Start a Circle 2/Section 5. Stewarding a Circle
This section focuses on the ongoing responsibilities of Circle Stewards. It outlines how stewards help sustain and grow a Circle over time, including coordinating people, distributing responsibilities through volunteer roles, and maintaining healthy group dynamics. It also introduces the basics of running a Logos node as part of contributing to the wider network.
Growing local Circles
A guide for growing local Circles and attracting the right people
The goal of marketing Circles isn’t mass outreach; it’s attracting committed people. We’re looking for a unique group of individuals who align with our values, care about social action, and can be energised by the chance to create the Logos cyberstate.
Our aim isn’t to fill up a room, but rather to find future collaborators: volunteers who can help run the Circle, take ownership of projects, or start new Circles of their own.
See here for the key target audiences for Circles.
Growth Tactics
1. Reactivate Past Attendees & Build Continuity
Circle growth is primarily driven by continuity; each new event should begin with the people who have already engaged.
When creating a new Luma event:
- Re-invite all previous attendees from the Luma list
- Prioritise people who attended but are not yet actively contributing
- Treat past attendees as the highest-signal audience for each new Circle
After each Circle:
- Follow up 1:1 with attendees where there was meaningful engagement
- Use short, personal messages (chat or voice note) to continue the relationship
- Ask if they want to join the next session or take a small next step
Always close the loop:
- Clearly invite people back into the next Circle
- Reference previous participation to create continuity (“building on what we discussed last time…”)
This ensures that participation compounds over time, turning one-off attendees into returning contributors and eventually active community members.
2. Attend Local Meetups
Plug into existing ecosystem, including local activist circles, tech and Web3 spaces, community food projects, housing forums, art collectives, etc.
- Don’t just show up, engage. Ask questions, build rapport, and invite people to the Circle personally.
- Local meetups are critical to finding the right people for the Circle. Find detailed guidance below on how to make the most of meetup outreach.
3. Partner with Your Space or Venue
If you're hosting your event in a co-working space, community centre, or cultural venue, ask them to help promote it to their network.
They can:
- Include it in newsletters or Telegram channels
- Share it on their social media
- Post flyers or event posters around the space
4. Guerrilla Marketing
Use direct, DIY outreach to spread the word.
- Request flyers or stickers from the design team
- Hand them out at events, universities, or public gatherings
- Leave a few at cafés, bookshops, or cultural spaces your audience frequents
- Use chalk writing, zines, wheatpasting, or other low-cost, high-impact formats that match our medium
5. Online Communities
Tap into online spaces where people already care about the kinds of issues your Circle is looking to support, or are already working on.
Such as:
- Local mutual aid or community organising groups online
- Relevant Discord servers
- Relevant forums or subreddits
- Aligned local thought leaders on X / Farcaster / LinkedIn
6. Direct Personal Invites
One of the most effective ways to grow your Circle is by activating yours and your fellow core contributors’ networks. Reach out directly to people in your networks who align with the mission.
Encourage outreach to:
- People you’ve worked with and trust
- Locals already doing aligned work
- Thinkers or builders who’d resonate with Logos’ mission
You can also do direct outreach to other meetup groups that align with our target audiences.
7. Email Outreach
If you have access to a contact list specific to the area where your event is taking place (e.g. you’ve ran an event there before), sending out an email blast with details of your meetup.
Important:
Only send to location-specific lists. Avoid blasting general or global mailing lists — it risks spamming people who aren’t local and may dilute the signal.
Tips for effective outreach:
- Keep the subject line clear(e.g. “Join us in Lisbon: First Logos Circle Gathering”)
- Mention why the event matters locally — tie into specific issues or shared values
- Include key details (what, where, when, and why)
8. List your event on external event sites
Promote your Circle’s meetups through platforms where your target audience is already looking for events. This increases visibility and helps attract people outside your immediate network.
- LinkedIn Events: Great if you already have a presence on the platform.
- Eventbrite / Meetup.com: Used heavily in some cities; check whether it is relevant for you.
- Local community calendars: Check city or neighbourhood websites, co-working spaces, and cultural centres.
Running future circles
While the monthly Circle is a great entry point for newcomers, tackling deeper work often requires more flexibility. When your Circle regularly welcomes new participants, it can be challenging to focus on the detailed planning and action needed to define and deliver a winnable issue. If this is the case for you, follow the guidance below.
- Onboarding through monthly Circles: Treat your main meetup as a top-of-funnel event. Welcome new people, explain Logos and Circles, give high-level updates on winnable issues, and build trust. This session is about alignment and energy, not solving everything at once.
- Smaller working groups: Real progress on winnable issues happens between Circles. Stewards should convene smaller sessions—coworking days, site visits, workshops—where committed members can focus on concrete action with community partners.
- Facilitating inclusion: Whenever possible, bring the community or organisation you’re supporting into the Circle itself. This accelerates trust-building and makes the work more grounded and accountable. If that’s not possible, go to them—meeting people in their own spaces shows respect and strengthens relationships.
- Adapting formats: Use different formats for different needs—big Circles for inspiration and onboarding, small groups for action and follow-through. The balance will depend on your community’s size and maturity.
If the Circle is already working on a winnable issue:
- Lead by listening
Start with open questions. Invite participants to share problems or opportunities they care about. Let those already engaged in related work speak first. Facilitate with care, but avoid dominating the conversation.
- Use emotion to galvanise energy
The most effective narratives trigger collective emotional energy, e.g.. a sense of outrage, solidarity, hope, or determination. Emotional resonance is the fuel of sustained action.
- Make collective intelligence visible
Document contributions using a whiteboard, sticky notes, or collaborative tools. When people see their input acknowledged, they feel respected and more invested.
- Filter ideas with shared values
Together, assess potential issues using three key criteria: alignment with Logos values (like decentralisation, privacy, and open governance), emotional impact on the group, and clarity or achievability as a campaign.
- Refine and commit to a direction
Vote or build consensus around which story or issue to pursue. Broad ideas should be narrowed into actionable, concrete goals that people can rally around.
If the Circle is already working on a winnable issue:
- Celebrate momentum
Share updates and small victories to energise the group. Every win, no matter how minor, contributes to a sense of progress and purpose.
- Identify barriers and seek help
Naming blockers out loud opens the door to support and creative solutions. Struggles shared are more easily overcome.
- Reconnect through values
Reaffirm why the winnable issue matters. Keep the emotional thread alive by grounding updates in purpose, not just logistics.
- Engage and empower new members
Invite fresh input, questions, and skill offers from newcomers. Actively look for opportunities to fold them into ongoing efforts.
- Share responsibility to build resilience
Delegate small but important tasks such as outreach, note-taking, promotion, or coordination. These touchpoints create ownership, grow leadership, and embed the campaign in real lives.
The role of Circle stewards
The Role of Circle Stewards
The role of Circle Stewards is to organise each meeting, guide the conversation, distribute roles to volunteers, and manage operational logistics such as the online platform. Each Steward is responsible for creating a welcoming, respectful environment where people feel motivated to speak, connect, and contribute. Stewards don’t need to be experts in everything, but they should be willing to listen, learn, and lead by example.
Core responsibilities include:
- Setting the tone: Choose welcoming venues for your Circle, open the space with care, and lead through service.
- Help assign volunteer roles: Know the members in your Circle. Help assign volunteer roles based on people’s experience and interest.
- Facilitating meetings: Introduce Logos, guide discussions, and help the group stay focused on shared values and actionable outcomes.
- Help discover winnable issues: Facilitate Circle discussions to uncover a “winnable issue” - a concrete, solvable problem that matters to each community, aligns with Logos values, and feels achievable through collective action. It’s specific enough to act on, big enough to matter, and small enough to win.
- Spot, support, and promote leaders: Pay attention to who shows energy, initiative, or emotional clarity. Invite them to take on small responsibilities and grow into leadership.
- Make the Hard Ask: End every meetup with concrete, specific asks linked to real tasks. Use direct language, follow up, and adapt based on what moves people.
- Tracking momentum: Follow up on winnable issues, delegate small tasks, and help maintain continuity between gatherings.
- Staying informed: Keep up with Logos updates, tools, and narratives so you can confidently connect local issues to broader solutions. This is done in sync with Logos CCs.
- Maintaining communications: Create and update your local online meeting place or Forum thread, and keep your Circle engaged between events.
Volunteer roles
Volunteer Roles & Responsibilities
Volunteers power every Circle. Clear, shared roles build trust, momentum, and shared ownership.
1. Circle Steward
- Facilitate meetups, introduce Logos, and help guide the group toward action.
- Create space for others to contribute, grow, and take ownership over time.
- Project manage the delivery of winnable issues
2. Communications Steward
- Promote the monthly Circle meetups
- Post Logos Forum updates with meeting notes and progress updates for the winnable issue.
- Help develop key messaging to promote what your Circle is working on and inspire others to join you.
3. Community Steward
- Connect with aligned communities and local channels to help grow the Circle.
- Welcome new members and help them plug in.
- Moderate the Circle community channel.
4. Impact Steward
- Take on a piece of real-world action, whether that’s outreach, research, building tools, or hosting events.
- Volunteers on winnable issues may not be part of the local Circle; they may be able to contribute remotely.
5. Technical Steward
- Develop tools, contribute code and documentation
- Provide expertise in onboarding more technical contributors
- Provide the link with Logos CCs to support solutions on the Logos stack.
Parallel Society Playbook
What the parallel society is
The creation of a parallel society is a form of non-violent civil resistance, where an organised group of people build parallel civil structures that work alongside harmful and unfair ones under which they live.
The concept comes from Czechoslovakian dissidents living under a totalitarian regime, where they were forced to create parallel institutions in law, education, media, infrastructure and culture to survive.
The parallel polis - as they called it - was not merely a cultural sphere or a political movement, but an alternative way of life. In this way it was not opposed to the official system so much as it existed beside it, in "parallel."
The Logos parallel society
Logos puts together a technology stack and a social movement to form our own version of a parallel society.
The stack provides the infrastructure: decentralised, private-by-default tools for communication, storage, and coordination. The movement builds local institutions on the stack and encourages community organisation and action, problem solving, skill building, mutual aid, and a culture of civic duty.
What the playbook is
The Parallel Society Playbook is a growing collection of practical knowledge from Circles documenting the first steps in the creation of the Logos parallel society.
Its purpose is simple: when a Circle figures out how to solve a concrete, winnable civil society issue, we want other Circles to be able to learn from that experience and adapt it locally.
Rather than every Circle having to start from scratch, we can turn local organising experience into shared knowledge.
Together, the issues we solve form the basis of a global parallel society.
Submission Template
Copy the template below into your Logos Forum post and fill in the sections. Ensure you use the tag 'playbook' so your post is included.
Title:
A clear, specific title describing the issue and the outcome.
City:
In which city is your Circle that solved the issue?
Issue bucket:
Which civil society issue bucket does this belong to? Reference one of the issues here
The issue:
What specific problem were you trying to solve?
Why was it winnable?
Why did you believe this was something your Circle could realistically make progress on?
Who was affected?
Who experienced this problem, and who had a stake in solving it?
Our goal:
What specific outcome were you trying to achieve?
What we did:
Describe the actions your Circle took. Include important steps, tactics, meetings, partnerships, outreach, or other activities.
Who we worked with:
Which people, organisations, community groups, or other stakeholders were involved?
What worked:
What approaches were particularly effective?
What didn't work:
What would you avoid or change if you were doing it again?
The outcome:
What happened? What did you achieve, and how did you measure progress?
What we learned:
What are the most important lessons another Circle should know?
What could another Circle replicate?
Which parts of your approach could be adapted and used in another city or community?
Resources:
Add any useful documents, guides, contacts, tools, or other resources that could help another Circle replicate the work.
What happens after you submit?
Your contribution can become part of the Parallel Society Playbook, alongside experiences from other Circles.
The aim is to build a living, open-source resource rather than a static handbook.
Over time, the playbook should help Circles:
Find a winnable issue → learn from previous campaigns → adapt the approach locally → create a new win → share what was learned.
Every contribution makes the next issue easier for another Circle.
Running a Logos node
Logos testnet is now live. You can now run a Logos node, and we encourage each Circle to run a node using this quickstart guide.
If you need support setting up your node, join the weekly EcoDevoffice hours on Fridays at 12:00 UTC.
Builders Hub
For additional resources, documentation, and ecosystem updates, visit the Builders Hub.
There you will find:
- Setup guides and technical documentation
- Updates on testnet and ecosystem progress
- Information for builders, contributors, and node operators
- Links to relevant tools and programs as they become available