Our Structure

Each Circle is made of 4 to 8 volunteers. There are a great variety of people in our circles, but generally they fall into three categories:

• Representatives of youth and community circuses in the UK
• People with specifically relevant expertise/experience (e.g. fundraisers in the funding circle)
• People with real interest or involvement in the area that their circle governs

All of the members of CircusWorks circles are committed to using circus as a tool for positive social change, and to using circus to improve the wellbeing of children and young people. Many of the members of our circles are people who use circus to improve the wellbeing their local communities – through CircusWorks, they can extend their work to a national and international level.

There are four roles in each circle. Roles are democratically allocated by the circle. We try not to have more than one role per person.

Leader
Keeps the circle active and motivated
Brings information back from the General Circle to their circle
Helps prepare agendas for the next meeting
Makes sure the backlog is prioritised
Understands and communicates the importance of the circle

Facilitator
Facilitates circle meetings in a sociocratic way
Ensures that all voices are heard, and consensus is reached for all decisions
Must be someone who is organised, reliable, and keen to learn about facilitation and sociocracy

Secretary
Creates an agenda document for meetings, with enough time for the Leader and Facilitator to review it
Looks after Trello (if using)
Makes sure that the backlog is accurate
Takes minutes in meetings

Delegate
Represents the Circle in General Circle Meetings
Communicates with other circles

If you are interested in joining a circle, or our board, get in touch using the form below. Circles are generally limited to 8 people, so we do not always have space for new members straight away, however our organisational structure is constantly shifting to suit the needs of sector and new circles and spaces become available regularly.

Very! One of the biggest benefits of having a structure based on the principles of dynamic governance is that we can quickly shift our organisation structure to fit the needs of the organisation, our stakeholders, and the wider sector. New circles are formed to deal with new areas of our work, sub-circles are formed to deal with specific projects, and old circles go dormant if they are not currently useful.