A facilitator’s role is to guide the chapter smoothly through the meeting. A facilitator must create an environment of trust in which people are willing to share their knowledge, ideas, skills and resources in order to reach and act on shared decisions. While tools can aid the facilitator, the best starting point is having the right attitude.
Attitude:
• The facilitator should set a positive and enthusiastic tone from the beginning of the meeting to its end.
• A good facilitator focuses on the process of group dynamics, as well as the task or outcome. This is to ensure that participation is ‘active’ rather than ‘passive’ during the meeting. It is not sufficient for students to merely show up – they should be actively involved. Active participation helps to build membership and strengthen the group.
• Anticipate conflict, keep a cool head, explore tensions and their causes and try to provide a neutral space.
Tools:
• Taking the Temperature: At the beginning of the meeting, take the temperature of the room. Check in with people and see how they are doing. Is an energizer needed to lighten the mood?
• Being Inclusive: Ask for opinions from students who are not speaking much. Try going around the room and giving everyone a chance to voice their opinion about a specific topic. If there are new students at the meeting, ensure that they are introduced to everyone.
• Group Contract: Coming up with a set of guidelines for chapter meetings is a great tool for preventing conflict. For example, you may decide that people cannot interrupt one another or people can only speak by addressing the facilitator.
• Conflict Management: Ensure you have a decision making process laid out. Here are few systems:
> Consensus and Semi-Consensus: Group decisions are strongest when made by this method but it can also be time consuming, inefficient and paralyzing. Consensus works under the assumption that everyone’s vote is equal. Under consensus you are working for the greater good of the majority while understanding that not everyone can necessarily be pleased all the time. The idea behind consensus is to be inclusive and allow everyone to feel comfortable voicing their opinion. Decisions should be made unanimously.
> Modified Consensus. In this system, objections can be overruled by a 2/3 majority vote. Beyond voting for or against the proposal on the table, members have the options of abstaining or objecting to the vote.
> Majority Rule. Under a Majority rule system everyone has one vote and they may vote pro, con or abstain on any given proposal. Some sort of pre-determined majority is required for a vote to pass, sometimes as low as 50 percent of the votes plus one, sometimes as high as a three-quarters majority.