Facilitation Teach -In (S) this weekend!

[Maryann]

Hey everyone!

We are going to have some Facilitation teach in(s) this weekend.
We'll do one on Saturday during our day of celebration. We'll do
another one on Sunday night at 7:30 at Java.

I'm planning on being there for both of them. Does anyone else want
to help run them? Anyone else want to help facilitate? Does anyone
want to just participate?

Also, I'd like to propose that after these teach ins we recommit to
having pre and post GA facilitation meetings. I know it's a lot of
time and effort, but I think our facilitation gets a lot better when
we do this. I also think that when people know when/where the
facilitators are meeting they can join us. Ideally, we will have new
facilitators in some role at every GA.

thoughts? ideas?

-Maryann

[BishopZ]

i would love to attend, but can not. will be at future meetings.

my one suggestion is to take more temp checks.
i think people are not always sure if the facilitator is representing
the group,
and a temp check is the best way to re-establish this connection.

much love, bz

--
------------------------------------------------------
Design After Next, design technology
>> http://www.designAfterNext.com
-------------------------------------------------------

[Maryann]

Hey Everyone!

The teach in today is soon! It's at 2 pm. I'll be there! But, I
don't have the handouts. Joe - can you print some, if you're coming or
send me a copy of the file, if you're not? No one has confirmed that
they are coming today, but even if facilitators come out we can talk
about how we want to do this.


Also - tomorrow's teach in is at 7:30 pm. Please join in for that
one. I know at least a few of us will be there.

See y'all tonight for the GA.

thanks!

-Maryann

[Nolan Darilek]

Crap. Was going to catch the bus to this in like ten minutes, then the
rain started. Now I'm looking at the forecasts and seeing
rain/thunderstorms likely tonight. Sorry, will try catching this on a
non-rainy day.

As an aside, does anyone pass through or near enough to north central
Austin that giving me a lift in exchange for gas money might be doable
sometimes? (Lamar and Koenig) It isn't a bad bus ride, but I don't like
waiting for buses in the rain if I can help it. :)

[scott butki]

sorry I can't make tonites teach in but I enjoyed and was educated at Saturday's teaching and doing stack for the first time sat nite

Scott

--
Scott Butki
I write therefore I am
http://www.sbutki.newsvine.com

"You ask strange and difficult questions. I like that - author Tom Straw, http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2007/09/23/980530-an-interview-with-tom-straw-author-of-the-trigger-episode-part-2

[James Raines]

I want to meet to solidify ideas on the best way to host a
facilitation workshop locally and at a national level. We have a great
process here in Austin and not everywhere has had the time or
resources to refine it to the degree we have. In making the workshop
more successful i would like to have scenario training, like running a
mock GA with as many problems as possible and more over just have the
workshop procedures established in writing so that regardless of who
comes and goes it will always be presented with clarity.

> I write therefore I amhttp://www.sbutki.newsvine.com
>
> "You ask strange and difficult questions. I like that - author Tom Straw,http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2007/09/23/980530-an-interview-with-...

[April Nealy]

I can't make it today, but I'll be there tue. or wed.

-April

[Maryann]

Hey!

I really, really like James' idea of a mock GA. I think it would be
great practice for those of us that don't have as much experience
facilitating. I also think it would be helpful to get practice where
there is no pressure.
Let's find a time and date that we can plan this and then that we can
do it. Let's publicize it.

Any ideas? I think we should have some real shitty things happen.
Like have someone start screaming about 10 feet away from the GA. How
do you deal with that? (that happened at my second GA!) Maybe we can
have someone who just wants to talk ALL the time. Or maybe have a
member of the facilitation team get up and leave in the middle of the
GA.

Any ideas??

I'm stoked about this!

-Maryann

On Jan 9, 6:24 pm, April Nealy <april.ne...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I can't make it today, but I'll be there tue. or wed.
> -April
>

> ________________________________
> From: James Raines <occupycha...@gmail.com>

[scott butki]

lets do it - i did a mock facilitating of something at church the other day and they had participants have scripts of things they had to do to make faciliating hard
i'm in

"You ask strange and difficult questions. I like that - author Tom Straw, http://sbutki.newsvine.com/_news/2007/09/23/980530-an-interview-with-tom-straw-author-of-the-trigger-episode-part-2

[James Raines]

We have the process listed with in the flow chart. Now we need the
predefined process and further explanation sheet attached to the flow
chart for teaching purposes. Once this is done then gather the list of
all the problems that could possibly arise. It would be beneficial if
we could list them out individually so that the next facilitation
meeting we could place them in order to begin making the outline of
the mock GA and work on proposed solutions.

I have a few other cities i am helping at the moment and one we have
these documents and workshop amenities we will be able to help many
more. I think we should create a video of the mock GA as well as a
general OA process workshop video.

If anyone wants to meet during the day the rest of the week that would
be fun, if not I am available Friday and possibly Sunday.. I am trying
to make the DC trip but my school schedule will decide that.

[Joe Cooper]

These are all awesome ideas. We should ask at the real GA for some volunteers to be ornery during our mock GA; folks who are naturally good at it, or folks who are able to play the role pretty well.

What's a good topic for our mock GA? Maybe the safer spaces thing that we're currently working on? That's proven contentious in other places, and I believe it is an issue where we can find people happy to play devil's advocate. We haven't ever actually passed a comprehensive safer spaces policy, though, so we haven't proven we can work through it (though I'm confident we can, at this point). Police neutrality was a sticky issue that I believe we handled extremely well (on the second go around, anyway). Food table is one that went off the rails instantly, and was unsalvageable because it was a bad proposal to start with...and so that's an example of why people should be working with working groups and facilitators in advance of bringing proposals.

I'll try to write up a prose version of the flow chart (an extension of the very brief description on our trifold) before we meet again, so we can work through it and edit it and make sure it is concise and accurate. James, I can get together during the day, sometimes. Wednesday and Thursday are my busy days, but otherwise, I can make some time in the afternoons. 

We should also refine the outline for teaching, as well as come up with an outline for the mock GA. I don't want our materials to get crazy complicated and such, but I think have a few scripts for example scenarios will be useful, as will having an accessibility guide, and a few other bits and pieces that determine whether a GA goes well for everyone or not.

[Spencer Harmon]

I dig this. Are there other meetings tonight after the GA that would prevent us from getting together to talk about it?

[Joe Cooper]

Lisa Fithian's site has a ton of good information...I think several of us have gone through training based on some of these materials with Juniper instructing. Specifically, this doc is relevant to our mock GA:

http://educationforoccupation.com/2012/01/10/facilitation-and-consensus-training-agenda/

But everything in the group process menu is good for us to learn from.

[Maryann]

I was about to post a link to that site! I would be down for getting
together either tomorrow (Thursday) after the GA - if you're not going
to the Bank Action or Safer Spaces Group - or on Saturday sometime.

I also have been thinking that maybe there is something I wanted to
add to the flow chart - but it's small...

-Maryann

On Jan 11, 4:23 pm, Joe Cooper <swell...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Lisa Fithian's site has a ton of good information...I think several of us
> have gone through training based on some of these materials with Juniper
> instructing. Specifically, this doc is relevant to our mock GA:
>

> http://educationforoccupation.com/2012/01/10/facilitation-and-consens...

>
> But everything in the group process menu is good for us to learn from.

> On Jan 11, 2012 2:35 PM, "Spencer Harmon" <anti.bellum.trouba...@gmail.com>

[Maryann]

Would a meeting on Sunday night work for everyone? Say 7:30?


Maryann

[Spencer Harmon]

I can show up a little late to that meeting. Also, I want to show up to the mock GA belligerent-drunk; this way, everyone else can open a serious dialog about how easy it is for anyone to derail our process and render us ineffectual, and I can just be totally shitfaced. I think this is a great opportunity to relieve some facilitation frustration.
Spencer

[Lainie]

Ha!

On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 4:12 PM, Spencer Harmon <anti.bellu...@gmail.com> wrote:

I can show up a little late to that meeting. Also, I want to show up to the mock GA belligerent-drunk; this way, everyone else can open a serious dialog about how easy it is for anyone to derail our process and render us ineffectual, and I can just be totally shitfaced. I think this is a great opportunity to relieve some facilitation frustration.
Spencer

--
"There's more than one way to tell each other things, and there's more than one way to listen, too. And if you've never heard a tree telling you something, then I'd say you really don't know how to listen just yet." -Ida B (via Katherine Hannigan)

[Maryann]

is this going to be a special topic at our teach in tomorrow (Sunday)
night at 7:30?

also maybe I'm the last person to read this but wikipedia has a great
article on consensus process!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus_decision-making

On Jan 15, 11:22 pm, Lainie <lainie.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Ha!
>
> On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 4:12 PM, Spencer Harmon <
>

[Joe Cooper]

Yeah, let's include a small mock GA in our teach-in tomorrow, so we can put some of the participants into the role of moderator, and get them comfortable with it. We should still plan a big scripted mock GA for filming when James gets back.