This webinar is the fourth in a seven part series on Meeting Facilitation Skills for Parish Life designed to help parish groups, committees, ministry teams and parish councils become more successful and productive with meetings, planning sessions, problem solving and idea generation

• Date April 20
  
• Time 7:00 PM CDT 8:00 PM EDT
• Place: Your desk, your computer, your home.
• Cost: free
  

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What You Will Learn
This webinar is a continuation of content from the March 9 Webinar on the same topic.

In this session we will:

1. Complete unfinished content-- primarily related to tools and methods for generating divergent or convergent thought from groups.
2. Offer  thoughts on when and why various tools work best
3. Open the mike" to allow participants to share their inputs on a group "homework assignment". (See below)
4. Hear Ken Kovach's opinion on how to conduct the assignment.
   

Who Should Attend
Of particular interest to participants in the March 9 session this session, and the entire series, is designed for parish leaders, clergy and laity who want to become more effective in group settings -- both in their parish and in other settings as well.
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Presenter
Our presenter for this series is Kenneth Kovach. The choirmaster at St. Theodosius Cathedral, Mr. Kovach is a graduate of St. Vladimir's Seminary, holds a Masters from Case Western Reserve University and has certificates from St. Tikhon's Seminary & St. Sergius Academy in Paris.
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.

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In our first webinar session on this topic (March 9) we were unable to complete the session content. In addition to completing the presentation of that content we will try to make this session more interactive.

To do so please do your best to complete this homework session prior to the webinar. If you would like mail your input to Joe Kormos. He can then prepare a slide for discussion with your input. (If you wish to remain anonymous that is fine. If you don't have time to send in your assignment just be prepared to contribute your thoughts to the discussion. (In this session we will open your microphone/telephone connection so that YOU can talk to others!)

Background
After thoroughly reviewing the Diocesan Parish Health Inventory Model -- your parish of 200+ persons has selected Christian Formation as your focus area. 
The parish leaders have decided to undertake a two-year parish-wide improvement initiative aimed at delivering an overall increased level of understanding of the Orthodox faith by your parishioners. You hope that people of all ages will participate.
The standard approaches -- using classes, newsletter articles, church school, sermons, etc. -- have proven to be good but still come up shorth. Doing more of the same or trying harder is just not good enough.

We need new ideas on “how to” engage more people, provide new delivery methods, and cause the learning to be continued and internalized to help build a parish of well formed believing Orthodox Christians.

The Assignment
A competent team of parishioners has agreed to help define and lead this effort in conjunction with the parish rector. You are leading the meeting of this team. Two hours has been allotted for the meeting. It is critical that you accomplish something worthwhile in this first session -- to get the team excited and engaged.

Now -- design your plan for leading the team in this meeting!

• What critical thinking methods would you use to generate new approaches to the problem?
• What methods will you use to converge on agreed upon approaches
• In what order will you use these tools?
• What notes would you make to yourself for each segment of your meeting plan to be sure they yield good results?
• How far do you think you can get on this at this meeting?