Hosting a circle

What it asks of you

• About two hours a month, to begin withOne session of roughly an hour, plus the reading beforehand and perhaps twenty minutes setting the next one up. Circles that meet fortnightly ask about twice that. You decide the frequency.
• You choose when it runsThere is no schedule to inherit and no minimum cadence. Scheduling a session is a form on the circle page; it posts the time in every member's own time zone and handles RSVPs, capacity and reminders.
• Chairing, not lecturingYou are not expected to be an expert. The reading is written and sourced, the discussion prompts are drafted, and the session plan is a runnable hour. Your job is to keep the conversation moving and to close it at the agreed time.
• Moderating, occasionallyYou can hide a post in your circle. When you do, the record keeps your name and your reason, both visible, and the author can appeal — reviewed by Globe Quest, never by you. That is deliberate: it protects members from you and you from having to be the last word.

What you are given

• A written host guide for the specific circle — how to open it, what to avoid, when to stop. Drafted by Globe Quest editorial, and yours to change once you have actually run it.
• A session plan that adds up to a real hour, in parts, with timings.
• Discussion prompts drawn from quests we publish, so nobody has to arrive having read something they could not find.
• Scheduling, RSVPs, capacity limits, time-zone display and reminder emails — members choose what they are notified about, and the defaults are quiet.
• Moderation tools with an appeal route that does not run through you.

What happens if you stop

You step down from the circle page and the seat is empty again. The circle returns to being a prepared plan, its discussion stays where it is, and somebody else can pick it up. You cannot simply leave while hosting — the app blocks that — because a circle with sessions scheduled and nobody responsible is worse than one with no host at all.

There is no minimum term, and no obligation to announce anything. Stopping is a button.

Which one

Online circles can be hosted from anywhere. In-person circles are limited to Doha, Dubai and Ho Chi Minh City — the three cities where Globe Quest is actually operating — because a meet-up implies somebody is there to run it.

Online · host from anywhere

• Rivers and the cities they madeRead the rivers journey together, one stop at a time, and compare it with the river nearest each of us. The through-line is that a river gives a city its reason, the city then engineers the river, and the engineering creates the next problem.4-part session, about 60 min · An hour, evenings work best across Europe/Africa/Asia overlap
• Routes and the towns that taxed themFollow the trade journey across Samarkand, Chang'an, Timbuktu, Venice and Singapore, and work out what a place actually needs to profit from trade it does not produce — and why that advantage always expires.4-part session, about 60 min · An hour, weekends suit the widest spread of time zones
• How to read a contested historyA circle about method rather than about any one place: how to tell an observation from an inference from an interpretation from a political claim, using cases where getting it wrong has had real consequences — Great Zimbabwe, Hagia Sophia, the Treaty of Waitangi, terra nullius.4-part session, about 60 min · An hour, needs a host who has read the moderation guidance
• Who controls the waterPetra, Angkor, Mexico City and Venice: four states whose authority rested on moving water, storing it or removing it, and four different ways that came apart. A circle for anyone who has ever wondered why infrastructure decisions outlive the people who made them.4-part session, about 60 min · An hour
• Languages in contactWhy almost nowhere speaks one language, what happens where several meet, and how states decide which one counts. Samarkand, Singapore, Montreal, Aotearoa — and wherever everyone in the circle happens to be.4-part session, about 60 min · An hour

In person · founding cities only

• Arabic practice · DohaPractise everyday Gulf Arabic out loud with other learners and with speakers who are willing to be patient. Built around the phrases in the Doha guide, plus whatever came up that week.Doha · 4-part session, about 60 min
• Vietnamese practice · Ho Chi Minh CitySouthern Vietnamese practice for newcomers and returners, mixing everyday phrases with the tones people find hardest. Anchored to the Ho Chi Minh City guide and to whatever the week threw at everyone.Ho Chi Minh City · 4-part session, about 60 min
• Newcomers and long-timers · DubaiA monthly meet for people who arrived recently and people who have been here long enough to answer their questions. Practical rather than social: the visa, the bank, the landlord, the school, the bits nobody explains.Dubai · 4-part session, about 60 min