The meeting place you choose needs to be available to you 9 to 12 months of the year, depending on whether or not your group wants to meet in the summer. Libraries, community centers, businesses, churches, schools, and many apartment buildings have meeting rooms that are accessible to the public and are often available without charge. It's best to have a meeting room in a quiet location where chairs can be placed around a table. Some groups meet in private homes. We have found that the most successful groups are those in which participants take turns leading.
Some groups use co-leading, a process in which two people lead a discussion together.
Before the entire group meets, the leader should prepare the discussion questions with a co-leader or another member of the group. Because each person will bring a different point of view to the reading, two people working together can prepare better questions than either could alone. The quality of your discussions can be enhanced when some or all members of your group have attended an Adult Program Participant Training workshop. In this workshop, both leaders and participants learn how to prepare for, and take part in, Shared Inquiry discussions. The Great Books Foundation offers a number of training options .