Overview
This is a  multi-part series of webinars on Facilitation Skills for Parish Leaders. The series is designed to help parish groups, committees, ministry teams and parish councils become more successful and productive -- particularly as it relates to meetings, planning sessions, problem solving and idea generation.

Speaker
Our presenter for this series is Kenneth Kovach. The choirmaster at St Theodosius Cathedral, Mr. Kovach is a graduate of St. Vladimir's Seminary, St. Tikhon's Seminary & St. Sergius Academy in Paris and holds a Masters from Case Western Reserve University. As the principal of Kenneth J. Kovach company. He has over 25 years of experience with training, coaching, leadership development, critical thinking, problem solving and, most importantly to our series, leading groups to be more effective.
Many of Mr. Kovach's assignments and relationships have been in the nonprofit sector including the American Red Cross, the Catholic Conference on Ethics and the American Society on Training and Ethics.

Who Should Attend
The series is designed for clergy and laity who want to become more effective in group settings -- both in their parish and in other settings as well. Persons who participate in or who lead meetings and groups will find the content of these sessions to be immediately valuable.

Content
The series will consist of up to six one hour sessions covering the following topics. The first two sessions have been scheduled. Times for others will be announced shortly.

Session 1 - Making Parish Groups Successful --The Fundamentals of Group Facilitation 
November 11, 2009 2:00 PM Central Time   

• Series Intro –learning objectives
• What is facilitation and why necessary.
• Why do meetings need facilitators
• Tasks of a facilitator –what facilitators do
• Good and bad facilitators
• Core values of Facilitators
  

Session 2 - Making Meetings Matter
December 16 2:00 PM Central Time

• Types of meetings:  (Make decisions; share info; plan work; learn from one another/build relationships; create buy in; solve problems etc.)
• Meeting Basics -- aligning the 3 P’s Purpose; People & Process 
• Physical considerations -- Flip charts; Room set up; Wall space etc.
• Good and bad meetings; symptoms and cures
• Rescue tactics for bad meetings
  

Session 3 - Divergent and Convergent Thinking Tools
March 9 7:00 PM CST 8:00 PM EST
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Divergent Thinking: Tips for Improving Creativity

•  Brainstorming/list creation; Mind mapping
• Force Field Analysis
• Structured questions  
• Other tools
  

Convergent Thinking Tools: Effective Group Decision Making

• Convergent tools: Categorizing; Clustering; Scoring; Criteria selection; dot voting etc
• Decision making background
• Decision making options:  Pro and Con
• Consensus, Voting, Leader decides; 
• Rules /definitions of consensus
• Building a competency  for consensus
  

Session 4 Divergent and Convergent Thinking Tools (Part II)
In this session we will complete the content from the previous session.

Tuesday March 23, 2010 7:00 PM CDT
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Session 5 - Intervening to Keep the Group on Track

• What is an intervention
• Basic intervention structure
• Facilitator situations
• Getting off track
  
• Side bar conversations
• Staying on time
  
• Never ending discussions; 
• Conflict : personal attacks; group attacks
• Resistance
• Key facilitator phrases
  

Session 6 - Improving Effectiveness of Parish Council Meetings

• Redesigning your parish council meetings -- charter and agenda
• Building the PC as a team
• Typical parish council meeting problems
• Same discussion each month
• Bickering/factions
• Real meeting happens later
• We major in the minors  -- not doing significant things
• Murky decisions; lack of follow up action
• Group skills for parish council members
• Balancing advocacy and inquiry
• Balancing important vs. urgent
• Active listening
• Focusing on what is right not who is right
• Harnessing the internet to get more done – before and after.
  

Session 7 - Using Facilitation for a Parish Problem Solving Meeting

• Define example – meeting about a problem (e.g. How to __ ) in which 6-10 parishioners have come to examine a particular topic. (i.e. not a regular, consistent meeting)
• Generating problem statements and problem solving tools
• What to do to assure this being successful? -- How to use above skills (in context)
• When to call in an “external” facilitator when you cannot be a neutral party.