Structure & Policies
Structure
Our reading group leaders are experienced readers and guides in conversation. We especially welcome as volunteers graduates of academic programs based on reading and discussing great books.
Our tutors and Core Program leaders hold PhDs or have other significant experience in serious and in-depth intellectual work. We seek academics who are willing and able to work on a volunteer basis; zealous about their own learning; happy to conduct classes by conversation rather than lecture; open to learning from adults in all walks of life; and eager to read outside of their field of expertise.
Our executive director oversees the day-to-day management of the Catherine Project and takes the lead in all aspects of its operations. They collaborate with the board, founder, and associate director on intellectual content and strategic direction. They also manage outreach to volunteers, faculty, and readers
Our associate director assists with the day-to-day management of the Project, taking point in registration, helping communicate with leaders and readers, and supporting the executive director.
Our advisory board provides high-level governance, financial oversight, and, in collaboration with the executive director, sets the Catherine Project’s strategic direction. Along with providing advice and financial support, members also contribute pro-bono professional services (e.g., graphic design and website development) as circumstances warrant.
Policies
Community
We endeavor to create a community for both the leaders of our courses and our readers.
Donations
The Catherine Project exists to foster the love of learning and create spaces where it can be practiced. We charge no fees and rely on the freely given support of our community because we reject the student-as-consumer model. Everything we do is a gift offered by those who love the idea of learning for its own sake and wish to make its communal expression more widely available.
We encourage each reader to donate in accordance with his or her ability. We would like our readers to have a stake in our organization as well as a place in its community.
Registration in a course is completely independent from past donations or from one’s capacity or willingness to donate.
Hospitality
We endeavor to welcome to our groups any adult who desires to learn and who has the basic abilities to read a book and hold a conversation. We also require that all who are admitted as readers welcome others on the same terms.
Communication
In the spirit of hospitality and accountability, leaders ought to make themselves reasonably available for one-on-one conversations, especially if a reader is having difficulties or in order to pass on and receive feedback.
While leaders of our courses have broad freedom to troubleshoot conversational difficulties as they see fit, the executive director is in place to support them in whatever way they would deem most helpful. Readers and leaders are encouraged to relate difficulties to the executive director: jordan.poyner@catherineproject.org.
Conversational difficulty
All open-ended discussion is liable to encounter difficult conversational dynamics or behaviors. By design, the Catherine Project is radically open and attracts readers from a great variety of backgrounds and circumstances. This can result in misunderstanding or disagreement as to what is appropriate conversational practice in our courses. In our attempts to practice serious and open-ended inquiry in community, we take our bearings from our guidelines for discussion.
We seek to maintain a culture of conversation, which requires having discussions about conversational difficulty.
Participation and attendance
Readers who are absent for two or more meetings and fail to communicate with their leaders may be withdrawn from the course. If you know you will be absent on a given day, you are responsible for communicating in a timely manner with your leaders. Missing more than two meetings, even with communication, may result in your withdrawal from the course.
In applying to study with us, applicants commit to practicing the activities related to the course to which they’ve applied. For example: completing the readings, preparing questions, consistently writing the weekly reflection papers, investing sufficient time outside of meetings studying the language, etc.
Readers who fail to take these commitments seriously or communicate responsibly may not be admitted to future Catherine Project courses. You are always welcome to write to us and explain your situation: study@catherineproject.org.
Turning off video in online courses
Our aim is to cultivate and serve a community of readers who are zealous about their own learning and eager to collaborate with others. We understand that our readers come from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances and that learning can look different for each of us. While there is no expectation that every reader speak or otherwise contribute an equal amount, a collaborative and live attempt at learning cannot succeed where a group of learners doesn’t know whether their fellows are present or listening.
Having one’s camera off in a Zoom meeting communicates to your fellow learners that you are not present.
- If you have an extenuating circumstance that requires you to have your camera off for all or part of a meeting, it is imperative that you communicate this to the leader(s) of your course.
- Course leaders, in consultation with Catherine Project leadership, may determine that is not possible for readers to participate in their course without their cameras on.
Withdrawing from a course
We understand that life can foil the best of intentions, and that your experience reading with us may end up being very different than the one you imagined or hoped for. If, for whatever reason, you find yourself unable to commit to the weekly meetings and reading (or study), please communicate with your course leader or directly with our staff: study@catherineproject.org.
Repeatedly missing meetings, or withdrawing from a course without communicating, risks discouraging your leader and fellow readers, and deprives waitlisted readers of the opportunity to participate.
Removing a reader from a course
The removal of a reader from a course is a special situation that requires the approval of the executive director. Leaders may recommend to the executive director that a reader be removed from a course for any of the following reasons:
- The reader shows no evidence of learning
- The reader disrupts the learning of others and does not respond to correction on this point
- There is evidence of inappropriate or threatening behavior towards the leader or other readers
Removing a leader
Similarly, the executive director may remove a leader from a course for either of the following reasons:
- The leader disrupts the learning of his or her readers
- There is evidence of inappropriate or threatening behavior
Recording meetings
We find that the awareness that one is being recorded changes how one participates in conversation. In a Catherine Project discussion, one should be willing to risk articulating strange, inchoate, or flawed ideas. Knowing that what one says is entering some kind of record can compromise one’s willingness to take that risk.
- While leaders may use their discretion in recording meetings, the Catherine Project’s general policy is not to allow recording.
- If a leader would like to record a meeting, they must acquire the consent of all of the readers in their course to the meeting being recorded.
- For similar reasons, we do not allow the use of AI notetaking apps.
