we learned with everyone else through photos, short videos, and a written summary. However, there won’t be hour long recorded lectures so that you can “learn online” at home. That’s not really our style.
We’re open to those who are truly interested in our collective work.
In advance of the Gathering, we will be hosting a half-day learning circle facilitator training workshop on September 18th, 2019 (see agenda above). We welcome new people who are new to learning circles to participate in the training in advance of attending the Gathering.
However, if you have never been involved in learning circles before, and are not able to join the early training workshop, we’d like to know more about you and your interests before you register. Send Nico a message and let us know why you’re interested in coming (nico@p2pu.org).
No, not at all! There is no expectation for those who join the training workshop to attend the rest of the Gathering. However, we hope that you’ll join our next one!
When you’re ready, please go ahead and register for the training workshop only as you wish.
