Facilitation

Session materials from “Cultivating Connection: Principles to support Facilitation” presented by Adrian Roman at NASCO Institute 2024. Facilitation is an important skill in any cooperative. The practical skills are very important, as are the intuitive elements - like when someone may not have felt heard, or when things need to shift direction, how to adapt or allowing emergence. In this session we will experience a Listening Circle. A Listening Circle is an intentional space where we gather to build relation, connection, trust and practice being seen, heard, seeing and hearing.

River City Housing Collective's visual for hand signals. This is reviewed during an information session with prospective members, and whoever is facilitating a meeting where a new member is present will review the hand signals before the meeting starts.

This workshop takes us beyond in-person meetings into the world of virtual meeting facilitation. In this slide deck, we will provide best practices for virtual facilitation and tools to build consensus within the group. This includes exercises to try out facilitation tools with group discussions.

Below, are the recordings for NASCO Institue 2020 sessions by room. Please share lessons learned with your cooperatives and communities. 

If you did not register for NASCO Institute and you'd like to support free and low-cost cooperative education, please consider contributing a donation amount that feels appropriate for you and/or your cooperative. Your donation makes it possible to offer cooperative education materials and resources free of charge. DONATE HERE.

Slide Templates for Engaging Remote Meetings and Webinars by Training for Change

Print out this meeting hand signals infographic to hang in your meeting space or to pass around before meetings to ensure that members are on fair footing when participating in group discussions.

This handout is from Laird Schaub's (Fellowship for Intentional Community) workshop titled "Consensus 101" at NASCO Institute 2013.

'Fist to Five' is a tool for gauging support for a proposal or idea in groups that engage in consensus-based decision making. This document describes the 'Fist to Five' process in detail. For more information, see: 'Fist to Five' Activity.

Reproduced without permission from The New School, 38 York St, Kennebunk ME 04043.