The Process-team both ensured a good flow of the meetings, using a number of techniques, and enabled newcomers to facilitation to learn, practice and improve their skills.
Initially at the kick off meeting of the EPT in Germany (August 2012) the group found great difficulty in deciding how it would work and move forward with delivering the stated outcomes of the Learning Partnership. Davie Philip from Cultivate Ireland suggested using the Viable Systems Model (VSM), as a way to structure the work of the partnership.
Every participant takes a piece of paper on which the name of his/her secret friend is written. You keep this in secret as your secret friend does. You can use the time of the course to make nice things for this person like prepare a hand-made present, write something nice and hide it under the pillow, and so on.
Aims: To help participants know the area Conduct a treasure hunt around the town/farm/village/center where the course is held. Hide various objects in important locations such as the closest shop, post office, bank, pharmacy, toilets, showers, swimming pool… use a map of the area to plan this.
There are lots of different ways of doing this, here is one example:
Raw vegan candies race:
In this type of treasure hunt the task is to make raw vegan candies.
Aims: Getting to know each other and creating a “gallery of heads” together (for decorating the rooms) Numbers: 10-30 participants in pairs Materials: Sheets of paper, cardboard, pencils, scissors, lamps (or candles) After a short introduction, silhouettes are made in pairs; the outline of the head of each person is copied and then cut out. Possibilities for continuation:
Aims: getting to know each other from the first day and remember the names of everybody Numbers: Any Length: 10-30 minutes depending on group size/s