How the work is organized is on the about page. Who a Rally is for is on the participation page. To host, read this page, then apply to host through this form (responses due Nov 10).
What it means to host a Rally Room
A Rally Room is a smaller gathering at the same time, on approximately the same schedule, for people who cannot travel as far. If your Roman group includes someone with commissioning experience, consider hosting for Dec 14-18, 2026. You do not need a local group of Roman experts. Fully online participation is available, and it counts as joining, not as hosting. If someone can reach a room by car or train, encourage them to go.
What you are not asked to do
- Build the scientific program, invite speakers, or keep the week on a script. Projects come from the people in the room, as the about page describes.
- Fund travel, or pass along Rally funding. There is none. The participation page states there is no registration fee and no travel support.
- Collect a registration fee.
Draft week, in more detail
People only on Zoom join the same calls and use breakout rooms between them. The link is not public: see joining the main Zoom. Bring one or two items to the check-in (prompts, demos). Clock offsets are under time zones.
When a group can only join for part of the day
A group that already has a meeting that week, or specialized work, can still be a Rally Room. Host it, or join one someone else is holding. Name the topic in the room note so visitors know it is a project, not a help desk. Be on the All-Room check-ins.
If some of the group is remote, use a Zoom breakout room on a different machine for the side work. See hybrid setup.
What a good room looks like
A few people, laptops, and enough quiet to think. A larger site might use two rooms. There is no required headcount. A handful of people is a real Rally Room. Read the setup sections below, and before the week, once the room is real.
How to sign up to host
Fill out the host signup form by Nov 10. Include the city, the institution, the local contact, the room you have in mind, and how many visitors you can accommodate. Use that page.
Time zones
Sites will not share a workday. The host time zones, and the overlap everyone can actually attend, will be set once the host list is firm.
Joining the main Zoom
One main Zoom, for the cross-site calls and for remote participants during the working day. The link, meeting ID, and passcode will be shared only with registered participants once they are set. Do not put a live Zoom link in this public repository, or on a public page.
A local Zoom host
Each physical site names a Zoom host and a backup before the first morning. They are co-hosts: admit people from the waiting room, mute the room when local talk gets loud, and open breakout rooms. Each site chooses those two people.
Virtual breakout rooms
Groups split across sites, or entirely online, need their own room so they are not talking over the main call. A co-host creates the rooms from the main Zoom. People join the assigned or chosen room and return when the shared call starts.
Hybrid setup
- Mute the room microphone while the local group is working. Unmute when someone is speaking to the other sites.
- Use one microphone aimed at the person talking. A laptop on a side table picks up chairs and misses the speaker.
- Have someone watch the chat, so a question from another site is not stuck on a screen no one is facing.
- Say your name and your site when you start. Other rooms cannot see a raised hand in your building.
- Do not assume a remote person can read the whiteboard. Photograph it, or type the conclusion into the shared notes.
- If the group splits, move the side conversation to a breakout or another room. Two groups on one speaker makes the call noise.
Before the week, test with another site or a colleague at home: display, mute, and guest wifi, with the room full of laptops.
Before the week
- Confirm the rooms: a main space, nearby breakouts as the group needs them, and a quiet room.
- Ask IT about wifi for the headcount you expect.
- Test the display, microphone, and camera with someone outside the building.
- Name the local Zoom host and a backup, and have them made co-hosts.
- Note the cross-site call times in UTC and in local time once those times are published.
- Post, in the room and in the pre-week note: wifi, where registered participants find Zoom, who to find in the building, and where to report a conduct concern.
- Agree where project notes and demo requests will be written.
Still open
These details are still open. When one is decided, edit this file before you announce a meeting.
- Clock times for the Monday opening, the daily check-in, and the Friday wrap-up. A draft shape of the week is proposed above.
- The Zoom link, meeting ID, and passcode.
- Which people are co-hosts, and the local host named at each site.
- Whether participants can self-select or open breakout rooms, and how to ask for one.
- How many physical breakout spaces to reserve, and the people-to-rooms guide.
- How many quiet rooms a site should hold beyond one.
- The equipment a host is expected to provide.
- Expected headcount and any wifi capacity target.
- Host time zones and the daily overlap window.
- Where prompts, demo requests, and project notes are collected.
- When demos sit on the schedule, and who chooses if the list is too long.