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Father School: S tep by Step Colleagues. We organize classes jointly with parents clubs, non-government women's organizations, statesocial services which provide assistance to women in a difficult life situation. Our colleagues organize classeswith expectant mothers while their husbands attend father groups; ‘By word of mouth’. Some participants had learnt about father groups from their friends, a newspaper ortelevision. This works when classes are run continuously at the same place; The Internet. Participants living in other districts with no father groups find us through Father Schoolwebsites and apply for joining the classes.Picture: St. Petersburg Father School leaflet. Printed with the support of the St. Petersburg Committeeon Social Policy.Operation RulesAt the star of the new group participants agree on common rules, including the use of mobile phones duringsessions (it should be taken into consideration that all participants have expectant wives), smoking breaks andcommunication rules.Group’s rules should include the following: no curse words; no attending of classes under the influence of alcohol or drugs; no insulting statements related to women and children.Participants may introduce the rule of ‘silence’. The rule allows a participant, who does not feel like joining adiscussion at a particular point or has no ideas about a particular subject, to skip the discussion. It is also quite usefulif the group decides that there are no silly questions and any question related to the session topic may be raised anddiscussed. The common rules accepted by the group are necessary to facilitate the achieving of the classes’objectives. The group moderator should make sure that the rules are observed.Through developing the common rules, participants are offered a model of responsible behavior where eachparticipant undertakes responsibility for its functioning. When during further sessions participants start expressinglots of and sometimes contradictory ideas and suggestions, these jointly accepted rules will help to maintain mutualrespect within the group.41