Meeting Facilitation

We pride ourselves in facilitating creative processes that bring out the best in all members of your group.

Craig Freshley

We facilitate meetings for groups seeking efficiency and professionalism. We use a variety of techniques to draw out all perspectives. We move groups toward shared understanding and agreement. We manage conflict objectively with compassion and respect.

Our philosophy is to provide you with a framework on which to hang your own issues and ideas. We manage the process so you can focus on the substance. Through an efficient, disciplined, inclusive approach, we facilitate a fertile environment that fosters creativity and enthusiasm.

We facilitate regular meetings of established groups, coalitions of organizations, special meetings such as board retreats and strategic planning sessions, and meetings specifically designed to gather public input.

With every meeting, what to expect from us

When you hire Good Group Decisions to plan, facilitate, and write up a meeting you get a highly professional team that typically includes Craig Freshley and an Associate.

Advance preparation

In an advance planning meeting, we will discuss meeting objectives with you (and hopefully a small group) and develop an agenda for your consideration
We will prepare handouts, charts, slides, signs, and other meeting materials
We will bring our own equipment such as easels, computer, projector, screen, etc. and supplies such as name tents or name tags and tools for cardstorming, multi-voting, table-top surveys and other group decision techniques
We will make sure we are familiar with the meeting facility and will help with set up and break down

Expert, objective facilitation

Participants will feel heard and will feel a sense of ownership of the meeting outcomes
Participants will conclude that the meeting was a good, efficient use of their time
Meeting objectives will be achieved, good group decisions will result, and participants will leave the meeting enthusiastic for more work together

On-site documentation

Key findings, themes and conclusions will be documented on flip charts, our "green wall," or via computer on a large screen
As decisions are made, words are written on the spot for all to see in order to maximize shared understanding and agreements

Professional write-up

Jessica Dafni and Craig Freshley

Within two weeks after the meeting, we provide a nicely-formatted, well-organized, complete Report of the Meeting that documents major themes, conclusions, and decisions in addition to all discussion comments (paraphrased in outline form). Meeting Reports also include a list of participants, agenda, ground rules, presentations, and handouts as appropriate.
We provide a Draft Report and give the client a chance to suggest edits which are then incorporated into a final version provided to the client in Word and PDF.

Report Samples
These are public domain reports we have prepared for clients, many of them posted at their own websites.

Fee Structure

For the above-described package, we charge a set fee depending on the length and complexity of the meeting. The fee covers all services and is fixed in advance no matter how much effort we put into the job. Additional charges are added for travel time, travel expenses, and other out-of-pocket expenses at cost.

We are happy to participate in an advance planning meeting at no charge if the job doesn't materialize.

For those on a tight budget or who don't want a meeting write-up, Craig is willing to charge a lower fee for a package of services that includes advance preparation, expert facilitation, on-site documentation, and a sketch write-up of conclusions.

Craig and Associates are available for additional services at hourly rates.

Please call to discuss your project and we will gladly provide a cost estimate.

Scheduling

We manage our challenging calendar by thinking of commitments in the following three ways:

Potentially Available - Call anytime about your project and we will tell you what dates we are potentially available.

Pending - We're willing to hold two or three dates for two or three weeks. This means that if we have another client interested in the same date, we will confirm with you first before confirming with the other client.

Confirmed - This means we are committeed to serving you on a specific date and we tell other clients that we are unavailable. If you cancel a meeting after it has been confirmed there may be a charge.

Virtual Meetings and On-Line Tools

Face-to-face meetings are the best but when your situation calls for gathering people without travel we can help you have a virtual meeting. We have accounts with and know how to use many on-line tools that allow participants to hear each other and view a common screen where things can be written and documents can be jointly edited from any location with a computer and high speed connection. In cases of face-to-face meetings with some remote particiants, we use state-of-the-art audio equipment so all parties can hear each other.

We also use online tools for advance preparation and scheduling. For many clients we administer advance on-line surveys so when the meeting occurs we "hit the ground running" with data already collected and analyzed.

Check out Other Assistance to learn about how we can help with:

Strategic planning

New organization start up

Mergers and collaborations

Mediation

Secretariat services

Research and report preparation

Check out our Professional Development Training and Team Building services.

Check out Publications to view a list of reports that Craig Freshley has authored or edited.

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