The Continuance Institute

The Circles · C-33

Charlottesville Circle

One of the eleven circles of 1991, and the pattern most other teaching circles copied.

Place
Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
Recognised
1991
Affiliated house
Briar House
Assigned steward
Warren Dabney
Convener
Alma ThrelkeldBookseller. Term began 2025; second and final consecutive year.
Ordinary meeting
Weekly, Wednesday evenings
Typical attendance
17 to 24
Access
Open to visitors

Local history

Charlottesville met informally from 1985 and was among the arrangements given standing in 1991. Its evening class began in 1993, and the two-page note its members wrote about how to run one was circulated to every house in 1996 and is still handed to provisional circles.

The circle has had eighteen conveners since recognition, which is roughly what the rotation procedure intends, and it treats the annual change as ordinary business rather than as an occasion.

The outward obligation

Adult education

Reading and letters class, held with the municipal library service.

Free evening tuition, taught in pairs, three terms a year. Attendance is counted and not recorded by name.

The forms it carries

  • The Quiet Twelve

    Twelve minutes are kept before the reading. Nothing is assigned to the silence.

  • The Repair Table

    A table, a bench, or a marked shelf where ordinary objects wait to be mended.

  • The Weather Entry

    Before the first shared meal of the month, one person writes the weather in the house book.

The shared forms, as they are kept in the houses

Also attached to Briar House

Elsewhere in North America