The world has gone online. So has PFLAG Portland. Confidential, nonjudgmental, and hosted by trusted PFLAG Portland leaders, our online Support Circles offer peer-to-peer emotional and educational support to LGBTQ folks, families, friends, and allies navigating their own or a loved one’s coming out process – wherever you are, whenever you need support.
Whether you choose to participate by phone or by video+audio on your computer or mobile device, our online meetings will have the same safe, comforting sense of community and peer support as at our regular meetings.
Dates, Times, Audience
Our online Support Circles are offered every other month in odd-numbered months. To join a meeting, you’ll need to sign up by following the registration link posted in each meeting announcement in our email newsletters, on our Facebook page, and on our website. Our circles are for all, whether you’re on the East Side, West Side, downtown, or from out of town.
Meeting Tool
You will need to download the Zoom Meetings app to participate. You can do this ahead of time, by visiting the app store for your digital device, or when you join the meeting. The Zoom app works on computers, cellphones, and tablets.
Joining a PFLAG Connects Support Circle
Our PFLAG Connects online circles function a little differently than our in-person support circles. To keep our online meetings safe, private, and flowing smoothly, we require you to preregister and we don’t allow late arrivals. For more on our safety protocols, read About Security and Privacy below.
Here’s how to join a Circle:
Follow the registration link in our email newsletters, on our Facebook page, or on our website. Note: Always use the link provided in each Circle’s event announcement. It’s unique to that Circle.
Fill out and submit the e-registration form. If you’re under 18, a parent or guardian must attend with you. Tip: Include your pronouns in the Last Name box. Example: Chelsea Circler (them, they)
We’ll send you an email with the meeting join link and optional dial-in instructions.
Save this email! It contains your ticket to the Circle.
We’ll send you a reminder 30 minutes before the meeting…just in case your dog eats your ticket.
Join on-time. Better yet, join early. Ten minutes before Circle start time, the Waiting Room will open. At the scheduled start time, the host will begin admitting participants to the meeting room. Ten minutes after the Circle’s starting time, the host will close the doors and no latecomers will be admitted.
If you have any questions, send us an email at info@pflagpdx.org.
About Security and Privacy
We value confidentiality and safety in our Support Circles. It requires a bit more work to do this online, so we employ a registration process. Our online meetings development team is confident that we’ve designed in an appropriately high level of security to keep our Circles confidential. And we’ll evaluate and adopt new security features as they become available. Here’s what we do:
- we do not share your registration information with anyone.
- we forbid direct Circle entry. The Host controls who enters the meeting room.
- we distribute Circle join credentials separately from registration links.
- we password-protect all Circles.
- we close the Circle to further admissions shortly after its scheduled start.
- we disable screen sharing by participants.
- we do not record Circles in any way.
- we carefully select our Circles Hosts and Co-Hosts from amongst PFLAG Portland leaders experienced in Support Circle facilitation.
- we isolate or remove disruptive participants from the circle and prevent their registering for future circles.
We require of participants:
- that they be over 18 or that they attend with a parent or guardian
- that they hold confidential all that is said or seen within a Circle
- that they not record Circles in any way
- that they join Circles in a private space or with technological means of ensuring privacy
Support Circle Community Agreements
Here are some things we’ve found that get the most out of your online experience.
We’re all here to support each other.
We respect the confidentiality of the Circle. PFLAG does not record the meeting in any form, divulge the identity of participants, or share anything from it with others. We require that you do the same.
We are allies. We are patient and kind. We support – we don’t judge, confront, or interrogate.
We respect others’ gender identity. We don’t assume pronouns. We state ours and ask others’.
We share thoughtfully. We create space for others to share.
We listen carefully, respecting the experience of others.
We speak from our own experience. We share our own stories, not someone else’s.
Be a Support Circles Superstar
Online meetings are more fun and effective when you use your best online meeting skills.
Remember that meeting online is a very different experience from meeting in-person. It’s fun, but it also takes a lot of concentration. Take breaks if you need to and recognize when others might be tiring.
Use a device with a large screen – a computer or tablet. You can’t see everyone at the same time on a cellphone.
Use headphones and a good microphone. Better yet, find a private place.
Keep your video on unless you’re taking a break. 60% of conversation is visual.
Keep your microphone muted except to speak. If you’re on a computer, use the spacebar to temporarily unmute yourself.
Join early and test your audio and video while you’re waiting. You can join 10 minutes before the meeting begins.
Do use 1:1 chat (in-meeting text messaging) to talk with the Host or Co-Host, or to propose questions to share with the circle.
Don’t use chat to hold side conversations, or to distract the circle from a speaker.
Do use 1:1 chat for quick asides between participants if it will help someone without disturbing the flow of conversation.