Welcome to the Global Shaper’s Stockholm Hub! Henceforth, referred to as ‘the Hub’. To make it easier for you when reading this, we’ll make a few assumptions. We will assume that you have surely gotten an idea of what the worldwide community represents as you researched. In this welcome pack a.k.a onboarding dummy, we try to complement the official documents in a more inofficial way and give you a chance to get to know the Hub better. This is a living document and will be updated throughout the years.
The Hub was founded in 2018 on initiative by Jacob Larsson, who had previously been a Shaper in Ireland. This is typically how a Hub, which per definition is city-based, is initiated. The first thing that a potential founding curator does is to find his fellow vice curator (Noura Berrouba) and establish a founding team. The World Economic Forum, henceforth referred to as ‘the Forum’, provides guidelines for the initiation phase as well as criteria and expectations throughout the growth of the Hub. Each city-based hub is, however, to a large extent in charge of its own structure, governance and conduct.
Being a Shaper
First and foremost, you are a Shaper because you believe in the movement and you want to take part! It is not a must, it is not dead-serious, it is not mandatory, and you can quit/become an alumni at any point in time. As long as you are a Shaper though, you are expected to participate in the Monthly Meetings, take part in projects, pay the humble membership fee (300 kr) and stand for the values set up by the charter. But since we hope you’ll find all of this enriching and fun, it shouldn't be a problem.
The beginning
The ‘Shapership’ starts off with a three month ‘trial’ period **to give you a chance to know if this is for you. Do you have the time? Do you like it? After that, you can officially come onboard as a Shaper which means that you register on TopLink and get full access to the platforms.
Life as a Shaper in Stockholm
It is what you make of it. Shapers gonna shape. Our projects have the potential to have an impact on our societies, and it is up to us how to best leverage the diversity of our group. Each member will sign our code of conduct. By reading that document, you will get a clearer picture of what’s expected. Something to keep in mind is that Global Shapers is a very mobile community. Thus, it is not unusual that a Shaper leaves a city and thus the Hub. There are sometimes ‘transfer’ possibilities. In Stockholm, we have a few ‘transferred’ Shapers from e.g Oxford, etc. Consult our policy for information regarding what to do when changing cities. Rule of thumb: inform curators well in advance if you consider moving abroad.
Organisational structure
First of all, the culture and decision-making structure can be described as rather flat in Stockholm. All members are invited to discuss ongoing matters during the Monthly meetings (MM) (MM). The highest decision making body for the Hub is the Annual General Meeting (AGM). For other decisions members consult the different teams working on topics, or the Curatorship. The item can be brought up to the MM and we generally strive to achieve consensus. At this moment we have a few elected posts, chosen at the AGM:
Elected “board members”
We also have ‘leads’, i.e. the person in charge, and ‘teams’. This makes for a more solid, involving and decentralised organisation. The idea is that every Shaper gets a role in a project, and may have a role in the Hub itself within any of the following. On Slack, you can see which Shapers that are engaging in which team.