Frequently Asked Questions

What are your rules?

You can find the list of rules on this document. Please feel free to suggest adjustments by joining our Discord Community and posting in the #suggestions channel. :)

Who can join?

Adults 18+ who are either self diagnosed / officially diagnosed with autism, those questioning if they're autistic, and any allies 🌈

How do I submit an event idea?

You can post directly in the #events channel on Discord, or ask at any meetings, and if it aligns with the group's missions we'll set it up as an event for people to RSVP to on Discord!

Who's running this group?

This is actually quite a longstanding group, and has gone through many different volunteer leaders. In 2019 it was copied over from Meetup to Groups.io, and in 2021ish it was brought to Discord, where the group now primarily interacts in between meetings. We'd like to make it as democratic as possible and not be top-down oriented in management, so please, if you'd like to help out please let a moderator/admin know!

What's a facilitator and how are they chosen?

The facilitator(s) are the people in a support meeting who consensually ensure that everyone has a chance to speak, that nobody is dominating the conversation, that people's hand signals and body language are being paid attention to, who pay attention to time keeping, and who helps to connect / show common ground between people's experiences.

Without facilitators, meetings tend to slip into blaming and shaming, complaining, triggering (for some) vents, take too long, or get distracted from the main reason why everyone is there (The common ground)

Anyone can be a facilitator by talking about the point of the meeting, or by asking if they can help to redirect a conversation that isn't pertinent (or maybe better suited for a therapist) to the rest of the group. Usually at the beginning of the meeting someone will offer to be a facilitator or help with facilitation.

Typically the moderators and admins will step into those kinds of roles just because of experience. And they can interact as members (giving a "share") or interrupt a conversation to provide a "awkward transition" if the topics going on for too long)