Our chat groups have the goal of creating an environment in which clubs can be chartered and organized quickly. They are usually used in the first stages of development of Agora in a country or city when people still don't know each other and are reluctant to share more private information such as telephone numbers or EMails.  To ensure a productive and focused, low-volume chat that can be followed by everyone, please observe the following rules in it:

1. Please try to read the messages at least once every couple of days (ideally - daily), and please do reply if asked if you can join a meeting or do a role, even if it's a simple "I can't" / " I don't know yet".

Why? This allows club members to know what kind of room needs to be booked, for how many people and how many activities can be done. You don't need to provide any explanations, and of course, attendance is not mandatory at all, but the club needs to know.
People that do not read messages for weeks, or that read them but don't bother to get involved are removed periodically.

2. The chat is only for issues related to Agora and Agora clubs. Please no other posts of any kind.

Why? People sign up for a public speaking and leadership club. They don't want to be bombarded with other sorts of content - idle talk, motivational cookies or much less promotional or self-promotional spam. If this happens, they usually leave the group. Also, this rule helps keep the volume low, so that if you can't read the messages for 3-4 days, when you check the group you won't find 120 unread messages.

3. No voice messages, calls or video-calls

Why? This allows everyone to access and search the content of the chat. Additionally, people many times find themselves in noisy environments or without an audio device or simply in a context where they can't turn it on  (in a meeting, school, etc.).

4. No messages after midnight and until 7 am.

Why? Not everyone turns off the sound of their phone at night, so it's extremely rude to be awoken at 2 am by a barrage of messages consisting of thumb ups.

5. No other communication alternatives until the club is chartered.

Why? This rule refers only to chat groups for clubs that haven't chartered yet. Facebook Messenger groups are not the most convenient way of communicating for sure, but we can't provide assistance in other kinds of groups (Whatsapp, Viber, Telegram, etc.), and not everyone is willing to join them, and not everyone has the appropriate app installed either. Until the club is chartered, we only use the chat group. After that, the club members can switch to whatever means they agree.

6. Before posting a question, check if it hasn't been answered already, at least in the immediately preceding days.

Why? Again, the rule is to keep the number of messages low and avoiding posting over and over the same content.

7. The chat is not for a single club.

This means that if a club is created and it meets at a time or in a venue that is not convenient for you, there's no need to leave the group frustrated. As many clubs as desired can be created in the same city, and anyone can propose creating a new club that meets in a different and more convenient time and place.

8. Keep the messages civilized and respectful

This rule shouldn't need explaining. No offensive, aggressive, finger-pointing, or name-calling, or similar language will be allowed. 

9. Anyone can add people to the group.

What we ask for is to make sure that the people you want to add know what the chat group is about, and are really interested in our clubs. It's better to have just a few interested and committed participants than hundreds of curious onlookers.