The last Town Hall of the quest and the first of the year. The studio decides how Town Hall runs from now on - how often, who leads, how topics get raised, what happens when they can't agree, and what the guide's role in it is. The guide sits in the circle as a member: hand up, one turn, no extra weight.
By 12:00 today the studio has adopted its own Town Hall structure for the year - including a role for the guide that they defined.
Decisions, not discussions. A Town Hall that debated beautifully and decided nothing hasn't done the job.
Not you. Whatever they propose is worth more than anything imposed - and it tells you what six weeks actually did.
Present, contributing, hand up, one turn. Not presiding, and not performing absence either.
Standard rhythm. Thinking Puzzle up by the cubbies.
Standard rhythm.
Talking points, not a script. Hit these in your own words - the studio can tell the difference, and the ones that land are the ones you actually mean.
The opener (3 min):
"Last Town Hall of the quest today. And there's one thing different about it: I'm in the circle as a member, not as the guide. Hand up like everybody else. One turn like everybody else. If I want to say something I wait my turn, and if the leader doesn't call on me, I don't say it."
"That's not me stepping back or going quiet. I'll be in it. I just don't get extra."
The core (12 min) - prepping the actual question:
"Build the Tribe ends Friday. Town Hall doesn't. So today's job is to decide what Town Hall looks like for the rest of the year."
Give them the checklist now so they walk in with answers rather than inventing them live:
On number five, be straight with them: "You're deciding what my job is in that room. I'll tell you what I think if you ask me - and I'd rather you worked it out first and then asked."
Three minutes of silent writing on the five before anyone talks.
The close (5 min):
"Afternoon is Exhibition prep. Roles get claimed, and we run the fix list from yesterday."
Standard rhythm.
Standard rhythm. Schedule ownership continues: math sits inside it, so the block may move - what doesn't move is that it happens and the PWG opens first.
Standard rhythm.
Standard rhythm.
A studio that can design its own governance has stopped being a group of learners in a room. Proposing the structure is the proof - not being told they've earned it. This is the last Town Hall of the quest and the first of the year.
Learner-led, rotating leader. Whoever hasn't led yet gets it - check the list, and if that person is quiet, coach them Monday and give it to them anyway.
Agenda:
Sit in the circle at learner height. Hand up like everyone else, and speak when called on - not before, and not extra. Contribute genuinely: if you have a view on how often Town Hall should run, say it as your view, once, and let it be weighed like anyone's.
What this is not: it is not a withdrawal, a test, or a performance of absence. Being deliberately unhelpful in a room full of learners this age isn't a teaching method - a guide who goes quiet to prove a point has stopped role-modelling, which is the actual job. The goal is a room that doesn't need the guide to hold it together, and that gets built over months by being a good participant, not by staging a disappearance.
So: still greet people. Still answer a direct question. Still stop something unsafe. Still be a person in the room. The only thing you give up for forty minutes is the extra weight your voice normally carries.
The question to ask yourself afterwards, privately: how many times did the room actually need me? Write the number down. Ask it again in October and in February. That trend is the real measure of whether this studio is becoming self-governing - not whether you managed to say nothing on one Wednesday.
If it stalls: the leader can call on you like anyone else, and you answer honestly and briefly. Being asked is not the same as taking over.
Standard rhythm.
Six weeks of offcuts become one document. The Manual Editor and two others collate; everyone else starts on Exhibition roles.
What goes in - all of it already exists, scattered:
It does not need to be beautiful. It needs to be one document, in one place, that exists on Friday. Print it, put it in a binder, put the binder somewhere learners can reach without asking.
If the Manual Editor role was never taken, ask three learners now. Fifteen minutes of collating is a good job for someone who'd rather not be a Welcomer tomorrow.
Every learner takes a role for Friday. The room has to run without a guide presenting, so every job that needs doing needs a name against it.
Rehearse the handovers, not the content. Learner-run events don't fail in the middle of a section - they fail in the six seconds between two of them.
Yesterday the studio marked what was done, what needed fixing, and what they weren't showing. Today they do the fixing. This is the last chance to change anything they've made in six weeks - and knowing that is what makes them take it seriously.
How it runs (45 min):
Close (5 min): what's left on the list for tomorrow. Tomorrow is build day, not fix day, so anything unfinished tonight either gets finished tomorrow morning or doesn't go on the wall.
Note the time: if the ten minutes have been handed back, this block runs 1:50–2:50.
Standard rhythm plus staging - what moves where tomorrow, and who's moving it.
If the ten minutes have been handed back (see W5D1) - this block is 2:50–3:00 and Quest ran to 2:50.
Callouts from Town Hall: whoever built on someone else's proposal instead of starting over, and whoever changed their mind out loud.
One question: "What did we decide today that you'll still be living with in March?"
Send-off by name.
Talking points for this week's email. Drop these into an AI assistant along with two or three live notes from your actual week - a name, a moment, something that surprised you - and it'll give you a draft in your own voice. The specifics are what make it land; the structure below is just the scaffolding.
The draft underneath is an example of the shape and the tone, not a template to send as-is. A parent who gets the same email as every other parent can tell.
Subject: They designed how their year will run
Hi families,
Today was the last Town Hall of Build the Tribe and the first of the year. The agenda item was this: Build the Tribe ends Friday, but Town Hall doesn't - so what should it look like from now on? They had to decide how often it runs, how a leader is chosen, how topics get raised, what happens when they can't agree, and what my role in it should be. I let them work that last one out and then asked them to tell me.
I sat in the circle as a member rather than as the guide: hand up like everyone else, one turn like everyone else. Not silent - I contributed, and I answered when asked - but without the extra weight my voice usually carries. The point isn't for me to disappear; it's for the room to work whether or not I'm holding it together. That gets built over months of being a good participant, not by an adult refusing to speak.
What they adopted starts Monday. It's on our wall in their handwriting.
In the afternoon they claimed their Exhibition roles and worked through the fix list from yesterday. Friday - Exhibition runs 9:15–10:00, and they'd like you seated before then.
- [your name]