One workshop, Two leading facilitators, Two books, Four locations—Priceless insights.

Instructors: Dorothy Strachan & Marian Pitters

* Halifax-Dartmouth (October 15-16)
* Edmonton (October 26-27)
* Winnipeg (October 29-30)
* Vancouver (November 5-6)

Organized by the International Association of Facilitators, this is a must-participate professional development event for facilitators in a broad range of situations: consultants, managers, coaches, educators, event planners and others who facilitate groups.

* Are you interested in optimizing group outcomes?
* Do you want dynamic techniques and tools at your fingertips for designing and managing facilitated processes?
* Do you spend a lot of time looking for the right questions to drive group processes?
* Are you looking for an excellent learning opportunity to enhance your facilitation knowledge?
* Would you like to expand your facilitation network?

This hands-on, interactive workshop combines useful knowledge with practical skill development in a collegial learning atmosphere.

Dorothy Strachan and Marian Pitters are two of the most experienced and respected practitioners, authors, and trainers in the world-wide facilitation community. Marian and Dorothy are long-time, successful consultants with their own extensive process consulting/facilitation businesses. Their approaches and ideas are tested and refined in daily practice. What they say is also what they do!

Early-bird pricing (a savings of $100) is in effect until October 1 ($595.00 for IAF members, and $745.00 for non-members).

The low workshop price includes books:

Managing Facilitated Processes: A Guide for Consultants, Facilitators, Managers, Trainers, Event Planners and Educators, by Dorothy Strachan and Marian Pitters (2009).

And either Making Questions Work: A Guide to What and How to Ask for Facilitators, Consultants, Managers, Coaches and Educators, by Dorothy Strachan (2007), or, at the Halifax workshop, Process Design: Making It Work: A Practical Guide to What to Do When and How for Facilitators, Consultants, Managers and Coaches, by Dorothy Strachan and Paul Tomlinson (2008).

Additional workshop resource materials, continental breakfasts, lunches, and breaks are also included.

For more details on each workshop and to register, go to: www.goldenplanners.ca/IAF/IAF2009. Or contact tour organizers by e-mail.

More information will be out soon on the fall 2009 Tour stops in western and eastern Canada. In the meantime, we are looking for volunteers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Northwest Territories, and British Columbia who would like to lead or join local teams to promote the workshops in your areas.

We are also looking for a volunteer willing to provide overall leadership and coordination to the promotion of the Tour. These are absolutely essential roles if we are to make the 2009 Tour a real success!

If you are interested in helping to make this excellent professional development event happen, please contact John Butcher at (613) 725-2280 or by email.

North America 2009 – Vancouver
(April 20 – 25)
While both the individual workshop and overall evaluations are still being tabulated, I shall go out on a limb and report that the 2009 Conference in Vancouver was a great success. We received consistent praise for the quality of the workshops and content-oriented plenary sessions, the overall on-site flow and organization, the registration system, the food, and just about every other aspect of the event.

There will no doubt be areas identified as needing improvement (or that just did not work). But the success of the Conference was due to the efforts of the Steering Team and their working groups.

The Canadian members of that Team were: Angela Sealy, our Conference Chair, who also headed up the local Vancouver support group and the Conference’s Community Outreach project; Taralee Hammond and Coleen Davidson, co-Chairs of the Program Team; Kimberly Bain, Sponsors and Exhibitors; and, Wendy Hassen, Communications.

As well, we received exceptional service from our Conference planner, Advance Group. Thanks to all of you who were able to attend and lend your support. And a fi nal thank you to our Conference sponsors: ICA Associates Inc., MGR Consulting, Intersol, and Jossey-Bass.

Looking Ahead ……. North America 2010 – Chicago
(April 20-25)
Jan Means, our 2010 Conference Chair, David Spann, IAF US Regional Representative, and their planning team (which includes Coleen Davidson,
Taralee Hammond, and others from the 2009 group) are already hard at work on the design of the Chicago Conference. The theme is “The Art and Mastery of Facilitation: Collaboration in Action.”

The Call for Proposals for professional development workshops can now be downloaded from the Conference web site (www.iafna2010.com). Submissions are due June 19. There will be a host of innovative features at the Chicago Conference that have not been tried before at a North America event. And Chicago is one of North America’s most vibrant and interesting cities. The site at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place will situate delegates in the city’s downtown. So please mark the dates and plan to join us there.
Asia – Taipei
(August 28 – 31)
The 12th Annual IAF Asia Facilitators Conference will take place in Taipei, Taiwan, on August 28 – 31. A certification event will be held on August 26 – 27.
The Conference theme is “GEAR up for the future!” GEAR stands for Grounding, Evolution, Alignment, and Recharging. The Conference program
will be designed to help participants develop the methodologies and spirit to keep moving forward and to help others to make the changes that must be made. The Conference web site is accessible through the IAF home page.

Europe – Oxford
(September 18 – 20)
2009 is the European Year of Creativity and Innovation. As a result, the theme of this year’s IAF Europe Conference is “Get Inspired.” The Conference will be held at Keble College in Oxford, United Kingdom, on September 18 – 20 (with an accompanying IAF professional certification event and pre-conference seminars on September 16 – 17).

More information is available either directly from the IAF web site’s home page, or by clicking on the IAF Europe Regional web site and following the thread.
Latin America and Caribbean – Barbados
(September 24 –26)
The First IAF Caribbean Facilitators Conference is being planned for Barbados on September 24 – 26, with a professional certification event on
September 22, and pre-conference workshops on September 23. The theme of the Conference is “The Art and Mastery of Facilitation: Pathway to Integration.” It will focus on the role that facilitation plays in addressing the financial, environmental, and social challenges faced by the Caribbean. Until the Region’s web site is complete, more information on the Conference is available by writing to the conference contact.

Africa – Cape Town
(October 28 – 30)
Cape Town in October, at the Ocean View Hotel, just outside the city, will be a wonderful experience. The 4th IAF Africa Facilitators Conference and the 2nd Africa Facilitator Certification Event will take place on October 28 – 30. Conference organizers are now sifting through the workshop proposals received at the end of April. You can access the Conference web site directly from the IAF home page.

Australia/New Zealand – Nelson
(November 23 – 27)
If you have not yet visited the Nelson region of New Zealand, you should know that it is one of the most beautiful and interesting areas in a country that is supremely beautiful and interesting. Nelson will host the Australasian Facilitators Network Conference 2009 on November 23 – 27. The Conference theme is “Creating a Bow Wave for Facilitation.”  The call for workshop proposals will be out soon. The Conference web site is accessible via the IAF home page (click on the “IAF Australia & NZ web site”).

California

• Ami Readdy, Emeryville, California
• Erika Gregory, Vallejo, California
• Tara M. Zagofsky, Davis, California
• Gaelle Glickfield, San Jose, California
• Carol R. Stone, Villa Park, California

Florida

• Alison Barlow, St Petersburg, Florida

Georgia

• Faye Dresner, Decatur, Georgia
• Susan Peacock, Atlanta, Georgia

Illinois

• Jewel Ware, Chicago, Illinois
• Colleen McFarland, Chicago, Illinois
• Nicole Stavish, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Don Scheibenreif, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Meeta Kratz, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Alfred Johnson, Lake Forest, Illinois
• JoAnn Fioretto, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Chris Sullivan, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Maria Keevins-Kogen, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Matthew Kelley, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Jwa-Seop Shin, Springfield, Illinois
• Laura E. Good, Park Ridge, Illinois

Maryland

• Paul F. Schmitz, Bethesda, Maryland
• Brenda Mahaffey, Stevensville, Maryland

Massachusetts

• Jodie Smith-Bennett, Sharon, Massachusetts

Michigan

• Steven W. Baker, Berkley, Michigan

Missouri

• Rebeccah Bennett, St. Louis, Missouri
• Jessica Perkins, St. Louis, Missouri

Nebraska

• Ran Kuttner, Omaha, Nebraska

New Jersey

• Eric K. Shaw, Fanwood, New Jersey
• Lynn Goldhammer, Bradley Beach, New Jersey
• Jane Decolvenaere, Edison, New Jersey

New York

• Sheila A. Marshman, Morrisville, New York
• Arlene Way, Albany, New York
• Bruce E. Rector, New York, New York

Ohio

• Donna G. Childs, Dayton, Ohio
• Harry H. Bound, Avon, Ohio

South Carolina

• Mary B. Gorman, Greenville, South Carolina

Texas

• Stephen Denney, Garland, Texas
• Fonda E. Mangino, Plano, Texas
• Jason Franzen, Allen, Texas
• John M. Langford, San Antonia, Texas

Virginia

• Rebecca Steele, Reston, Virginia
• John J. Dano, Virginia Beach, Virginia
• Paige Ireland, Alexandria, Virginia
• Meghan E. Hamilton, Potomac Falls, Virginia
• David Spahr, Woodbridge, Virginia

Washington

• Sue Bennett, Seattle, Washington
• Douglas Taylor, Peshastin, Washington

Washington D.C.

• Kate O. Onyeanakwe, Washington D.C.

Have you considered using a traditional story about patience, such as “The Tigers Whisker“?  Stories promote an understanding of how we are bound together by shared experiences. Shared experience is one way to build trust. You can tell the story and then take five minutes to allow each participant to jot down a story of their own in which the use of patience had value.  We are very goal focused and sometimes forget the value of the process. This story and exercise can be used as a jumping off point for facilitated discussion.  – John Schraven
—————————-
Here’s a good one: pair the group up into dyads, and have one person stand in front of the other, with their back to the person behind them. They should be about 6-12 inches apart. When the person in front is ready, have them fall backward into the arms of the person behind them. If that goes well, then they can stand a bit farther apart, so the distance between them is widening, but the person “catching” is still catching the one in front as they get farther apart. Obviously, this promotes trust on both sides, and it also requires that they not get SO far apart the catcher can’t catch the “fall-er.” –Geoff Laughton

Editor’s Note:  To view the rest of the responses,  join the Professional Facilitators Network Group on LinkedIn.

Hi! I am a certified coach both for individuals and teams/systems….other facilitators said that I “couldn’t get jobs” in the government and/or large corporations without the IAF Credential – and that they wouldn’t recommend my work because I didn’t have the credential even though I worked with them and they said I was great. What is everyone’s experience? Do you have the IAF credential? If so, how has it assisted your business? If you don’t have it, do you think it has been an obstacle you have had to get around?  

Editor’s Note: The answers are all interesting, including one from the IAF US Rep.  To view the rest of the responses,  join the Professional Facilitators Network Group on LinkedIn.