Conference meetup fund
The Meetup Fund is open to all News Futures signatories who want to cover the cost of peer-led gatherings at any conference related to News Futures’ values. The goal is to connect News Futures community members in real life. Through coffee meetups or a small group pottery class, we encourage you to meet up in ways that support you in building community! Please complete this form to request Meetup funds.
Who can host a News Futures Conference Meetup?
Any News Futures signatory. If you’re not a signatory yet, you can become one by signing the charter. You can host on your own or team up with other News Futures members who are attending the same conference.
What are some examples of News Futures Conference Meetups?
This Conference Meetup Fund is a new community offering, and we’re excited to see how you shape it. So far, we’ve hosted a coffee and pastries meetup for 20 signatories at the LION Summit in St. Louis and teamed up with ONA to share 25 copies of the Civic Media Magazine with conference attendees in New Orleans.
Other examples include hosting a small group dinner at a restaurant, doing a paid group activity together, paying for a speaker/facilitator for a group talk or conversation. We’re looking forward to reading your creative ideas!
What are the steps to organizing a News Futures Conference Meetup?
Get a sense of who and how many people are interested in attending: Post to the #community-message-board channel in News Futures’ Slack to ask who’s interested and available.
Submit this Conference Meetup Fund request form to the News Futures team: We’ll be in touch with more questions, if we have them.
Promote your RSVP form: Once we approve your request, you’ll provide more event details and the News Futures staff will create an RSVP form for you to share with other attendees that you can promote more widely.We’ll also share with you a view-only version of the form responses so you have visibility into who is RSVP’ing. for visibility.
Host your Conference Meetup: Depending on your meetup costs, we can either pre-pay them for you, or we will reimburse you for the expenses.
How much can I request for a Conference Meetup?
We’ll reimburse up to $500 for food, non-alcoholic drinks, and/or space rental. This usually covers gatherings of up to 40 people. Typically, you’ll pay upfront and then submit receipts for reimbursement. If that’s a barrier, let us know, and we can work to provide you with an alternative option. Keep all your receipts. Once your meetup is approved, we’ll send detailed reimbursement instructions. Payments are processed through our fiscal sponsor, City Bureau, and usually take about a week. We know reimbursements of up to $500 can be a significant up front cost, so we’re working on a more feasible and equitable way to release funding for these gatherings.
What’s expected of hosts?
Share meetup details with staff for the RSVP form
Show up in person and host the meetup
Organize an offering to the community. This can be food, drink, or an activity.
Honor our code of conduct and embody its values
Email us a photo and a short recap to team@newsfutures.org afterward so we can celebrate and share the gathering with the wider community
Do I have to attend a conference to host a Conference Meetup?
Nope. Conferences are a natural way for News Futures signatories from across the country to come together, but you don’t have to attend to host. If a conference is in your city, we encourage you to bring people together even if you don’t attend the conference yourself.
Can there be multiple News Futures Meetups for any given conference?
Our hope is that we’re creating one shared space for the News Futures community to gather, but if you feel strongly about creating an additional meetup because there is a strong interest from the group in a particular activity or the existing meetup is at capacity, please get in touch and we can discuss.
Who should attend? And how should I invite others to join?
Everyone is welcome! Both News Futures signatories and non-signatories who may be interested in joining our community. We require at least five people to express interest in attending, and we expect the maximum group could be up to 40 people. If you would like to exceed a meetup size of 40, please send an email to team@newsfutures.org with the details of your request.