Elderflower Guidelines for new workshop leaders

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Workshop Leader Guidelines

These guidelines are offered to any woman who is new to planning or leading a workshop. We hope they will help you. For more support call the current Workshop Coordinator. Thank you for making a special contribution to Elderflower! Your workshop provides Elderflower participants with the unique opportunity to meet you personally and benefit from your special skill and wisdom.

You don't have to be a "Professional"

Only some workshops are lead by seasoned workshop leaders, or professional teachers. Many are offered by women new to leading workshops, who have a desire to share an experience or understanding that has special meaning to them. You don't have to be an expert to share an experience or teach something special. Elderflower is a fantastic opportunity to learn and practice workshop facilitation because it is a friendly, safe and supportive environment. If you are new to workshop leadership, thank you for taking the risk and offering to share what you know with us. Please allow us to give you whatever support you need. Feel free to ask for help or feedback if you are nervous.

Types of Workshops

There are many types of workshops. Discussions, lectures, chats, demonstrations, teaching a craft or art, meditation, dance, music, humor. At Elderflower, we have seen slideshows, and done rites of passage. We have had workshops that called a specific Goddess, and workshops that consisted of lecture presentations. You can do any type of workshop you can imagine.

Length

Workshops are generally one hour and 45 minutes in length. A shorter workshop would be acceptable. If you are planning to do a workshop longer than two hours, please discuss it with the workshop coordinator. If the workshop is longer than three hours it would be a good idea to structure it as a two part workshop with part one as a pre-requisite for part two. A two part workshop could also happen in different time slots such as morning and afternoon or on different days. It is hard to hold women's attention for more than two hours at a time. To arrange a two part workshop, you will need to contact the current workshop coordinator directly.

Subject

Please keep in mind, that the purpose of Elderflower Womenspirit Festival is to create a festival for women and girls with a focus on earth based spirituality and honoring the feminine through the Goddess. We ask that if you do worship the God or the Sacred Male Consort, do not call him at Elderflower.

Planning

Get your workshop form in on time to the workshop coordinator. This will allow potential workshop attendees to have a printed description in front of them when they arrive at the festival.

Create an outline for the workshop.
Flesh out the outline with planned words and phrases, or write the lecture.
Make flash cards or highlight the key points of the outline/lecture.
Time the actiivities.
Gather the materials to bring with you.
Practice the spoken or demonstrated parts of the workshop.
Ask a friend for feedback.
Before the workshop, familiarize yourself with the location.
Center and Ground yourself before you begin.
Ground and Release when you are finished.

Try to plan a workshop that is participatory or has participatory parts to it. Women tend to learn and absorb more and enjoy the experience more when they share the experience actively. When doing a lecture-type presentation, handouts will help women to learn and remember.

Introductions

At the minimum, introduce yourself. Are group introductions appropriate for your workshop? Sometimes it helps to start a workshop with introductions. Some workshops which involve discussion go more smoothly if the participants introduce themselves. This can be simply going around the circle and sharing names or women can say something more about themselves such as why they are there, what they hope to learn or what their own experiences have been with the topic being presented. There are also many songs, chants and games that serve the purpose of introducing the women to each other. You want to keep this part short, so you time for body of your presentation. The beginning activity sets the tone for the whole workshop.

After the group has introduced themselves you might want to give them an extended introduction of yourself. You might want to share information about your background, how you came to lead this workshop or what your own training or experience has been with what you are teaching. You can also use this opportunity to announce other workshops or events you might be leading and briefly present the work you are in your own community. Go ahead and pass around a pad for women to add their names to your mailing list if you wish to. Keep this part of your workshop to under five minutes, but do use this opportunity to promote your own work. Don't use this time for selling merchandise. That activity is limited to the crafts area and we ask that you observe this.

Prepare your presentation

If you are giving a presentation of information, you might want to prepare what you want to say in advance. Then go over what you've written and list key portions of the presentation rather than reading your presentation like a statement. If you are afraid that you might get nervous and forget the content of your presentation you can keep the whole written text in front of you but go through it in advance and highlight or underline the key words. That way you can easily glance at you statement, say several sentences, look back over your notes to see if you covered what you want to say, and then go on to the next part. If you are presenting material that you are very familiar with, you will be able to present it regardless of whether you are nervous or not. Sharing your personal experiences and anecdotes will help to put you at ease as well as share a special part of your own experience. If you are leading a guided meditation, it is perfectly acceptable to write it out entirely in advance and read it to the group. Just be aware of the pace and tone that you are speaking with.

Breathe

This may seem obvious. During the presentation, remember to breathe. Take extra deep breathes if you are nervous. It is perfectly okay to tell the group if you are nervous. Stating a difficult feeling often serves to dissipate the energy of it. The women in the group will want to help you feel at ease if they can. If you tell them that you have never lead a workshop before and you are nervous, it is likely that they will appreciate you even more for taking the risk with them.

Allow some time for questions

For lectures and demonstrations, it is good to stop at various times throughout the workshop to ask for questions. You can also ask participants if they have anything to add. Experience sharing from the participants sometimes teaches you something new, adds to the experience of the workshop and might remind you of something you forgot.

Time

Have a clock or a watch near you to keep track of the time. Be prepared to adjust your plan if a part of your workshop takes longer than you anticipated. End your workshop on time. Many of your participants will want to go to something else after you workshop. It is disruptive to have most the group leave because they are sticking to a schedule. Also, another workshop might be scheduled to happen in the space that you are occupying.

Level of Experience

If you wish to, you can restrict or specify requirements for the group. State your requirements in the program or on the schedule board. You can ask for a certain level of experience or familiarity with the subject. You might want to ask that everyone bring something in order to participate. You can set whatever standards you wish. Certainly feel free to offer something at an advanced or intermediate level and exclude beginners for the greater enrichment of those participating.

Resources

Remember to share resource information that will help your group to follow up on what they have learned from you. Recommend books, groups, centers periodicals, workshops, events and other teachers that are related to the material presented.

Be available

Allow time after the workshop for women to speak with you individually. Many women will wait until after the workshop to ask questions or share their experiences. Be prepared for women to ask for advice or help with a problem or a concern. Decide in advance how much you are willing to offer individuals. Always be compassionate and supportive and respect your own limits and boundaries at the same time. If a participant poses a serious problem that you can't or don't want to help with, you might want to suggest to her someone else that you think might help. In an extreme situation, you can refer her to festival staff. Always respect the confidentiality of anything personal that is shared with you.

Trance and Meditation

Be aware that trance work sometimes takes women to places that they haven't been before. Sometimes there is an emotional reaction if the woman is undergoing emotional instability in her life. Don't allow an individual's experience to detract form the experience of the group. Ask her to talk with you about her problem after the workshop, or have her find a staffperson to connect her with emotional support and counseling that is available at the festival. If a woman is too upset to find help herself, ask someone to go with her to find someone to talk with. If she has a friend in the workshop that would be the most appropriate person to offer her support until after you have completed the workshop. This is a very rare occurrence, but if it should happen, there is usually a designated Elderflower staffperson who can help with that kind of problem. If you think your workshop might bring up intense emotions, you might want to ask the workshop coordinator ahead of time, who the staffperson is.

SUMMARY

Prepare your workshop in advance as much as possible. Prepare an outline and gather resources several days in advance to give you ample time to get familiar with with your plan. Research any details that you are uncertain of. Prepare and photocopy any handouts before you leave home. Ask a friend or a festival staffperson for feedback or support. Once at the Festival, allow plenty of time prior to the workshop to check out the location. Take some extra time before leading your workshop, to center yourself and get grounded. Review your plan as often as you need to until you are completely comfortable. Stick to what you know and you will be surprised at how easy it is to teach it to others.

SAMPLE WORKSHOP OUTLINE

This outline is offered to help a new workshop leader get started with planning. It is just one of many possible ways to structure a workshop.

Introductions go-around
Review content & purpose of workshop
Extended introduction of yourself
Pass around mailing list
Request for sharing of experience related to workshop from group.
Distribute handout
Present Information
Ask for questions
Lead experiential activity
Sharing go-around of experiences during activity
Ask for questions
Share resources (books, etc.)
Thank group for attending your workshop.

If you need special help planning your workshop, contact the workshop coordinator and she will put you in touch with someone experienced who can advise you.

How to Contact Elderflower
P.O. Box 410236
San Francisco, CA 94141-0236
(510) 848-1460
infoatelderflower.org*

* [please note: to prevent the harvesting of our email addresses by spammers we have replaced the "@" symbol with "at" in all the email links. When you click on the link, your email program opens, and you can fix this by changing the address in the "To:" field before you send your message. Replace the "at" with an "@" symbol.]