Facilitating online meetings
Online meetings can be a lot of fun! Here are a few ideas to make your meetings exciting, educational, and effective from Daniel Hunter, 350.org.
Tag
Group skills
Resources for decentralised organising
A list of resources about decentralised organising collated and shared by Richard D. Bartlett finding lessons across diverse contexts, from social movements to formal workplaces.
How to start a direct action group to make Martin Luther King proud
George Lakey shares a ‘recipe’ on what it takes to create a thriving direct action group – wisdom built up over many years from trial and error.
Know your allies, your opponents and everyone in between: The Spectrum of Allies
The Spectrum of Allies – a campaign strategy tool developed by George Lakey & Martin Oppenheimer designed to determine allies, opponents and all those in between in a campaign.
Check list for affinity groups
Checklist for affinity groups – looking out for each other and yourself when participating in a blockade or protest.
Holding our groups together in hard times
When social change campaigns experience setbacks it’s understandable this can lead to difficulties in activist groups. Here are some tips and further resources for holding groups together in hard times.
Running Effective Campaign Debriefs
Every campaign is a learning opportunity. Make the most of this by planning for the post-campaign period and setting up debriefs. Here are some tips for campaigners and facilitators.
Action group meetings
This tip sheet has been written to help you and your group work well together and achieve your objectives and highlights some group habits and actions that resilient community groups have relied on: effective meetings with an agreed agenda; clearly-defined roles; mindful decision-making; accountability; and inclusiveness.
Facilitating for Gender Balance
Men frequently participate more than women in meetings, forums and other events. This article outlines practical steps facilitators and participants can take to ensure women are heard.
The Five Fold Path of Productive Meetings
Productive meetings allow an organization to move forward, keep members engaged and give them a sense of empowerment and efficacy. There are five aspects of structure and interpersonal dynamics we must pay special attention to if we want our meetings to be truly productive: Right People; Right Container; Right Process; Right Facilitation; Right Agenda.
Enhancing collective decision-making with technology
Ben Knight presented at Progress 2015 about the power of unleashing collective intelligence through better technology. He provides a short introduction to the Loomio platform for discussion and decision-making.
Nonviolent Community Safety and Peacekeeping Trainers’ Manual
Training resources by Pt’chang for practical ways to intervene in violence, to transform conflict and to build peace.
Nonviolence Trainer’s Resource Manual
Nonviolence training manual to support the work of people working to increase the power and effectiveness of grassroots social movements.
Nonviolent Community Safety and Peacebuilding Handbook
Resource for activists engaged in work for peace including practical ways to intervene in violence, to transform conflict and to build peace.
Strategic Questioning Manual: A Powerful Tool for Personal and Social Change
Strategic questioning is a powerful tool for social change which helps people discover their own strategies and ideas for change.
Levels of Commitment from Community to Core
Rick Warren focuses on five ‘circles of commitment’ – community, crowd, congregation, committed and core, and argue that it’s important to recognise where your supporters fall in these categories, and develop processes to move them from the outside in. An excerpt from Purpose Driven Campaigning.
A Beginners Guide to a Blockade Camp
Many successful campaigns have based their direct action from blockade camps and include the wins against the damming of the Franklin river, stopping the Jabiluka uranium mine, and the proposed gas hub at Walmadan/James Price Point. It can be a scary thing, heading to a blockade camp for the first time. Here are some tips to get you started.
Facilitation at the Frontlines
This article includes reflections and tips for ‘extreme sport’ facilitation at blockades and action camps. Includes notes about logistics, comfort of participants, timing, internal organisation within the facilitation team, holding the space, and being transparent about role and power dynamics.
Games and Energisers for your Workshop
Games are great to use during a workshop. They may be scheduled into the workshop at various times or you may just toss one in when you feel that the group could benefit from playing a game. The games in this handout are separated into the categories of introductory games, name games, dynamicas (energisers) and fun ways to get people into groups.
Tips on How to Give and Receive Feedback
Giving and receiving feedback is a core skill for people engaged in social change projects. These slides and related text outline what can maximise or minimise the effectiveness of feedback and useful phrases.