Co- Facilitation Experience

Co- Facilitation Experience

HDF 413: Student Organization of Leadership Consultants
Alexandra Gonzalez
The University of Rhode Island

Co- Facilitation Experience

Remove Phones
7-7:10 Have everyone write a funny/good memory about pink on an index card for the end
7:10- 7:30 Form 2 Lines & randomly pick two people and they have to say what you know about them.
*Do you really know your sisters.. notice how much you dont know about your sisters*
7:25-7:50 Mind Field Game - Alex
*Communication amongst ourselves, Attitudes, team work*
7:50- 2 min episode on Disney channel shows: proud family, thats so raven, lizzie Mcguire, kim possible,
Hannah montana, high school musical, even stevens, out of the box
EAT
This is my life: card game that represents each stage of life. Tell a story relative to you for each card.
(Families)
*Learn more about your family*
Answer questions from easel paper on post its. Include everyone's opinions.
*any patterns: Did anyone see anything they agree/disagree with? what does pink need to work on? Why
is this coming about*
Discussion:
Extra games: Put post in with pink woman name and pink girls will help us guess who she is
Things Needed: easel paper, two blindfolds, post its, deck of cards, marker,

Co- Facilitation Experience

Unfortunately this semester I haven't been able to Co-facilitate any retreats with SOLC. It seems
like the large amount of snow days have had an negative effect on not only the academics at the
University of Rhode Island but also student involvement. As a result not many student group have
requested a retreats with SOLC this semester. Its a shame that I havent had the opportunity to
demonstrate the knowledge I have gained from joining SOLC in a retreat. However, I am apart of the
sisterhood committee for Powerful Intelligent Notoriously Knowledgeable (PINK) Women. The
sisterhood committee is responsible for organizing and executing 2 treats each semester and 1 retreat with
Brothers On A New Direction (BOND). Fall Semester of 2014 we held a retreat with the general
members.
This retreat was very necessary to helping our organization rebuild our sisterhood. In the
beginning of the fall semester there was a lack of communication and a large decline of sisterly bonds.
Normally the retreats really did a good job of putting our main goals into perspective and help our
organization build a community. This year we chose to incorporate more community building activities
and also address many of the issues that we were facing internally as an organization. Many of the
activities we chose to do were full of competitive fun, such as the MINI TV Episode Challenge. However
there were also a few other activities that addressed the lack of communication that our organization had
at the time. An example of this would be the Mind Field Game, that I facilitated myself during this retreat.
The main purpose of the activity was to demonstrate the need for fluid communication within our
organization. The game consisted of several chairs scattered throughout the multicultural centers floor. I
then divided the large group into two separate groups this way my sisters could have some competitive
fun. I then asked them to select one member of their group to have blind folded. We took the both of the
volunteers out of the ballroom into the hallway so they could not see where we were scattering the chairs.
Before the first volunteer reentered the room we scattered the chairs across the entire room. There was a

Co- Facilitation Experience

total of 30 - 40 chairs creating a Mind Field so to speak. I told the my sisters the rules of the game.
They were to direct their volunteer throughout the mind field without bumping them into any of the chairs
and only allowed to direct them by verbal communication. I also told them that each team would be timed
and whoever has the best time will win the game.
The first team chose to go through the maze. They only had one person directing the blindfolded
volunteer. Soon the rest of the team members began to lose interest in the results of the game. Some
where not paying attention at all. While others were watching the outcome of competition. Once they got
their volunteer through the maze we announced their time. After rescattering the chairs around we then
took the second volunteer to start their turn. However, the second team had already been strategizing
while the other was going. They choose to have their designated speaker follow their volunteer
throughout the maze, they also chose to go around the maze instead of inside it. I allowed them to since I
never specified if they could our couldnt at the beginning of the game. The opposing team began to get
really angry that I allowed the other team to do so. The opposing team started to yell and bang table to
distract the volunteer. Even with this all going on there were still a whole bunch of members that did not
participate at all. There was a whole group of them sitting down talk amongst themselves.
After the second team finished I announced their time, they were a lot faster than first team of
course. I then asked for everyones attention for a quick debriefing of the activity. I first ask them what
went wrong? One of my sisters from the losing team answered. She said they had the advantage, you let
them do whatever they want.. The other team answered You let them distract us the whole time. I
asked them if they could do it again what would the do. The winning team said they would do it the same
way and the losing team said that they would exactly how the winning team did it. I was sure to follow up
by stating that this activity was to demonstrate the issue that we currently have in our organization. I
mentioned that there were members that did not contribute to the game which is the same for issues that
revolve around pink there are some member that don't contribute enough. Where others choose not to

Co- Facilitation Experience

listen to each other and were a constantly bickering and this activity was an example of all those internal
issues.
When I facilitated this retreat with PINK it was before I had taken HDF 413. So I didnt have any
training in facilitation or consulting. This is why I believe the activity was not as affective as I had hope it
would be. After taking HDF 413 and having formal training in consulting I know now that this particular
activity was not effective for help our organization with communication. I should have used an activity
that allowed all the group members to actively participate. I should have had split the girls up into 5
smaller groups. I believe the activity where the blindfolded person has to build a puzzle based on the
directions the group gives them, would have been more effective. That activity requires that every
member must say something and they can only say three words at a time. This is would have forced the
girls that were not participating the first time around to participate. It also would have made it very clear
that fluid communication is necessary for the productivity of the whole group.
Overall, the retreat was not a effective as Nabrissa and I hoped it would have been. I mainly feel
that our failure during our retreat was due to our lack of knowledge. We wanted to run our retreat SOLC
style without any of the content to back us up. Had I known what my strengths were at the time I would
have used them to my advantage. The only strength that I used was restorative. However, I didn't not
fulfill my strength to its fullest extent, I pointed out the flaw within the group but did not provided a
solution to fix the problem. Now that I have joined SOLC I know how to effectively facilitate an activity
that will allow a student group to realize their weakness and work towards fixing that weakness.