Make Shift Training
July 17, 2020 in Portland, Maine
The event has been cancelled due to COVID-19.
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A great investment for facilitators!
If you attend this training and have attended a Make Shift Coffee House you will earn $500 when you facilitate your own Make Shift Coffee House.
Make Shift Coffee House facilitators don't just manage the conversation, they run the entire event and make sure that the Make Shift Hallmarks are honored. For this reason it's critical that Make Shift Facilitators understand all about hosting and that's why we are asking facilitators to join us for the full day of training.
A fun opportunity for hosts!
Meet with facilitators. Meet with other hosts. Learn how to bring conservatives and liberals together. Learn how to have your own Make Shift Coffee House.
Check out this 2-minute video about the training. --->
Facilitators
9:00 am to 4:30 pm - $200
Hosts
9:00 am to 11:30 am - FREE
Morning Session for hosts and facilitators - 9:00 am to 11:30 am
Have you thought about hosting a Make Shift Coffee House and wondered what's involved?
Would you like to learn techniques for bringing conservatives and liberals together into the same room?
Would you like to meet with others interested hosting and facilitating Make Shift Coffee Houses?
In this 2.5 hour session led by Craig Freshley, we will cover:
- How to engage people with a wide variety of perspectives
- How to organize a host committee
- How to choose a topic
- How to engage a facilitator
- Where to have your Make Shift Coffee House
- How to secure live music
- How to set up the room
- Tips for arranging coffee and food
- Tips for how to promote your Make Shift Coffee House
- Everything you need to know to make your event a success!
Fees and Registration
- No charge for Host Training
- $20 for Lunch
- Handouts provided
Afternoon Session For Facilitators only - 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm
This session is for experienced facilitators who want to learn the Make Shift Coffee House approach to helping people understand each other's political views. Anyone attending the afternoon should attend the morning also.
Led by professional meeting facilitator Craig Freshley, this session will be highly valuable whether you intend to facilitate a Make Shift Coffee House or not (and if you take this training, you don't ever have to facilitate a Make Shift Coffee House, by the way.)
A mix of theory, discussion, and role playing, this session will cover tried and true techniques for facilitating conversations between people who don't see eye to eye.
We will cover things such as:
- Advance messaging on promotional materials - preparing people with what to expect
- Welcoming and setting a good tone in the room
- Make Shift Coffee House Ground Rules - how to explain and enforce them
- Listen to understand
- Speak from your experience
- All views encouraged
- No criticism
- Neutral facilitation
- Share with others
- Basic Make Shift Coffee House Formats
- Table discussions
- Pairs discussions
- Fishbowl conversations
- Ideas on the wall
- Debrief sessions
- Etc.
- How to handle difficult situations
- Resources for more information and other techniques
This session will be highly interactive. We will learn from each other. It's a great chance to meet and learn from other facilitators.
When you sign-up for the full-day Facilitator Training, the Host Training portion of the day is included! One fee for Facilitator Training covers it all.
Fees and Registration
- Save $50 with our Early Bird Registration! Ends March 31
- $200 for Facilitator Training, starting April 1
- $20 for Lunch
- Handouts provided
Exciting Opportunity!
If you attend a Make Shift Coffee House facilitated by Craig, and if you facilitate a Make Shift Coffee House within 6 months of attending the training you will receive $500!
After that, it is our intention to provide facilitators who have attended our training sessions $500 for each additional Make Shift Coffee House, as funds allow. Preference will be given to compensation of facilitation in Maine because that's where we are concentrating our efforts and make an impact.
About Craig
Craig Freshley is an experienced meeting facilitator, conflict mediator, and trainer who has made a career of studying how to get along in groups. He has written a book called The Wisdom of Group Decisions and has facilitated over 3,000 meetings. Learn about Craig here.
“...Craig breaks the facilitation process down in clear steps, including pitfalls to avoid, and he has developed a terrific framework that can appeal to a wide variety of facilitators. I'm impressed too, by his eagerness to get feedback and incorporate suggestions from participants. I highly recommend this evolving training as I am very inspired to help strengthen connection and authenticity in our stratified community, and Craig's training gives me the tools to proceed.” ~ Kym Dakin-Neal
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