The Creation Team for the AFN 2009 conference in Nelson, New Zealand, is pleased to call for expressions of interest (EOI) from facilitators interested in providing a 90 min or 180 min concurrent workshop at the conference.

The team has further developed the conference theme from Te Pitau Whakarei – Creating a bow wave for facilitation to include a vision of facilitation grounded in land, culture and community, rippling and flowing. For us this implies a focus on facilitation grounded in places and connected to communities.

We invite potential presenters to co-create this conference by considering these themes when submitting a proposal.  

Founders Heritage Park, the conference venue, will be used for all workshops. Work spaces accommodating from 10 to 100 participants are available.  These are in historic buildings of considerable character and providers who are selected to present workshops will be assisted to select options that best meet their needs.

The closing date for EOI for concurrent workshops is 15 May 2009. Preference will be given to those who respond in the first round. A second call for EOI will occur if space allows. You will be notified by 30 June.

A Workshop Proposal Submission Form is available for you to provide details of your workshop and request any audio visual equipment you may need.

Please submit your proposal to:

We invite you to take part in the IAF Certification Process to be held in Nelson, New Zealand on 21-22 November 2009. Register today to start your CPF journey. Contact to register. [Note registrations for this MUST be made/completed by close of business Friday 25 September.]  

The assessment process is based on rigorous peer review of knowledge, experience and demonstration of skills. The IAF Certified™ Professional Facilitator designation indicates attainment of these foundational competencies. The professional facilitator designation offers clients an assurance that those who are certified are qualified to design and provide basic group facilitation services. Click here for the IAF-CPF Certification Process Overview (93kb pdf).

We'd love to have you with us for accreditation in Nelson. Early application and an early start on document preparation is highly recommended! Contact to register.

The fee for the Nelson certification programme is US$1500.

A portion of this fee, US$400, is payable at the time of application. The remaining US$1,100 is due upon receipt of an invitation to attend the Assessment Day. Current IAF membership is required for certification. Candidates are expected to cover the cost of transport to the event location, and any lodging/food for overnight stays. We provide light breakfast and lunch for all candidates on the event day.

Click here to read about other facilitators' journeys to attain their CPF designations.

Facilitators Helping Communities Recover

In response to the most recent bush fires in Australia, Facilitators Helping Communities Recover was established by Viv McWaters, Anne Pattiillo and Nicole Hunter to link committed people within Australia and across the globe…a virtual community. Currently more than 100 members are engaged in networking, planning, learning and sharing actions and ideas with one another.

Some of their latest endeavors:

More than 50 volunteers have registered for the community engagement workshop at Maryville. Networks contacted include:

• Facilitators Helping Communities Recover
• Groupwork Australia
• Leadership Victoria
• Volunteering Australia
• Gould Group
• Red Cross
• Australasian Facilitators Network

The immediate response is gratifying!

When to Get Involved: Role of Facilitators After a Crisis

For podcasts and discussions about the aftermath of the bush fires in Victoria, Australia, click here. Listen to a podcast with Dr. Gil Brenson Lazan, Viv McWaters, and Geoff Brown discussing the history and role of facilitators in helping people and communities rebound after crises. They also discuss how to involve survivors in working through the grieving process and bringing individuals together to build community resilience and self-reliance as they plan their own future.

IAF Secretary and Journal Editor Stephen Thorpe has set up a topic on the IAF Forum collecting links to doctoral and masters research on group facilitation.

Many of the listings are from Australia and New Zealand facilitators - a testament to the leading edge our region has developed in the area of group facilitation research.

Please forward any references and/or links to doctoral research on group facilitation to or you can post them in the forum thread directly. It is also free for non-members to join the discussion on IAF Forum.

So join in the discussion on the IAF Facilitation Forum today!

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, facilitator roles within the group, interventions for conflict management, descriptions of specific facilitation methods, approaches to facilitating specific tasks such as idea generation or priority setting, using computer technology to support facilitation, increasing participation in organizations, exploring the underlying values, beliefs and models of facilitation, and applying facilitation skills and concepts to various settings.

The journal, while practitioner focused, is academically robust. A variety of methods are appropriate, such as case studies, ethnographic studies, and survey or laboratory research. Book reviews are featured regularly. The primary consideration for publication is the ability of the article to inform the practitioner and stimulate the researcher.

In publication since 1999, we invite you to look over our previous issues:
http://iaf-world.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3498

Information for authors:
http://www.albany.edu/cpr/gf/gfj/

Contact me if you are interested in submitting an article, or taking on one of the leadership opportunities on the Journal Editorial Board. If you haven't done so already, download and check out Issue #9 today.

Best regards,
Stephen Thorpe
Editor-in-Chief
Group Facilitation Journal
www.albany.edu/cpr/gf/gfj

We are pleased to announce the 12th Annual IAF Asia Facilitator Conference and CPF assessment is to be held in Taipei, Taiwan. This is the first time the IAF Asia Conference is stepping out of Singapore or Malaysia and moving to Taipei, Taiwan’s largest city as well as the economic, political, and cultural center of the nation. Taipei is a cosmopolitan metropolis with a lively and diversified face, as well as brimming with exuberance.

For more details see the conference invitation.

Did you know at the sub-region level there are a range of facilitator networks - for example, in many countries in Asia there are facilitator networks in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China (Beijing and Southern China), Thailand, Korea, Indonesia and India (Bangalore) that you can tap into when travelling or working right across Asia.

Wan Putra has recently established “Aceh Facilitator Network” in Indonesia and set up a facilitation network Ning: http://acehfacilitatornetwork.ning.com. In Hong Kong there is the Hong Kong Professional Facilitator Forum http://hkprofessionalfacilitatorforum.ning.com. There is the Facilitators Network Singapore - www.fns.sg. In Thailand there is a Facilitator Forum Thailand being developed at http://www.fft-bangkok.org and there is also a China Facilitator Forum currently being set up by Ms. Karen Lim.

Contact Mr. Prabu Naidu (IAF Asia Regional Director) or Mrs. Jackie Chang (in-coming IAF Asia Regional Director) for further details -

Occasionally the IAF Methods Database publishes podcasts by facilitators. We hope to have more. If you would like to submit a podcast for the site please contact .

To hear the Podcasts go to the Downloads section and click on Podcasts. Click the name of the person you want to listen to and download the file.

Podcasts are currently available from well known facilitators Barbara Mckay, Carol Good, James (Jim) Campbell, Jo Nelson, John Epps, Maureen Jenkins, Rob Walsh, and Sherwood Shankland.

You are cordially invited to the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Europe Conference in Oxford, England from the 18th to 20th September 2009. The Conference will be held at Keble College set amongst the historic 'Dreaming Spires' of the famous university city of Oxford.

The conference theme is Get Inspired, which is in line with the European Year of Creativity & Innovation. For more details see:
www.iaf-europe-conference.org

Hola Facilitators! You are most welcome to come and participate in the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Latin America and the Caribbean Conference in Barbados.

The conference theme is “The Art and Mastery of Facilitation: Pathway to Integration” because it is believed that regional integration will be greatly assisted by facilitation. In addition, the theme speaks to the integration of inputs and ideas towards synergy and consensus.

IAF Africa is the premier international African event for Professional Facilitators from Africa and around the world. It provides a world class forum to hear about and discuss the latest developments, trends and innovations in Facilitation.

The venue for the conference is the Ocean View Hotel. Situated on the beach front, it offers a magnificent and affordable venue close to all the major attractions of the Western Cape. For more details see:
www.sbs.co.za/iaf

You can join other Grp-FacL members on Ning.com.

Visit GRP-FACL

This is a compelling book that is a sweeping overview about the critical issues faced by humanity and the attempts to address them by the largest movement in the world.

It is about the massive numbers of people around the world working for the common good in civil society organisations in order to face the interconnected crises now faced by humanity. It is a manifesto of hope in that even though we are in grave ecological peril, there is an underground movement pushing for environmental and social sustainability and justice that works from the bottom up. It describes the growing unrest, the frustration, and courage of those who have the will to challenge the power of the corporate rule. The book describes the history of the conservation and environmental movement. It also looks at social issues set out by the early resistance of the Luddites (who were actually skilled artisans) and their aim to recognise workers' rights against the power of the mill owners. The Luddites also faced soaring food prices, no transition into other jobs or retraining, no grievance process and no social welfare.

Western society now in general has had these issues won by labour movements of the past. However there are still many union and workers' rights organisations that work for these things today in poorer countries.

Hawken outlines the environmental movement in the USA - initially a movement for national parks and the preservation of giant redwood trees - through to Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring. Silent Spring describes the loss of bird and animal life and the poisoning of communities by the over-use of pesticides. Carson challenged the corporate power of the agricultural chemicals and pesticide industry through her ground-breaking publication. Hawken articulates the methods used by the big chemical corporations to attack Carlson. Thus it describes the long struggle between human and commercial rights, the environmental movement, and the big business interests of corporate capitalism. He moves on to describe how humankind is now altering the physical, chemical and biological features of the planet on a geological scale.

Scientists today inform us of many crises caused by corporate capitalism and humankind in general - climate change, toxic pollution, species extinction, marine depletion and deforestation. This is a depressing list that can paralyze one with hopelessness and despair. Yet Hawken also describes a vast nameless uprising of people and organisations working for justice, places, communities, diversity, and health.An incredible number of people around the world who care about our collective future are working for the common good, and this should give us great hope.

Hawken points out in the book that the movement acts like it is part of the Earth's immune system, fighting the diseases of environmental and social damage created by aspects of society and the predatory capital of corporate power. This is a movement that has no name, leader or location, and has largely been ignored by the corporate media. It acts like nature itself, organising from the bottom up, and works to be an expression of peoples' needs worldwide. Hawken sets out that these movements work like healthy organisms that are diverse, unpredictable and adaptive; systems of harmony and autonomy, persistence, flux, diversity and resilience, just like any living system.

The book has a very large appendix which lists the approximate numbers of organisations and movements that are working for these ecological, indigenous rights and social justice:

Agriculture and farming (7,133), Air (1,132) , Animal rights (16,667), the Arts (1,381), Biodiversity (3,323), Business and Economics (5,211), Children and Youth (26,276), Civil society organisations-Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Entrepreneurs (9,451), Coastal and Marine ecosystems (2,079), Community development (41,103), Conservation (31,244) Cultural Heritage (8,305), Democracy and Voting (9,490), Ecology (1,122), Education (22,939), Energy (2,973), Fisheries (1,170), Food and Nourishment (5436), Forestry (2366), Global Climate Change (1,318), Globalisation (744), Governance (2,338), Greening of Industry (11,445), Health (16,198), Human rights and Social Justice (42,650), Indigenous people and rights (2,459), Inland water ecosystems (3,306), Law, Policy and Property Rights (11,601), Media (5,015), Mining (283), Peace, War and Security (14,378), Plants (2,382), Pollution (2,415), Population (3,991), Poverty Eradication (15,772), Religion, Ecology and Sustainability (7,543), Seniors(635), Sustainable Cities and Design (5,665), Sustainable development (19,824), Technology (1546), Terrestrial Ecosystems (1,920), Water (6,559), Women (27,513), Work (6,075).

He lists a total of 412,316 organisations. Hawken's book sets out the problems faced by humanity and the positive work of these many organisations in order for humanity to have a positive future. So as Hawken puts it, there is reason for hope because while so much is going wrong, so much is going right. Many of the organisations described in his book have created a powerful list of alternatives. His hopefulness of these alternatives is matched by the gravity of the crises we face as humanity. He points out that the movements outlined in his book are critical to our collective survival.

-- Matthew Hodgetts