Champion Gathering Guide

Purpose

Bring people together to recognize the paid, unpaid, visible, informal, and often-overlooked teamwork already sustaining shared lives. Recognition does not need to result in an award, membership commitment, public story, or project.

Sample opening words

“We are here to recognize the work people already carry, including work that is often unnoticed. This is not a contest or a request for more commitments. Everyone can choose how to participate, including listening without sharing. We want to acknowledge the people and relationships through which our lives are sustained.”

Possible conversation prompts

• What teamwork have you been carrying recently that people might not fully see?
• Who has supported, shared, or contributed to that teamwork?
• What did others do that deserves acknowledgment?
• What responsibilities, relationships, or conditions made the teamwork possible?
• How would you like the contribution to be recognized—privately, in this gathering, or in another way?

Optional gathering flow

1. Welcome participants and explain the purpose.
2. Invite voluntary accounts and listen without comparison.
3. Make room for mutual recognition and shared credit.
4. Honor varied participation, including listening and quiet acknowledgment.
5. Clarify recording, publication, attribution, and privacy choices.
6. Close with thanks. Let the gathering itself be complete.

Stewardship commitments

• Do not assume silence means consent to recording, quotation, or publication.
• Do not treat a person's teamwork as organizational property.
• Preserve the distinction between a participant's words and later interpretation.
• Make space for corrections and changes to sharing choices.
• Recognize shared teamwork without attributing an entire team's efforts to one person.
• Do not equate the number of topics, stories, or achievements with human worth.

After the gathering

Thank participants and follow only what they voluntarily chose. Teamwork Portraits, shared records, further gatherings, and cooperation are possibilities—not requirements.