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 consists of five one hour sessions covering the following topics.

Session 1 - Making Parish Groups Successful --The Fundamentals of Group Facilitation 
   Completed-- Listen to archive here. Slides here.

• 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
Completed 

• 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
Complete
Listen to archive
slides

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 - Improving Effectiveness of Parish Council Meetings
Complete -delivered by Joe Kormos

Discussion of the roles, responsibilities, practices and meeting methods for healthy parish councils

• Archive - You will need to sign in --then you can listen and view the webinar.

• Slides

Session 5 - Intervening to Keep the Group on Track
Kenneth Kovach, speaker

September 21 2010. 7:00 PM CDT/ 8:00 PM EDT

Click here to register

• 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