Agendas help structure your time at meetings and play a key role in making your meeting effective.   Below are ten quick tips to help you develop agendas for your own meetings:

1. Plan ahead: Develop your agenda before your actual meeting.

2. Involve your leadership:  Have the organization’s leadership (often the Executive Director and President) plan the agenda together and forward it to other Board members before their meeting for their input.

3. Set time limits:  Estimate the amount of time for each agenda item to help keep the group on track towards making decisions. 

4. Have meeting participants lead different items: Make sure each agenda item has someone leading it and that they are prepared to present it.

5. Use your time wisely: Use your time together to make important group decisions. Minimize updates and reports.

6. Don’t pack in too much:  Prioritize the most important decisions you need to make.

7. Review:  Review the agenda before you start the meeting and make sure all are in agreement.

8. Stick to the agenda:  Many temptations exist to go off-topic.  If a good idea comes up, but is outside of the agenda, add it to a list of future agenda topics.

9. Plan for breaks: Give yourself some time to stretch, socialize and rest during meetings. 

10. Brainstorm future agenda items at the end of your meeting:  Use the end of the meeting to start listing potential agenda topics for your next meeting.

I hope these tips help and wish you the best as you move forward meeting in whatever group you are a part of.   If you need assistance putting together an agenda, please contact me.  

 
Every month I email out a newsletter with tips, updates, lessons and upcoming trainings.  Here's a link to the full newsletter.  If you would like for me to email future newsletters to you, please contact me.  Thanks and enjoy!

(I don't have any photos of Matt but I do have a photo of some of the
recommendations Alta presented at a recent meeting in Culver City)

I’m continually impressed watching the movement for a bicycle-friendly Los Angeles grow and prosper in Los Angeles.  Many people make up this movement and I’m writing to recognize one person who has worked hard over the last 10 years in the public sector, nonprofit sector and private sector: Matt Benjamin. 

After graduating from UCLA Planning School, Matt worked for the Metro in their Bikeway department and helped get numerous projects connecting bicycling with transit off the ground.  Just after I left directing the LA County Bicycle Coalition, Matt joined the organization as its Planning Director and led a major planning effort engaging low-income, immigrant bicyclists in the bicycle planning process.  Most recently, he led the LA office of Alta Planning and Design, working for clients such as the City of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Culver City. 

While I’m sad that Matt will be leaving Los Angeles, I’m happy for him and very appreciative of all of the hard work he’s put in to help make Los Angeles a better city to bike in.  Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with Matt.  Most recently, I teamed up with Alta Consulting and facilitated six focus group meetings for the City of Long Beach and one large public meeting for the Culver City Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan.   

I wish Matt the best as he continues his work outside of Southern California. I also look forward to a new generation of leaders working hard to continue transforming LA into a great place to bicycle, or as the LACBC puts it in their vision statement, "a great place for everyday, year-round cycling; a Los Angeles with healthier, more vibrant communities, where the air is cleaner, streets are safer and quieter; a Los Angeles where people can live, work and thrive."

(Photo taken of me recently by Tom Johnson, who just
opened his Lakewood Photo Exhibit in Long Beach)

I invite you to attend another Introduction to Facilitation workshop I'm leading at the LA Eco-Village on Wednesday, July 28th from 7pm to 9pm. Here's the summary of the training:

  
Facilitators play a key role in helping a group make decisions.  They help  create a safe environment where everyone feels like their input is valued. In this workshop, you'll explore the benefits of facilitation, explore the group decision making process, explore various tools a facilitator uses, and have the opportunity to practice facilitating a group (and receive  feedback on your efforts).

Here's a link to a two-page flyer I recently created that describes the facilitation services I provide along with 10 tips for successful facilitation.  Enjoy!

LSC Fellows look on as James Rojas, Co-Founder of the Latino Urban Forum
shows the model he created to showcase the future public transportation system
in Los Angeles as proposed by the Mayor's 30/10 plan. 

The Friday before I left for Mexico City, I facilitated a day-long seminar focussing on Land Use, Transportation and Housing for the Southern California Leadership Network's Leadership Southern California Class.  Here's a description of the day from SCLN's recent newsletter.  

Below that is more information about the Leadership Southern California Class, which is currently accepting applications (due at the end of the week).  A few years back, I participated in the program and would highly recommend it to build both your understanding of regional issues as well as network you with other civic-oriented leaders. 

Leadership Southern California 2010 analyzes the challenges and opportunities of Transit-Oriented Development One of the most difficult challenges facing Southern California today relates to land use, housing and transportation. As the region's population continues to grow, vehicle traffic, road infrastructure and uncertainty over the price of oil have become issues of concern. A shift towards transit-oriented development (TOD) and efficient use of land has led to new initiatives and projects, some of which were examined last week by the Leadership Southern California 2010 Fellows. "The federal funding strategy our region initiated has empowered local communities to raise transportation funds on their own," said Denny Zane, Move LA, on the significance of the 30/10 transportation initiative. "This has been seen by the federal government and other local governments as a template for projects nationwide." The Chamber is currently working with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office, Metro and Move LA on next steps for 30/10.  For more information visit www.leadershipnetwork.org or follow SCLN on Twitter@SCLN.  View photo gallery.   

Last Week to Apply for Leadership Southern California Class of 2011
With several exciting additions to the LSC curriculum, the 2011 class promises to be the most relevant, engaging program to date. The 2011 class will include a regional seminar in Ventura County, where participants will explore the people, places and trends affecting business and technology, coastal communities and agriculture; as well as a two-day seminar on natural resources management, with the new addition of energy. The new, two-day orientation session will feature activities focusing on the Internal Dynamics of Leadership, in partnership with the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. This new component focuses on executive education practices dedicated to managing one's self in the midst of dynamic, changing, challenging and sometimes stressful situations.  Please share this information with a colleague who may be interested. View more information and apply now.

For as much as I love LA, I also love getting away.  This weekend, I spent some time at a Pepper Tree retreat center just outside of Ojai.  Nestled in the foothills of the local mountains, it’s a relaxing place with an incredible view, especially at sunset.

I facilitate lots of retreats and while I know it’s hard for everyone to get away for an entire weekend, its well worth it.  You have time to build relationships with other folks in your organization.  You have time to rest and relax.  And most important, by not being distracted by all the pressures of the city, you can be fully present in the decision making. 

I encourage groups to plan in advance and schedule retreats outside of the city a few months in advance.  I experienced this recently when I facilitated a retreat for the LA Urban Rangers on a UC Natural Reserve in the hills of North San Diego County.

A small group of LLA Members meeting with the
Executive Director of Clinica Romero

Last Friday, I planned and facilitated a thought-provoking seminar for the Southern California Leadership Network's Leadership Los Angeles class.  Below is a description of the day SCLN wrote for their newsletter.  This week, I'm working on putting together another seminar for SCLN's Leadership Southern California Class focussing on Land Use, Transportation and Housing.  

Having participated in the Leadership Southern California Program, I would recommend the program to anyone interested in engaging more with regional issues and building a stronger professional network.  Right now, Leadership Southern California is recruiting applicants...check out their website for more info.

Leadership L.A. 2010 evaluates the impact of national healthcare reform on Los Angeles
The Leadership L.A. Class of 2010 continued its nine-month program with a session on Friday, June 11 focusing on health care in Los Angeles. The Fellows met at LAC+USC Medical Center with Dr. Hector Flores, Director, Family Care Specialists Medical Group to discuss the impact national reform has had on Los Angeles' local health care providers and practitioners.  As part of the day, Fellows also met with Jennifer Ybarra, Program Manager, The California Endowment, and toured the Legacy LA facilities and Ramona Gardens neighborhood.  Ybarra stated "it's not enough to have health insurance. A healthy community shapes an individual's quality of life. Lou Calanche, Executive Director, Legacy LA, highlighted key issues that still inhibit quality of life in Ramona Gardens, such as air quality and access to quality food. Excursions moderated by Pete Delgado, President & CEO, LAC + USC Healthcare Network, among others, gave the Fellows the opportunity to analyze three different systems used to provide medical services in LA: public hospitals, private hospitals, and community clinics. Read more@SCLN. View photo gallery.

Tonight, Tuesday June 15th, I'm leading a "Running Effective Meetings" Training at the LA Eco-Village, from 7pm to 9pm.  

This workshop explores the key components necessary to ensure meetings are effective and result in decisions that help an organization move forward.  These components include: developing an agenda, knowing people’s roles and responsibilities, having a decision making process, facilitation and good listening skills.

Fee: $35 (sliding scale available)
Reservations required: crsp@igc.org or 213/738-1254

Here's a link to my my Top 10 Tips for running good meetings.

For more information Ron Milam’s work as a facilitator, click here.

I will also lead another Introduction to Facilitation training on July 28th from 7pm to 9pm at the LA Eco-Village.

L.A. Eco-Village is located at 117 Bimini Pl. near 1st and Vermont in Los Angeles    directions

(David from Alta Planning and Design receiving
input at one of the break out stations)

Approximately 75 people participated in the bicycle and pedestrian planning process in Culver City on June 12th for a three-hour community workshop.  The workshop started with a presentation of the plan, presented by David Pulsipher from Alta Consulting.  The Public Advisory Committee, made up of community members, then gave their input on the plan.  One of the committee members, Ron Durgin, made the case for inserting a stronger vision into the plan.  He showed the inspiring, short Streetfilms video, Long Beach Shifts Cycling in to High Gear, which earned the audience’s applause.

For the next hour and a half, meeting participants shared their comments and suggestions for the plan, first by making general comments in front of the large group, and then by breaking up into four smaller groups to give input on proposed maps, programs, recommendations and a prioritized list of bicycle and pedestrian improvement projects. The meeting closed with David reviewing next steps, which incorporates the public’s input, the plan going in front of the City’s planning committee and eventually going before the city council.

It’s not too late to provide feedback on this plan – the deadline is June 18^th.  

I appreciate all the work that so many people have put into this process.  I also enjoyed facilitating this workshop and wish the community the best as they move forward.  

I'm looking forward to facilitate a community workshop in Culver City this Saturday.  Here's more information about the meeting from the Culver City website:

Community Workshop this Saturday - June 12th.  Please come to the final community workshop to discuss Culver City's first Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plan.  The workshop will be held in Veteran's Memorial Auditorium from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. See you on Saturday!

The Draft Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan is available for review on the Documents page. Please review it and come to the June 12 workshop to provide feedback.

Comments on the Draft Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan are due by Friday, June 18.  You can submit your comments here.

A little bit about the project...

The Culver City Bicycle and Pedestrian Initiative aims to help residents and visitors overcome these barriers. The initiative will compile updates in policy, program and infrastructure into the City’s first comprehensive Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan. This plan will guide the improvements for cycling and walking citywide.

Additionally, the impending 2010 arrival of the Exposition Light Rail Transit line and the bikeway alongside it, on the edge of the city, provides an excellent opportunity to enhance the adjacent area, promoting safe and comfortable non-motorized access to the station. The initiative features a physical project element that will focus on providing bicyclists and pedestrians with these connections—the Expo to Downtown Bicycle and Pedestrian Connector.

We hope you participate in this process to make Culver City a place that offers active, sustainable and safe lifestyles, where people bike and walk for transportation and recreation.

(photo from a recent LA Urban Rangers Retreat I facilitated)

This Wednesday (June 9th), I'm leading an Advanced Facilitation training at the LA Eco-Village. The following week on June 15th, I'm leading a Running Effective Meetings training.  I invite you to attend one or both of them.

Here's more information: 

Wed, June 9, 2010 from 7 to 9 pm at L.A. Eco-Village          directions

Advanced Facilitation 

This workshop explores more sophisticated tools and strategies that facilitators use to ensure groups effectively reach decisions.  Participants will have the opportunity to practice facilitating challenging situations and receive feedback from the instructor and training participants. 

Recommended pre-requisite:  Intro to Facilitation or some facilitation experience.

Fee:        $35 (sliding scale available)
Reservations required:  crsp@igc.org or 213/738-1254

============================================

Tue, June 15, 2010 from 7 to 9 pm at L.A. Eco-Village    directions

Running Effective Meetings    

This workshop explores the key components necessary to ensure meetings are effective and result in decisions that help an organization move forward.  These components include: developing an agenda, knowing people’s roles and responsibilities, having a decision making process, facilitation and good listening skills.

Fee:        $35 (sliding scale available)
Reservations required:  crsp@igc.org or 213/738-1254

I recently facilitated a one-day retreat for the Echo Park Time Bank.  I’m pleased to report their Board of Directors made a number of important decisions that will help them move forward. We focused on developing long and short term goals, which help guide any organization.  After brainstorming numerous possibilities, we categorized them and prioritized a few areas for them to focus in on. 

After the retreat, the founding Board members Autumn and Lisa emailed me the following “We want to thank you again so much for all the invaluable help you gave us last weekend. We felt incredibly encouraged and hopeful afterward.”

As always, I really enjoy facilitating groups and am always thrilled when participants leave the retreat more focused and energized about their work.  And for anyone living in or near Echo Park, I encourage you to check out the Echo Park Time Bank for an innovative means of exchange and community building.

For more info about the facilitation services I provide, check out my one-page flyer.

Five years ago this month, I launched my own consulting practice.   Since then, I’m pleased to report I have consulted for over 40 nonprofit organizations primarily in the areas of facilitation and fundraising. 

I love my work.  I get to work with dynamic leaders working on a variety of issues throughout Southern California.   With each project, I learn about my client’s work to create parks and open space, develop affordable housing, transform streets into bicycle-friendly places, create sustainable communities and so much more.  I also learn more about how to make meetings even more effective and how to engage staff and board members around successful fundraising strategies. 

To celebrate, I plan to hold another happy hour on Tuesday, June 22nd, from 5:30pm to 8:30pm at Silverlake Wine.  As always, my happy hours are places where I invite all of my clients and friends to share a drink and discuss the issues of the day.   I invite you to join us.

We’ll see what the next five years bring.  I hope to serve even more organizations that are working to transform Southern California into a sustainable region.  Thanks for all of your interest and support.

As a consultant, I specialize in providing facilitation and fundraising services.  I recently made some changes to my one page flyers for both of these subjects and would like to share them with you for your review.  Please feel free to forward them on to anyone who you think might be interested in my services, or give me a call if you would like to discuss further. 
Thanks, 
Ron

Here's a link to the facilitation flyer.

Here's a link to the fundraising flyer.

I'm pleased to report the International Institute for Facilitation and Change has published another one of my articles in their online Bonfire newsletter - "Facilitation Skills - Listening".  I'm thrilled to contribute to a broader understanding of facilitation through this work and hope you find it useful, whether your facilitating a meeting or just spending time with people you care about. The International Institute for Facilitation and Change's website has a number of helpful articles on facilitation that I have found valuable and encourage you to check them out. 

 Here's a link to my March Newsletter with tips + updates

Facilitation plays a key role in my work as a Consultant.  I've faciliated numerous retreats, board meetings and community meetings.

This Thursday, April 1st, from 7 to 9pm, I'll be leading an "Introduction to Facilitation" workshop at the Los Angeles Eco Village. I invite you to attend.  

Here's more info about the training:

Facilitators play a key role in helping a group make decisions.  They help  create a safe environment where everyone feels like their input is valued. In this workshop, you'll explore the benefits of facilitation, explore the group decision making process, explore various tools a facilitator uses, and have the opportunity to practice facilitating a group (and receive  feedback on your efforts) 

I'm excited that the International Institute for Facilitation and Change included my Top 10 Facilitation tips in their recent Bonfire Newsletter.  This organization and newsletter is a great resource for anyone wanting to improve their facilitation skills.  

I'm also pleased to invite you to the following three trainings I just scheduled at the Los Angeles Eco-Village, which you are more than welcome to attend:

     (photo taken by Drew Reed)

Last Saturday’s LA Streets Summit, attended by more than 500 people, left me inspired and excited about the potential for LA’s growing movement to transform our streets into more livable places.  Janette Sadik-Khan showed that if New York City transform its streets, so can Los Angeles if we are creative, organized and unified.

In the afternoon, I facilitated a discussion asking the question “How can we continue to build the bicycling movement in Los Angeles?”  Approximately 35 people attended this session and all had great things to say.  As any brainstorm goes, the point of our time was to generate ideas, not evaluate or judge them.   

Here’s a summary of the ideas generated (I put the various ideas into categories):

BUILDING THE MOVEMENT

• Focus on what connects us
• Bring together existing leaders of various organizations for a day or two retreat to figure out the following: Overall movement goals, Time to share what each organization is doing, Discuss how to best support each other, Share lessons learned, Learn best practices from other successful leaders from other cities outside of region, Develop communications strategy, Create a central calendar, Existing calendars mentioned (bikeboom, LA Streetsblog, Bikeside, Biking in LA, LACBC, CICLE, socalcycling.com, socalcross, facebook), Get to know each other better, Figure out each other’s roles and responsibility in movement
• Need an effective coalition to put political pressure on
• Need to think beyond bikes and build connect with other organizations – gender/race/other communities: Such as public health, youth, college/universities, environmental groups, grammar schools, transit advocates, police, food vendors, neighbors, neighborhood councils, art organizations, LA River, chamber of commerce, bike industry - Shimano, park advocates, charitable organizations that do fundraising rides, bike shops, cyclecross community, developers, affordable housing, communications industry – KPFK, gas stations, AARP, AAA, farmers
• Need for both regional and local groups for people to connect with
• Monthly meetings?
• Have a regular “Bicycle Roundtable” where leaders from the movement can meet to discuss goals/problems – a current idea of bicyclingjustice.com
• Need to be clearer about what our overall goals are
• Rides that give people the opportunity to get to know each other better and also explore local riding conditions
• Have a TED-style conference for bikes
• We don’t have to all agree all the time
• Work to bridge gap between youth and radical bike advocates: More dialog & Tap into good energy

WORKING TOGETHER

• Work together to implement City of LA Bike Plan
• Work to support city staff working on bike issues
• Need an effective communications strategy
• Focus on motorists to get more respect

RECRUITING

• Need to organize and recruit cyclists
• Have more people involved with various organizations cooperate to come up with a flyer to leave at various bike shots that identify the variety of bike organizations
• Have a button on bike blogs that would go to a site showing various campaigns and/or organizations people could get involved with
• Offer to help fix your neighbor’s bicycle
• Recruiting social riders into movement
• How to recruit apathetic cyclists? Are there incentives?
• Recruit at the Tour de California (and/or partner with the Tour)
• Have something on the City Hall TV Channel
• Have a fix-your bike show/kids club
• Get more people on bikes
• 2% of overall population can change anything

NEXT STEPS

• Collect emails from people in attendance
• Send out a monthly newsletter
• Have a facebook Page
• Plan a conference to unify bike movement
• Other ideas?

I invite you to attend this weekend’s LA Streets Summit, which will bring together hundreds of people interested in transforming LA’s streets into more livable places.  After a great set of morning keynote speakers, the afternoon is packed with a wide variety of fantastic panels.  I’m excited to facilitate the following panel at 1:00pm:

Building a Stronger Bicycling Movement in Los Angeles
This workshop provides a forum for people working to transform Los Angeles into a bicycle-friendly city to identify areas in which we can strengthen our movement.  How can we work more effectively with each other, better communicate with each other and strengthen relationships among each other? Participants will brainstorm ways in which to strengthen our movement and talk about potential next steps after the LA Street Summit.

I invite you to attend my session and/or register to attend the Summit. 

I’m keeping busy this week with facilitation and am excited to have the opportunity to work with so many groups.  Here’s a quick glimpse of my schedule:

Tuesday:
-Facilitating a subcommittee of Green LA Coalition

-Facilitating a community meeting for the City of Seal Beach

Thursday:
-Leading a seminar at the Center for Nonprofit Management on planning successful fundraising events

-Facilitating a discussion with the Board of Directors of LA Voice

Friday
-Leading a seminar at the Flintridge Foundation on Researching and Cultivating Donors

-Facilitating a discussion with the Board of the Southern California Association of Nonprofit Hosing Developers

I’m thrilled to work with so many leaders of so many organizations working for positive change in Los Angeles. 

Here's a link to my February newsletter - enjoy!

I recently completed a consulting project that took several months for the Green LA Coalition.  Green LA works to build a strong movement to win campaigns that can transform Los Angeles into a sustainable city.

For this project, I collaborated closely with another consultant, Beth Steckler.  For this project, we interviewed over 30 people within the Coalition’s leadership and outside the organization, along with surveying the entire membership with an online survey.  Based on this work, we developed an assessment report and later facilitated a day-long strategic visions retreat for the Coalition’s Steering Committee.  From all of the information we gathered through these efforts, we presented a final report with recommendations for how the Coalition could strengthen itself as it moves forward so that it could have the greatest possible impact in making Los Angeles a more sustainable city. 

I’m pleased to report the Steering Committee approved the majority of our recommendations and has asked Beth and I to continue consulting for them to help them implement our recommendations. 

I also look forward to attending Green LA’s upcoming awards fundraiser on March 15^th, from 6pm to 9pm, and invite you to attend.

I’m very pleased to be working with the leadership at the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing (SCANPH).   SCANPH creates affordable housing opportunities for low-income people by expanding the knowledge, capacity and influence of the nonprofit development sector.  Over the years, SCANPH has championed affordable housing in Southern California and helped build a strong network of local affordable housing developers that have generated housing that’s affordable.   SCANPH also has some excited plans to green development in the future, which I’m especially excited to see happen. 

I’m working with the organization’s leadership to build their fundraising capacity so that they’re able to bring in the needed resources to do their good work.  I’m excited to attend their upcoming Board meeting in March to work with the entire Board of Directors on engaging in the fundraising process.  For some tips on how to build a fundraising Board of Directors, check out my recent blog post.

Many years ago, I benefitted from the work from an intern while directing the LA County Bicycle Coalition (my intern, Andrew, currently teaches in Mexico City and will someday be the Mayor of Detroit).  I later worked closely with an intern while working for Enterprise Community Partners in New York City (that intern, Matt, is currently in Law School and will someday be the Governor of Florida).   As Principal of my own consulting firm with a lot of work on my plate, I'm once again looking to bring on an intern to help me with my work.  In turn, I look forward to working with whoever I bring on to build their capacity as a leader in the nonprofit sector.  Here's the job description.  Please forward to anyone who you think might be interested:

Intern Job Description

 
Ron Milam Consulting is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Intern.  Ron Milam has 12 years of successful experience in the non-profit sector and has consulted for 40 nonprofit organizations since 2005.  His mission is to provide capacity building support for leaders working to transform Los Angeles into a sustainable region.  Ron specializes in the areas of fundraising, strategic planning and leadership development.  He’s a skilled facilitator, presenter, coach and project manager.   For more info, check out www.ronmilam.com.

This position is ideal for someone wanting to gain real world experience as a consultant working for some of Los Angeles’ leading sustainability oriented nonprofit organizations.  It’s also a good place to build your skills as a leader in the nonprofit sector, particularly as a fundraiser and/or facilitator.  As part of the internship, Ron will identify areas in which the intern wants to build their capacity as a leader and discuss it weekly with the intern.   This part-time position is ideal for current graduate students wanting to gain some real-world experience and additional income on the side.  Specific responsibilities of the intern are as follows:

Fundraising

• Research potential donors for Ron’s clients
• Develop/write/review grant proposals
• Copy-edit proposals Ron develops
• Assist with logistical details of fundraising work Ron does for clients (fundraising assessments, leadership surveys, draft plans, etc.)

Facilitation

• Record notes for meetings Ron facilitates
• Facilitate portions of the agenda
• Assist with logistical details related to meetings Ron facilitates

 Marketing

• Help research and identify new consulting clients
• Assist with social media marketing
• Assist with the development of marketing and training materials
• Data-entry

There may be other projects that come up outside of the areas of facilitation, fundraising and marketing, depending on the needs of Ron Milam and his clients.

Desired Skills and Experience:

• Passion and energy for implementing urban sustainability in Los Angeles
• Experience and/or interest in the nonprofit sector
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Detail-oriented
• Strong leadership ability and an entrepreneurial spirit that thrives in a start-up environment

Compensation:

$15/hour.  Part-time.  Flexible hours.

Application Submission – Deadline February 26^th, 2008:

Please email your cover letter and résumé to rpm@ronmilam.com.

Good listening skills are essential to anyone who wants to successfully facilitate a meeting.  It’s also my number one tip on my “Top 10 Tips for Facilitators”.

As a facilitator, you need to listen closely to what everyone has to say.  Since you are there to serve the entire group, you must actively listen so you can better understand where everyone is coming from so you can help them accomplish whatever they want to accomplish as a group.  Part of the trust you build with the group you facilitate depends on them believing you hear them.  Not only that, your active listening will help ensure other people within the group listen to each other, and actually hear what they have to say.  When folks within a group listen to each other, they are more likely to understand each other and that helps make it a little easier for the group to come to sustainable agreements.

Here are three quick and easy ways to listen:

1. Mirroring:  When someone says something (that isn’t too long), you repeat the words back verbatim to the person who said it.  This is a tactic I often use when I’m facilitating a br Save ainstorming session with a group.
2. Summarizing:  People often take a minute or two to make their point to the larger group.  If I’m facilitating a discussion, I’ll often quickly summarize what someone says to make sure I heard it right.  The point also gets reiterated to the group.   If my summary is slightly off, the person will correct me and then I’ll summarize it again.
3. Clarifying:  Sometimes someone will make a point that isn’t all that clear, or very general.  Before calling on the next person, I will often ask a clarifying question to better understand where they are coming from.  This helps them hear that their point is made and it helps other people in the group.

I recently used all three of these techniques for a community meeting I facilitated for the City of Seal Beach.  I encourage you to give them a try as you facilitate future meetings and see how it goes. 

I have a family member who did well running a successful company.  When I asked him why he succeeded, he said “I’ll tell you what everyone will say – work hard, never give up, have vision, etc.”  He paused for a moment, smiled, and looked at me and continued sharing “There was one thing that played a key role in our success.  Once a month, I would invite everyone in my company for a drink, from the most senior staff person to the most junior.  We’d spend the first part just mingling and socializing.  Once everyone had two drinks, I would bring out a note pad and we would brainstorm solutions to whatever problems we faced.  That’s where we generated our best ideas!”

In that spirit, I’ve hosted/facilitated a monthly happy hour for the last year which are not only a place to generate great ideas to improve the quality of life in Los Angeles, but also meet great people as well.  As a consultant, I interact with phenomenal leaders working on a variety of issues all throughout LA.  This is one way in which I bring everyone together and I welcome you to attend. 

My next happy hour is tonight, February 2^nd, starting at about 5:30pm at 7 Grand in Downtown LA.  The question I’m asking folks to consider is “what will you do to make LA a better place in 2010?”  We generally go until about 8:30 or 9pm. I’m looking forward to seeing who attends tonight and introducing some great people other folks they don’t already know.

Here's a link to my most recent email newsletter I sent out.  Enjoy!

Here's a link to my December 2009 Newsletter.  Enjoy!
Happy Holidays,
Ron

Last Friday, I facilitated another seminar for the Southern California Leadership Network.  This time, we looked at a specific neighborhood:  Koreatown.  I really enjoyed putting this seminar together, which invovlved developing the day's agenda and recruiting the speakers.  I especially enjoyed facilitating the afternoon debrief where participants talked about their experiences exploring various aspects of the neighborhood.   Here's a summary of the day that the Southern California Leadership Network just emailed out:

Leadership L.A. focuses on neighborhood development in Koreatown
The Class of 2009 learned how neighborhoods grow and develop in Los Angeles on Oct. 9 with Dr. Fernando Guerra of the Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University, who discussed the DNA of neighborhoods in the city and his "5 Ds" that have driven what L.A. has become: decentralization, democratization, deindustrialization, development of land and demographic shifts. The case study focused on Koreatown, where Fellows met with Korean-American leaders, including Leadership Southern California alumnus Hyepin Im, Korean Churches for Community Development; as well as local business owners, developers, community organizers, historians and neighborhood councilmembers. The class closed the session at the new Solair Wilshire transit-oriented development with L.A. City Councilmember Tom LaBonge. Read more about the day on Twitter by following @SCLN. View photo gallery. 

Lately, I have been doing some consulting work for the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, a fantastic organization that "facilitates the creation of small, accessible community green and open space, such as parks and gardens, to address the inequity of open spaces in Los Angeles’ underserved neighborhoods, and to ensure community participation and collaboration in every step of the process of creating these parks and community gardens."

I’m working closely with their board and staff to help them develop a strategy to implement their long term vision of developing 50 new parks throughout Los Angeles.  This work involves a lot of facilitation at meetings as we brainstorm and prioritize strategies. 

This is a collaborative consulting project for me not only because I’m working closely with their staff and board, but I’m also partnering with Steve Rasmussen Cancian, a former organizer turned into Landscape Architect that has breathed new life into neighborhoods with his engaging work to develop community living rooms, among other things.  Together, we are combining our talents and generating a lot of great ideas for how to generate community parks and open space in a 21^st century Los Angeles. 

If you know of any local community groups that are interested in having more parks and open space in their communities, please email me. 

I recently facilitated a day long planning session for the Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust, an organization working to exercise land stewardship as the basis for creating pedestrian-centered neighborhoods that emphasize sustainability-oriented affordable housing.

We had an especially productive retreat.  As a facilitator, I helped create a space for the Board of Directors to decide their organization's long-term goals, short-term goals and the beginnings of a 2009/10 workplan. 

At the end of the retreat, one of the participants shared a list she had been making throughout the day of “Ronisms”: little things I said to encourage the group as they made tough decisions throughout the day. 

Here are some of the things I said:  “Nice”, “Excellent”, “Good work”, “Awesome”, “That’s Great”, “Huge”, “Amazing”, “Lets Rock and Roll”, “Give yourselves a hand of applause”, “You folks have chosen well” and “We have less than 40 minutes people”.

I laughed as I heard this list and was reminded that part of my work as a facilitator is to help ensure full group participation in the decision making process, which is done in part by encouraging and affirming participation throughout the process.  By the end of the day, everyone was very happy with the results of their hard work and thanked me for my hard work as a facilitator. 

I’m here at LAX waiting to catch my plane to Toronto, Canada, where I will lead another “Winning Campaigns” training for the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking.  This highly interactive, fast-paced and fun workshop gives participants the opportunity to develop their own campaign strategy to win improvements in their local bicycling or pedestrian environment.  This will be the eighth training I have led, having also led trainings in the following cities over the last couple of years: Denver, Albany, Louisville, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Flint, and Philadelphia.

As always, I’m excited to meet local advocates and have the opportunity to bicycle around a new city to gain inspiration for ways in which we can make Los Angeles a better place to bicycle. Later in the year, I’ll lead the same training in Denver and Little Rock.  If you’re interested in learning ways in which to make your own community a better place to walk and bicycle, I encourage you to attend.

(Here's a link to some photos from the training)

I continue to provide a number of capacity building trainings that are open to the public and invite you to attend one of them.  To date, I have the following workshops scheduled and expect to lead several more throughout the year:

·         Hosting a Successful Fundraising Event (3/25)

·         Fundraising 101 (4/2)

·         Winning Campaigns (4/27/-4/29)

·         Introduction to Facilitation (4/28)

·         What’s your Message: Getting Media (5/7)

·         Essentials of Effective Meetings (Date TBD)

In addition to leading trainings that are open to the public, I now also lead customized trainings directly for clients (often for nonprofit staff and Boards of Directors).   Below is a list of trainings I’m able to lead.

 1. Fundraising 101

2. Developing a Strategic Plan

3. Developing a Fundraising Plan

4. Finding Funders: 

5. Tapping into the Wealth of Individuals

6. Crafting a Successful Annual Appeal Letter

7. Introduction to Grant Writing

8. Advanced Grant Writing

9. Hosting a Successful Fundraising Event

10. Building a Strong Board

11. The Art of Cultivation

12. Fundraising Infrastructure

13. Balancing Fundraising with your other Responsibilities

14.  What’s your Message? Getting Media

15. Campaign Planning 101

16. Finding, Engaging and Thanking Volunteers

17. Introduction to Facilitation

18.  Running Effective Meetings

Please contact me if you would like for me to create a customized training for your organization.   I hope to see you at a future training!

I’m really excited about the upcoming Los Angeles Bike Summit on March 7th and encourage you to attend.  “The Bike Summit will bring together bicycle advocates, advocates for healthy communities, and others to network and to plan a bikable healthy future for Southern California.”

The Summit features four keynote speakers from New York City, Portland and Mexico, all with stories and experiences that Southern California can learn from.  I used to have the pleasure of working with one of these speakers – Noah Budnick from Transportation Alternatives in New York City, and am excited he’ll be in town. 

I’ve been working hard to leverage the impact of the Bike Summit by planning a series of meetings on the Thursday and Friday before the conference where I will introduce the Summit’s keynote speakers to staff from local elected officials, transportation agency staff, advocates working on transportation reform, the media and public health professionals.  At each of the five meetings we have scheduled, I will facilitate a forum for the keynote speakers to share best practices, take questions and then have a conversation where we can learn from each other.  Because for as much as Los Angeles has to learn from New York City, Mexico City and Portland, there’s quite a few things we can teach them about like implementing the Orange line dedicated busway/bikeway in the San Fernando Valley, which we will also be touring. 

Then Friday night, we’ll ride in the “Root Down Ride Around”, which will tour important sites of bike advocacy/culture in Los Angeles.  I’ll be presenting at one of the stops to talk about some of the work I did while directing the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. 

I’m really excited about the Summit.  Not only will we be inspired from the keynote speakers, but there will also be over 20 workshops on a variety of topic.  I will be leading one of these workshops: Overcoming the Barriers of Bicycling through Social Networking.  The workshop will explore the BikeSage concept and launch our effort to begin recruiting a larger community of BikeSages in Southern California.  I hope to see you there.

Greetings,
Welcome to my new website! In addition to describing the services I provide, background on my experience and my past clients, I’m excited to launch a blog where I will share with you valuable lessons I’ve learned about nonprofit management over the last 11 years.  Every week, my goal is to capture a bit of wisdom I’ve learned that will hopefully be a resource to you and your organization.  Over time, I hope to build an online library that you can access anytime, on a series of different topics.  If there are certain areas you would like for me to address, or questions you have, please email them to me.  If you would like to discuss any of these areas in greater detail, please contact me.  Thanks and keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Ron