Facilitation

Four roles of a facilitator at group meetings.

This handout was contributed by Laird Shaub for a workshop titled "But Seriously Folks...A Close Look at the Two-edged Sword of Humor in Meetings; How to Encourage the Good Kind, and Put a Lid on the Bad" at NASCO's 2008 Cooperative Education and Training Institute.

You can use this tool creatively, adapting the intensity of the 4 basic principles to different situations, depending on the level of risk being taken in each setting. Some components of these tools may be inappropriate for some settings, and invaluable in others. The more personal risk involved, the more carefully you want to frame the space at the outset, because a secure anchor is the only thing that will enable a process to fly to the heights of its potential.

This document provides a guide to parliamentary procedure; what is it? how does it work? what are its advantages and disadvantages?

The following approach to facilitation and decision-making outlined in this document is a modified consensus process which came out of the June 2006 NASCO Board meeting after a good deal of discussion and experimentation with different meeting processes. The process outlined below is something of a hybrid, which attempts to combine some of the clarity and formality of Roberts Rules with the participatory and flexible nature of consensus processes.

Techniques for problem solving in meetings.

This packet is full of useful tools for learning about and practicing nonviolent communication. This resource was created by: The Center for Nonviolent Communication (www.cnvc.org), 5600 San Francisco Rd. NE Suite A, Albuquerque, NM 87109, Tel: +1.505.244.4041. "We share our material freely and we appreciate donations. A contribution that reflects your appreciation of what we offer and the value you receive will be used to further the development and distribution of Nonviolent Communication.

The attached guide was created by the NASCO Inclusion Committee as a tool for facilitating caucuses and working groups at NASCO Institute.

A decision-making process that many co-ops use is consensus. Consensus is a process of building united judgment whose purpose is not to avoid conflict but to bring out all opinions and perspectives. Each position has a responsibility to present facts and perceptions which are not being considered, to explain her or his position clearly and rationally, and to question the other positions so as to reach full understanding of their positions.

“It is time to stop looking at governance as a ‘problem to be solved,’ and instead see governance as an ‘opportunity to change the world.’ ” - Hildy Gottlieb