• Index cards and pencils

• Confirm your arrangements with your guest speaker. Though you or a co-leader might feel comfortable presenting the information in this session, having a guest gives the youth an opportunity to connect with another adult in the congregation.
• If you wish, contact youth via e-mail before the session and ask them to provide questions for the guest.

Youth will find out more about the families of your particular congregation by hearing from a guest speaker who knows many families. Prepare participants for the arrival of the guest. Provide background about the speaker and the purpose of the speaker's talk. Invite them to generate questions for the guest. What do they want to know about parish families? Hand out index cards and ask participants to write questions that may be posed later. Be prepared with potential questions to offer participants who need more guidance. After a few minutes, collect the index cards.

Welcome the speaker. Offer to assist as needed, and offer the question cards to the speaker. Make sure that participants have time to ask the guest questions.

When the conversation comes to an end, thank the guest speaker together with the participants. If time permits, allow a few minutes for participants to debrief. You might ask:

• What did you learn that was new?
• What surprised you?
• What questions do you have as a result of the presentation?
• What do you want to learn more about?

Remind participants that they too will have the opportunity to learn more about families in the congregation through their own project.