multiple facilitator roles

Wed May 4 00:48:40 PDT 2005

Dear Wendy,
welcome!
For years I have been working with teams.
>From my experience,
there is always one facilitator (with the exceptions mentioned when
translation is needed in the introduction)
there is always one assistant (someone who could also take over in
case I miss the plane)
and, except for events with fewer than 20, there is an additional
support person (I call them helpers).
The role of the assistant is to deal with everything that would
infringe on my work of being present and invisible.
The assistant has a team (one or more) that help in that taskt.
When you look at my list of  125 events
http://www.michaelmpannwitz.de/index.php?id=69
you will always see the size of the event (under the heading
"TeilnehmerInnen" and the size of the team with the names of the team
members under the heading of "Assistenz".
The event 125 does not have all the details yet, because its still in
the planning.
Event Nr.124, due next week, has 2 Assistants (thats another
possibility for very large events) and 8 helpers, size is 650.
When you look at Nr. 123 with 120 participants you see one assistant
and 4 helpers...so it is clear that the size of the team is not
directly proportional to the size of the event.
Nr. 122 with 350 participants has 2 Assistants and 6 helpers.
Take a small one such as 116 with 23 participants, it had 1 assistant
and 1 helper (that helper spent half of his time preparing the food
in which the assistant and I also participated).
The largest ever, 2108 participants had 2 facilitators and a team of
11.

When you click on the pictures you also get series of pictures.

Your question on the first os, mine was in October of 1996.
What I remember most from that event (a well known corporate
communications firm in Berlin) is what happened after the event.
Employess got together and formed a workers' council (possible under
German Law at that time for firms with more than 5 employees). This
was not seen as a legitimate form of selforganisation by the owners
and they in fact decided to fire everybody and go out of business. I
often wondered what connection there was to the open space event.
Considering the discussion about "healthy"/"unhealthy",
self-organizing/dead organisations
this might just have been a case of suddenly discovering a very
unhealthy side of the organisation and close shop.
Greetings from Berlin
mmp

--Original Message Text---
From: Wendy Farmer-O'Neil
Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 23:57:01 -0700

Hi all,

Having just come from playing a support role in an OST event, the
question of co-facilitation was also in my mind.  I took on the
support role with the intention of service.  Service to the
facilitator (Chris), to support him in holding space, and service to
the participants to support them in their journey in Open Space.
With that experience behind me, as I contemplate facilitating my
first OST event (which is on the horizon), I find that I am wanting
to create a support team who understand Open Space and who will help
to maintain the continuum or field of experience for the
participants.  I understand that it is not necessary for successful
OST facilitation, but I am wondering if it is worth experimenting to
see if there is a qualitative difference for the participants and/or
the facilitator--a deepening, I suppose.  I guess I am seeing a
tandem approach to facilitation, where one facilitator takes on the
"face time" as Harrison put it, while the other provides support--at
the wall, at the computer stations--wherever presence can arise to
open more space.    Thoughts?

Cheers,
Wendy

Wendy Farmer-O'Neil
Prospera Communications & Consulting Services
1.250.713.2351/1.800.713.2351
weblog: www.wordgravity.blogspot.com

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