 Hi, we're Rachel and Morial from the Wikimedia Foundation and we're here to share with you some best practices to encourage diverse participation in group discussions. You know, it's really important to kind of think about these things because you might have people that have very diverse opinions and they might not have the same cultural concept and they it's really important for us to hear their voices. So here are a couple of bullet points we came up with to help you out. So the first one, when you ask a question, try to define it well. That means that sometimes, you know, people might lose focus a little bit or not really understand what the previous sentence was about. Make sure that when you are actually discussing a question, it is defined right. And we all, all participants in the discussion know what they're actually talking about and don't go off on tangents. The next point is that taking time to stop and reframe can help keep a conversation on track. So that's a really important one. Always define the technical and regional terms. You would be surprised how easy it is to kind of forget a term or, you know, not be aware of something or have different terms in different languages. And the conversation might be really technical. Don't fall into assuming that everybody knows what you're talking about. Just define terms. Before you move on to the next question or subject, pause and ask if anyone has any last things to say. Focus on people who have not spoken yet. The importance is to focus on the people who might not be comfortable speaking up or might not be comfortable interrupting the conversation and budding in. If you leave a little bit of space and a little bit of silence for those people, then they may be more likely to give you their opinions. Always summarize the conversation and the next steps before you move on. Give people a little bit of context of what just happened and what they were part of. If a small number of people are doing a large amount of the talking, pause and see if anyone else has anything to say or if the group is unhappy with the discussion as it is. Sometimes it's okay if some people do most of the talking but in other cases this might be something that's bothering your audience. Make sure that you just pay attention to those things because this is the most important thing. Sometimes if the conversation goes well, it might continue. But it might be that other people also have very interesting things to say. So try to think about which groups you have not heard from and try to solicit the input directly. Did we maybe not hear from someone who has a different language and has input on this or maybe a third-party user is in the crowd and wants to participate. Solicit those specifically. You don't have to target the individual people and making them feel a little targeted specifically but you do have the option of targeting the general concepts and seeing if anyone has an input. If you are participating in a discussion, try to ask questions or help lead the discussion forward. This is especially important during the Q&A time when there's an open mic. Make sure that you're not up in front of the group taking up unneeded time or bringing up controversial topics that might just lead to arguments. Try to frame things in a productive mindset and questioning and to help other people begin thinking about the idea as well. And always keep in mind that conversations really benefit from diverse viewpoints. We're not just writing others, we really believe in that. So if you feel like you don't have a voice or you're not comfortable raising your hand or participating, try to find someone that can represent your voice or try to find a way to make your voice heard either by the organizers or by the facilitator of the event or in some way trying to make your voice heard. It really is important and we care about that. And finally an interesting viewpoint is to consider that it's often more valuable to hear diverse perspectives than it is to win and convince other people. Sometimes just hearing the perspective and not making a win or a loss out of an issue is what really helps everyone move forward on a topic. Yeah, it's really easy to kind of forget sometimes that our discussions are there to hear from people and not necessarily to win at what you're trying to say. Thank you so much for joining us for this really quick tips for mentors. We hope it was helpful and looking forward to hearing your comments. Thank you. Bye.