Sent request on OV for more facilitators

[Lisa Green]

Last night a couple of points were really obvious to me, the women
have been waiting a long time for this version of the occupation
movement (we occupied earth, at least some of us, a long, long time
ago), and we indeed could use some more facilitators.

Molly was willing to step up and jump in as facilitator but Wholly!
Moly! Batman! Chris you were speaking way to much.

The general assembly was choking and gagging on the amount of
structure so we have to loosen up some or we will turn people away. At
one point Neil even suggested that we had to much structure. I
agree!!!!

Loosen up Chris. You stated early on that you were speaking to much,
your intuition was telling you that, that is when you defer to someone
else. Dude you even argued with the speaker about Gandhi which was
taken out of context and discouraged the speaker.

People are not attending the pre-mtg of the facilitators, wonder why?
To much structure. And we have to loosen up some because lots of
people will withdraw if we do not modify and adjust.

There is a balance between chaos (intuition or feminine) and structure
(logic or male) that we must work towards. No one will be able to
control the group for any length of time and why would you when this
is a leaderless movement? So let us take a deep breath. Be the
example.

We are learning here to be activists on many levels. Spiritual
activist. Together. Hang in there.

In love with respect.

Lisa ¨Mean Jeans¨ Green

[Paul Rizzo]

Group,

 

I totally agree with this. I would also point out that Lindsey with all do respect was almost as controlling of t he flow as was Chris. Lindsey, you interrupted several people, finished several peoples thoughts for them, added on to what people said repeatedly. I think we as facilitators have to in some regard back of slightly from the flow of the meeting to perform our tasks, and that's why these positions are to be consistently rotated.

 

Finally, lets pretend that there is an imaginary "WE" before Occupy, to remind us that it is EVERYBODIES meeting. Sitting and letting others share their ideas takes way more discipline than continually coming forth with our own.

 

We may want to consider adding another sign for what I call 'intellectualizing', which is basically showing off how much you know about a particular subject, well over and above what is relevant to the issue at hand.

 

I am available to facilitate on Tuesday, if I can get a female to volunteer to assist. I sincerely think Lindsey and Chris should both take a break from facilitating tasks for a while, but that is just my opinion based solely on what I saw last night.

 

With Respect,

 

Paul

 

 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "occupyveniceFacilitation" group.
To post to this group, send email to occupyvenice...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to occupyveniceFacili...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/occupyveniceFacilitation?hl=en.

[Tyler Golden]

Lots of frustration, let's focus on some solutions.

Here are some of my thoughts:

------------

I think that either Chris or Lindsey should still be at least a co-facilitator, they are really strong at that position and it helps get things moving.
Perhaps more training is needed before facilitating?  Or perhaps give the new facilitator a smaller job rather then doing everything, then let it build (example: just explaining the hand signals for meeting and telling the timer how much time we have)?  Let's brainstorm on solutions to keep a good flow when a new facilitator is up on deck.

------------

Also, I noticed a particular person during friendly amendments / concerns would just state that he agrees and that we need to let this pass (happened a couple of times).  That is a waste of time if we all just go around saying that we agree, even if it's just one person doing it, it could rub onto others that that's acceptable.  (I am correct on this?)  I think at the end of the GA, that the facilitator should talk to that individual and friendly remind them that during that time, it is not to say that you agree, just show your agreement during the temperature check.

------------

I believe the system is and maybe should be clearly stated at the GA:

-  Questions
-  Friendly Amendments / Concerns
-  Re-read of the proposal
-  One more round of Questions AND Friendly Amendments / Concerns
-  Re-read of the proposal
-  Temperature Check

I think that is a great routine no matter how big or small the proposals seems to be.

[Paul Rizzo]

With regard to Chris & Lindsey stepping back for facilitating, it was not personal, it is the nature of the position to be constantly rotated, as well as it frees them up to fully take part in the actual meeting. I am not frustrated at all, I think both Lisa and my own comments were level headed and more importantly with the groups best interest, in mind. From the heart, might be another way to put it

 

On a completely separate note, I have an interview with Greenpeace today that I could not be more excited about! It would be great to be involved in saving the planet and making some green paper, too! Wish me luck!!!

[Kaitlyn]

Hey guys,

Couple things...first off, in Chris' defense, he has been asking for a
LONG time for people to step up and help facilitate. He WANTS to step
down but has felt the need to continue in the facilitator role because
of the lack of volunteers to fill that role. If I'm not mistaken,
Molly actually requested that Chris help her out last night (and when
I spoke with them after, she was grateful for him stepping in when he
did. It can be really overwhelming to lead a GA, especially for
someone who has never done it before, and I think it's vital that we
help each other out until we become more comfortable flying solo in
that role). I think until we get more people involved, it may be a
necessity for Chris and Lindsey to co-facilitate, just so that we know
what we're doing...

Second, while I believe that spontaneity and openness is important in
making people feel comfortable, having a specific structure and
keeping to that structure is vital for the longevity and effectiveness
of the GAs. We have members that have been coming to GAs for a while
that are STILL speaking out of turn or interjecting with things out of
process, nevermind people that are new to the process and don't know
what they are doing; this prevents us coming to consensus on issues in
a timely manner and moving the conversation forward. I like Tyler's
idea of maybe speaking to these individuals privately so that we can
resolve some of these issues outside of the GA. I also really like
Paul's idea adding the sign for "intellectualizing," and I think it's
something that should be brought up in the GA. Points of information
are important to get a clear understanding of what we're discussing,
but often I feel people talk just to hear themselves talk. As Wes
pointed out last night, we often spend extraordinary amounts of time
dealing with issues that honestly don't need it. To avoid this, I
think we need to have the structure to back up the facilitator so that
they can interject and move things along. Otherwise we're going to
have more GAs like we had this week where we don't even get to the
Ideas and Objectives section because we've spent so much time on other
things.

I don't like the idea of trying to "control" our group any more than
anyone else. But taking away the structure so early in the game would
be detrimental to our group. That's just my opinion. Also, I want
to help out and relieve the stress from Chris and Lindsey. I am happy
to facilitate a meeting next week...my concern is getting there on
time, which has prevented me from stepping up in the past, but I'll
make it a priority I get there by 7. Thursday would probably be
better for me, but I'm happy to co-facilitate with Paul on Tuesday if
need be.

P.S. Best wishes with Greenpeace, Paul!! :)

Kaitlyn

On Dec 16, 10:54 am, Paul Rizzo <prizz...@gmail.com> wrote:
> With regard to Chris & Lindsey stepping back for facilitating, it was not
> personal, it is the nature of the position to be constantly rotated, as
> well as it frees them up to fully take part in the actual meeting. I am not
> frustrated at all, I think both Lisa and my own comments were level headed
> and more importantly with the groups best interest, in mind. From the
> heart, might be another way to put it
>
> On a completely separate note, I have an interview with Greenpeace today
> that I could not be more excited about! It would be great to be involved in
> saving the planet and making some green paper, too! Wish me luck!!!
>

> > On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 8:35 AM, Paul Rizzo <prizz...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> Group,
>
> >> I totally agree with this. I would also point out that Lindsey with all
> >> do respect was almost as controlling of t he flow as was Chris. Lindsey,
> >> you interrupted several people, finished several peoples thoughts for them,
> >> added on to what people said repeatedly. I think we as facilitators have to
> >> in some regard back of slightly from the flow of the meeting to perform our
> >> tasks, and that's why these positions are to be consistently rotated.
>
> >> Finally, lets pretend that there is an imaginary "WE" before Occupy, to
> >> remind us that it is EVERYBODIES meeting. Sitting and letting others share
> >> their ideas takes way more discipline than continually coming forth with
> >> our own.
>
> >> We may want to consider adding another sign for what I call
> >> 'intellectualizing', which is basically showing off how much you know about
> >> a particular subject, well over and above what is relevant to the issue at
> >> hand.
>
> >> I am available to facilitate on Tuesday, if I can get a female to
> >> volunteer to assist. I sincerely think Lindsey and Chris should both take a
> >> break from facilitating tasks for a while, but that is just my opinion
> >> based solely on what I saw last night.
>
> >> With Respect,
>
> >> Paul
>

[El Gringo]

I agree with everyone, i really do, and will write back when i have a
chance.

Swamped right now!

Thanx everyone, C

> > >http://groups.google.com/group/occupyveniceFacilitation?hl=en.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -