Form a Team to Start a Conversation in Your Community

Community Conversations offers a unique social-entrepreneurial opportunity for South Africans to make a difference and earn income. This is not a job but a collaborative, entrepreneurial opportunity to make money.

Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

Forming Your Team

Required Team Members:

An experienced group facilitator
An experienced videographer
Security guards (if necessary)
An advertising salesperson (if not one of the team members)

The group facilitator will also be the group leader who must gather a team and together find a suitable venue. South African Conversations provides the framework within which the Conversations take place.

Don’t worry if it is not a professional team. There are many unemployed social workers, psychologists, teachers, activists and actors in communities all over South Africa who could serve as group facilitators. And if you can’t find a professional videographer, find a young person who knows how to create a video using their cell phone – though a microphone would be essential to produce good quality sound. Security can be supplied by one or more of the many trained security guards who live in the community. The advertising salesperson could be anyone from the team or an experienced salesperson. The venue doesn’t need to be fancy. The conversation can take place under a tree in a park. Lower venue costs mean more income to share among the team.

Don’t worry if you don’t know enough people to fill all the roles. Simply choose and apply for the role that suits you best. (Scroll down on this same page to find the application forms.) South African Conversations will coordinate people, organisations and advertisers in each community that expresses an interest in participating.

South African Conversations will secure at least one advertising partnership for each participating team. We provide support and information to make it possible for teams to also find local advertising partners, as more partners mean more income for everyone. The Community Conversation in your community will not start until the first advertising partnership has been established.

We are unable to respond to individual emails or phone calls but will contact you if your application is successful and arrange a virtual or WhatsApp meeting to discuss the next steps and answer any questions you may have. Your first step is to complete an application form.

How the Money Works

Advertising partners pay R200 excl. VAT per event attendee, capped at 30 people – even if there are more attendees.

Income from an event is distributed as follows:

Venue cost: unknown
Advertising salesperson: 12% of the ex-VAT contract value

The remaining balance is distributed among the team, as follows:
- Facilitator/Team Leader: 30%
- Videographer: 25%
- Security guard/s: 10%
- South African Conversations: 35%

Example of Potential Income for a Conversation with 30 participants and one advertiser:

Initial Income: R6,000 (30 participants x R200)
Advertising salesperson’s Commission: R720 (12% of the contract value)
Balance: R5,280
(Note: Anyone on the Team can sell advertising. If they successfully close a deal with an advertising partner, they will earn 12% commission, regardless of any other role they signed up for.)
Venue Cost: R1,000 (This is an assumption. Many township venues are free, public spaces. The event could even take place in a park. When this happens, the money is shared among the team.)
Balance: R4,280
Facilitator/Team Leader: R1,284 (30% of R4,280)
Balance: R2,996
Videographer: R1,070 (25% of R4,280)
Balance: R1,926
Security guard: R428 (10% of R4,280) (If you have two guards, each gets R214 for 3 to 4 hour’s work.)
Balance: R1,498
South African Conversations: R1,498 (35% of R4,280)
Balance: NIL

It is possible to have more than one advertising partner per Conversation. Each additional partner doubles the income for every team member, but not for the venue.

Our Commitment

South African Conversations pledges to:

Confirm individual Team member appointments in writing.
Secure at least one advertising partnership per Community Conversations Team, per event.
Assist with information and tools for the team’s advertising salesperson to approach potential advertising partners in their local community, and ensure that the salesperson is adequately trained for the job.
Confirm the readiness of an advertiser-supported Team to proceed with a Community Conversation under the South African Conversations umbrella, in a particular location.
Provide digital marketing materials for teams to promote the upcoming Community Conversation to the local community via email, WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media.
Promote Community Conversations through national press releases, media interviews and social media postings.
Offer a framework for the Conversations, including facilitation guidelines, attendance and feedback forms, free training resources and more.
Manage advertising partner contracts, invoices, receipts, and team payments based on event outcomes.
Host monthly electronic meetings to jointly decide on future topics and assess the previous event.

South African Conversations’ Rights

We reserve the right to:

Create, market and sell derivative products, such as content for the South African Conversations magazine, Resource Directory, website or social media platforms, and radio programmes or documentaries, from any Community Conversations event. Where possible and at our discretion, acknowledge participating Teams.
Claim all titles, interests and assets relating to South African Conversations and Community Conversations, including, but not limited to the names, identities, logos, marks, slogans, social media and marketing materials, as these relate to the Company and its initiatives.
Terminate our collaborative relationship with any Team or Team member following non-performance, poor quality work, dishonesty or failure to deliver a Conversation video. Termination will be in writing, preceded by an online meeting to find solutions.
Appoint new team members following such termination, to ensure continuity of Community Conversations in that geographic location.

The Team’s Obligations

Team members agree to:

Familiarise themselves with all the information on this page and in the relevant application links, below, the Community Conversations page, and the Advertising Partnership Booking page.
Hold Community Conversations in their community on the first Sunday of every month, from 14:00 to 16:00, with an arrival/set-up time of 13:30 and a possible finishing time of 16:30, for the foreseeable future.
All Team leaders/facilitators must attend a monthly Zoom meeting with South African Conversations – currently shcheduled for the second Sunday of every month, from 14h000 to 16h000 – to discuss the topic and questions for the next event and assess how the previous event went.
Notify South African Conversations through a phone call and in writing (email or WhatsApp) at least four days before any event changes or cancellations, explaining the reason for the changes and suggesting possible alternative arrangements.
Approach local businesses for advertising partnerships.
Resolve problems among Team members to ensure successful Conversation events.
Display the South African Conversations logo, as well as any relevant strategic partner logos, in all Community Conversations videos – as per the sample supplied. These logos can be displayed alongside the team’s logo, if required.
Obtain written approval from South African Conversations for communications carrying the Company’s name or logo BEFORE using such material.
Acknowledge South African Conversations in their descriptions of Community Conversations videos posted on their own YouTube channels. Suggested acknowledgement:
- This South African Conversations Community Conversation was held in (location) on (date) and was facilitated by (facilitator name) and filmed by (videographer name).
Submit event attendance records and feedback forms, and upload the raw video file of the Conversation video to South African Conversations within 48 hours of the event taking place. Failure to do so will prevent South African Conversations from invoicing the advertising partner, resulting in no payment to any team member. Failure to deliver a video without explanation will result in the termination of the working relationship with the videographer or the entire team in that location.
Refrain from starting a similar event in competition with South African Conversations on the first Sunday of any month, using the term ‘Community Conversation’, or using the Conversation videos for commercial gain, other than generating possible advertising revenue from posting the video on their YouTube channel.
Pay their own income taxes.

The Team’s Rights

The Team retains the right to:

Showcase their facilitated and filmed Community Conversations videos on their own YouTube channels, provided that it carries the following acknowledgement:
- This South African Conversations Community Conversation was held in (location) on (date) and was facilitated by (facilitator name) and filmed by (videographer name).
Receive payment as outlined under ‘How the Money Works’ within two working days of the advertising partner/s payment appearing in the South African Conversations’ bank account.

Apply Even if You Don’t Yet Have a Team Together

Select the relevant form, below, and note that applying indicates agreement with the obligations and rights outlined above. Please do not apply if you don’t have at least some relevant experience.