Business and governmental work groups, non-profit boards, city councils, and private and government-sponsored Task Forces all hold meetings to try to find common goals and make plans to achieve them.  There are thousands of things we all meet together to accomplish.  A few examples are:

• Developing Mission Statements
• Holding planning sessions (what to do next week or a crafting a five-year plan)
• Resolving long-standing disagreements within a Board of Directors
• Convening a Task Force to resolve a high-profile issue (e.g., land use, water management, fee structures)
• Improving working relationships on City Councils, Urban Renewal Boards, PTOs, etc.
• Homeowners’ Association meetings (developing rules, fees, etc.)
• Resolving large-scale environmental conflicts (mine reclamation, landfills, erosion and water pollution, etc.)
• Drafting Rules and Regulations

On its own, a group can lose its way.  Topics can be lost, ideas can be stifled, poor or hasty decisions can be made (or worse, no decisions at all) – wasting everyone’s time, effort and emotional commitment.  Appointing a chair for the meeting may help, but that person, no matter how well-intentioned has a stake in the outcome.  Bad feelings and no real resolution are often the result, poisoning the well for any future progress.  At best, groups get part of the way to their goals, settling for that, or lose momentum and simply quit.

The answer is an experienced group facilitator like Mark Loye.  His more than 25 years of experience in working with groups help any group develop a plan for success.  Mark does this by:

• Meeting with the group organizer (public official, manager, business owner, etc.) to understand the group and its issues and develop a plan of action.
• Interviewing all group members prior to the first meeting, if needed.
• In multi-faction disputes, holding pre-facilitation interviews with each faction.
• Facilitating a series of group meetings designed to help the group reach its goals.  Mark accomplishes this by being a neutral leader who will:
• Help the group set ground rules and encourage the members to abide by them.
• Develop timed agendas for each meeting and make sure the group sticks to them.
• Ensure that everyone in the group has a chance to be heard.
• Keep accurate records of each meeting, taking flip chart notes so that everyone knows his or her ideas are captured.
• Help the group appoint subcommittees and then facilitate them, as needed.
• Assist the group in molding its ideas into a blueprint for the future (an action plan, a five-year plan, a task force recommendation, etc.) that will actually work!
• Allow any group to never feel that it is rudderless and know that it can chart its course into a better future!

Mark Loye brings his long years of facilitation experience to every group.  His more than 1,000 hours of actual meeting time, not including the many hours of interviews, agreement preparation, and other support activities, make Mark one of the most experienced group facilitators in the western United States.  Any group can succeed, but with Mark’s guidance it will succeed.