RFD: Facilitators Newsgroup LO3404

Mary Margaret Palmer (fearless@roadrunner.com)
Tue, 24 Oct 1995 05:21:56 GMT

-----
Host's Note: Mary Margart Palmer and colleagures have decided to change the
newsgroup misc.business.facilitators to a moderated group. If you are
interested in having a newsgroup with high signal/noise ratio on this
topic, I recommend you post a note in news.groups supporting this idea.
DO NOT send such to learning-org.

-- Rick Karash, rkarash@world.std.com, host for learning-org
-----

REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
moderated group misc.business.facilitators

Summary: A moderated worldwide networking forum for professional
workshop, seminar, and meeting facilitators, moderators,
designers, session leaders, mediators, and trainers.

Proponents: Sandor P. Schuman <SSCHUMAN@cnsvax.albany.edu>
Mary Margaret Palmer <fearless@roadrunner.com>

This is a formal Request for Discussion (RFD) for the creation of
a moderated newsgroup: misc.business.facilitators. Please send all
follow-up comments and messages to news.groups.

RATIONALE: misc.business.facilitators

The newsgroup misc.business.facilitators (unmoderated) is currently
an active, well-received forum for professional facilitators.
However, the amount of commercial noise posted to this group is
having a significant negative impact. Many subscribers out of
frustration have stopped participating in the group. No other
Usenet groups provide a forum for facilitation professionals and
the group's members want very much for the group to continue and
to flourish. Yet the number of commercial posts are severely
hampering its effectiveness. An informal polling of the group's
members showed unanimous support for a moderated group. This
RFD is being put forth in response to that poll.

CHARTER: misc.business.facilitators

Misc.business.facilitators will be a world-wide moderated forum,
where those who provide facilitation services to organizations
can share ideas and lessons learned.

This forum will focus chiefly on the practical aspects of
facilitation although theoretical issues will not be excluded.
List members will share ideas and advice on situations, methods,
and resources and pass on illustrations of exercises, models,
metaphors, and war stories.

This newsgroup will be open to, but not limited to, those whose
expertise and/or interests includes

_ Professional workshop, seminar, and meeting facilitation
_ Moderation, mediation, and conflict resolution
- Workshop design
- Session or conference leadership
- Large group facilitation
- OD consulting
- Facilitated learning
- Electronic meeting systems
- TQM and CQI consulting
- Team building
- Group process initiatives
- Community-based planning

In addition, the group will be gatewayed to the moderated listserv:
GRP-FACL@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU (group facilitation - process
expertise for group effectiveness) in order that those who do not
have access to Usenet can also participate in the discussions.

This list will focus on facilitation rather than training issues.
Training is defined here as having an emphasis on the transfer of
information (course content) from a trainer to a group and training
issues are those topics which relate to the delivery or organization
of that content. This should not be taken to mean that trainers are
not welcome to join the list. However, other lists, e.g. TRDEV-L
already cater extremely well to trainers and training issues.

Advertising or promotion of products or services in posts to the list
will not be permitted. Recommendations of products and services of
interest to facilitators may be made by those without a vested interest.

Submissions cross-posted to other groups, which is strongly discouraged
by Usenet, will generally not be accepted unless they are approved FAQs,
RFDs, and CFVs.

Posters whose submissions are rejected will received a reply from the
moderator explaining the reason for the rejection. If the poster feels
his submission has been unfairly rejected, he/she may appeal the
rejection to the Board of Advisors. If the majority of the advisors
agree to over rule the rejection, the post will be sent to the newsgroup
and mailing list.

END CHARTER.

MODERATOR INFO: misc.business.facilitators

Moderator: SSchuman@cnsvax.albany.edu (Sandor P. Schuman)
Submissions address: GRP-FACL@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU
Contact address: SSchuman@cnsvax.albany.edu

Posts to this group will be gatewayed to the listserv discussion
list: GRP-FACL@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU and posts to that discussion
list will be posted in misc.business.facilitators. The moderator for
the listserv will also act as moderator for the newsgroup.

The moderator will be assisted by the following Board of Advisors:

Yvonne Hansen <Yvonne_Hansen@versa.com>
Ken Lyon <KWLyon@aol.com>
Susan Nurre <snurre@connect.net>
Mary Margaret Palmer <fearless@roadrunner.com>
Cliff Saunders <CliffS@Saunders.com>
Andrea Tannenbaum <IntraGroup@aol.com>
John Walker <John_Walker@pop.mindlink.net>

Administrative functions (e.g. maintenance of the FAQs) will continue
to be carried out by the group's proponent: Mary Margaret Palmer.

END MODERATOR INFO.

CROSS-POSTINGS

This RFD will be cross-posed to the following newsgroups: comp.groupware,
misc.business.consulting, and misc.business.facilitators. In addition,
notices will be sent to the following mailing lists: learning-org,
change-digest, trdev-l, and crea-cps.

-- 
Mary Margaret Palmer                         505-983-6802 voice
Facilitation Technologies                    505-983-6802 fax
Santa Fe, NM                                fearless@roadrunner.com