Alumnae Circles
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Enrollment is on pause for the upcoming 2023-2024 cycle. With the level of growth Circles has experienced since 2016, pausing enrollment provides us the opportunity to re-evaluate our model and build an improved infrastructure that can support current and future demand.
Current Circles are encouraged to continue meeting. Facilitators and members with questions or in need of support are to connect with their Regional Leadership Council.
General Questions
- Who are the facilitators and how are they chosen?
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Facilitators are alumnae volunteers who agree to help the Circle meet, bond, and stay on track. The goal is to have two co-facilitators for each group. In the participation survey distributed to all alumnae in each region, there is an opportunity to volunteer to be a facilitator. The Circles team will then reach out to each person who volunteers to be a facilitator to have a quick phone conversation, learn more about her, and her goals as a facilitator.
Before groups are launched, facilitators will attend a three-hour, in-person training session with HBS Career & Professional Development staff, as well as HBS Faculty member Tim Butler, Senior Fellow and Director of Career Development Programs.
- How often do Circles meet and how long are meetings?
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Circles typically meet once a month for 2 hours.
- Where are Circles meetings held?
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Meetings are held typically in the homes of participants, though restaurants, conference rooms and other spaces work too as long as they are comfortable, quiet, and private.
- Does the host provide a meal?
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This depends on the time of day your Circle meets and what you have agreed upon as a group. We want this commitment to be very low-pressure for the host. Some Circles decide to not serve any food, others small snacks, and in others everyone contributes a little money for food and drinks. Your Circle will have to discuss what everyone is comfortable with in your first gathering, and what is easiest for the group.
- What do alumnae discuss in Circles?
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Each Circle will have the freedom to discuss what they choose. In the first meeting, facilitators will guide conversation around group norms, meeting structure, group intentions and goals (if the group would like to establish any). Facilitators are given optional conversation topics to present to their Circle, if the group is interested. Each Circle will create and form its own identity based on its members. We leave it to all of you to determine what that is, and how that manifests in the meetings. We have found that the most successful Circles discussions grow organically. This should be a casual and welcoming space for women to share life experiences.
- Are there larger events for Circles participants?
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We are working to develop larger regional events for Circles participants, where members have the chance to meet women outside of their Circles. Your Facilitator will inform you if an opportunity becomes available in your city.
- What if I have a pre-existing conflict with another member of my group?
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We want your experience with your Circle to be as comfortable as possible. Please contact us at hbscircles@gmail.com and we will place you in another Circle if possible.
- What is the typical time commitment for a facilitator (outside of meetings)?
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Prior to your Circle’s first meeting, you will have an initial phone conversation to discuss the facilitator role, which lasts 15-20 minutes. This will be followed by a 3-hour in-person training in your city. On an ongoing basis, the time commitment is about two hours per month. Facilitators participate in monthly one-hour calls with other facilitators and program leadership to share ideas, successes, and issues. Meeting planning typically takes roughly one hour per month, but can be less if you plan out several months at a time. Regional leaders will communicate with Facilitators via email. While we will try to keep email to a minimum, frequency will vary.
- Is there a fee to join? / Are there costs I should anticipate?
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No. There is no fee. As mentioned above, your group may ask for a small contribution for food and beverage. However, that is not mandatory to participate.
- Are there career building opportunities within Circles meetings?
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While career and professional opportunities may emerge from Circles, by virtue of the fact that you will develop new relationships with HBS women, Circles are not intended to be career networking opportunities. Members should not use their Circle to market services or products in any way. If you are looking for networking or career building opportunities, we would be happy to connect you with the HBS Career and Professional Development Office, or your local HBS Club.
- My schedule is unpredictable so I can’t commit to attending all or most meetings. Can I still join?
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Commitment is a key ingredient to success. It is important that those who sign up for the program make a real effort to attend all of their meetings. We are asking participants to commit to the program for at least 12 months. Having just a handful of members who cannot fully commit to take part consistently for 12 months can derail or at least lessen the experience for the whole group.
Virtual Circles
- How are HBS Alumnae virtual Circles and traditional HBS Alumnae Circles similar and different?
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The mission of Circles, to foster genuine relationships between alumnae and provide the opportunity to learn from, support, and inspire one another—both personally and professionally, remains the same regardless of whether you meet in-person or virtually. The goal of virtual circles is to foster connections regardless of location.
Like traditional HBS Alumnae Circles, virtual Circles will be comprised of 8-10 alumnae led by one or two volunteer peer facilitators who will be trained by HBS. Groups will meet roughly once a month for two hours. With virtual Circles, some groups have found that it makes more sense to meet bi-weekly instead of monthly or adjust the length of meetings, the format is very flexible and open to whatever your Circle decides is a good fit.
- If I sign-up to participate in virtual Circles, what is the time commitment?
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We ask for a one-year commitment when joining traditional Circles, however for virtual Circles, to start, we will be asking for a 6-meeting commitment from those women joining virtual Circles. Like traditional Circles, once the initial commitment period ends, the group will have the options to disband or continue on together.
- Why can’t I join a traditional Circle that meets in-person?
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You were selected to participate in virtual Circles because you live in a region that does not have enough women within a close proximity to one another to meet in-person on a regular basis. You will notice that the majority of women in your Circle are in the same general region or time zone. Some of you may even be driving distance from one another.
- What if I want to meet with my group in-person in the future?
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If it is feasible for everyone, we encourage you to connect in-person. You will want to make sure it works for everyone in the group.
- How are virtual Circles formed?
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In order to make planning meetings easier, we tried to pair you with HBS alumnae who live closest to you. You may notice that all of you are a few hours from a major city or, at least, within the same time zone. Additionally, whether virtual or in-person, we strive to make all Circles diverse across age range, industry, job status, marital status, ethnicity, etc., to bring as many perspectives as possible to conversations, while trying to prevent anyone from feeling alone in a Circle - as the oldest, the youngest, the only woman with young children, etc.
- I volunteered to serve as a facilitator, what does that mean and how will I be trained?
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Each Circle has one to two volunteer facilitators who help coordinate meeting logistics, guide the discussion, and create a safe space for the members to connect. Facilitators receive a virtual training from members of the Harvard Business School Career and Professional Development team on confidentiality, conflict resolution, and group dynamics and participate in regular check-in calls with the other virtual facilitators to discuss issues and share ideas.
- How does the group meet virtually? I do not have a platform we can use.
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The group will meet on a virtual platform. We are still finalizing the details and will share once the plan is confirmed.
- What should I do if I’m struggling to connect with my group?
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We know that meeting virtually presents a unique set of challenges and it may be difficult to open up and form strong bonds when you’ve never met in person. We ask that you commit to 4-6 meetings with you Circle to give your group adequate time to get to know one another. We also have a wonderful group of experienced facilitators and Leadership Council members who have volunteered to assist new Circles as they begin to meet. If you feel like your group is still struggling to connect after your first couple of meetings, don’t hesitate to reach out to circles@hbs.edu for a bit of additional guidance and support.
- What is the Alumnae Circles Leadership Council?
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HBS Circles are “HBS enabled; alumnae owned,” meaning that while we have a small administrative team of HBS staff members who assist in management of the program, the growth and success of Circles would not be possible without our incredible alumnae leaders.
Within each Region, there are four volunteer Regional Committee positions that help manage the program: Regional Chair, Facilitator Lead, Member Lead and Event Lead.
The Regional Chair
The Regional Chair serves as the leader of the Regional Committee, providing both the Committee and the region’s Circles members, with direction, momentum and leadership. By fulfilling responsibilities like running monthly Regional Committee calls, articulating the vision of the program to constituencies, supporting the Regional Committee when necessary, etc., the Regional Chair infuses a strong sense of identity, purpose and direction for the program locally.
Event Lead
The Event Lead connects Circle members within a region by working to provide social and other events over the course of the year. The Event Lead organizes the annual Open House (with the support of the HBS Internal Team) and any other All-Circles events that the Regional Committee decides to plan during the year to allow Circle members to meet and mingle outside their circles, building community.
Facilitator Lead
The Facilitator Lead acts as a resource person for the region’s facilitators. Within a region, there will be a mix of new and seasoned facilitators and each type tend to see consistent issues over the life cycle of their circle. As a circle facilitator it is nice to have someone to reach out to should there be questions or issues in a circle. This is the job of the facilitator lead - to be accessible to answer common questions, help find answers to uncommon issues and act as a point person for facilitators so that they can be supported and nurtured within the Circles family. The Facilitator Lead leads the facilitator calls, which are one-hour calls that typical occur seven times a year as a space where facilitators in a given region can connect, work through issues and share ideas.
Member Lead
The Member Lead serves as the main point of contact for non-facilitator Circle members. In this capacity, she assists with any issues that come up with existing circle membership, assists potential new members in joining, works with the Internal HBS team to track changes and identify patterns of circle membership change.
- Will virtual Circles have representation in the Leadership Council?
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Virtual Circles will represent a new region. We will work with all of you to compose a virtual committee as the region grows.
- Can we plan virtual All-Circles events for our region?
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Yes! In our traditional geographic Circles regions, we encourage Event Leads to host regular all-Circles events as a way for women to connect outside of their Circle, strengthen the community and add to the Circles experience. Once we establish a Regional Committee for the “Virtual Circles Region”, the Event Lead will spearhead these efforts and solicit input from members of the region to determine what types of events to host. These all-Circles events can be purely social or target specific affinity groups and may feature speakers, presentations, etc. We will provide more ideas throughout the year and can offer guidance if your region decides to attempt an in-person All Circles event in the future.