Awakening the Dreamer Symposium

OUTLINE OF THE TRAINING:

Thursday Night

I. Welcome, Set up, Establish Context, Build Community

Friday

II. Introduction to the Training Program

III. Origins & Purpose of the Symposium

IV. Spirit of the Symposium

V. Going Deeper With Two World Views

VI. Opportunity Before us Re: Social (in)Justice

VII. Evening Session: Introduction to the C-1/V-1 Manual

Relational Presence (or move this to VIII.)

Saturday

VIII. Introduction to the Content of the Symposium

(All day)

IX. Evening Session: Rock-Reading

Forms of Creativity

Sunday

X. Holding the Space and Leading Processes/Interactions

XI. Return to the Big Picture

XII.Making Symposiums Happen/Next Steps

XIII. Introduction to the Practicum & Community Groups

XIV. Completion

Additional Resources (at the end):

Areas of Responsibility for Leadership Team

List of Movement Exercises

Training Preparation Checklist

Meal times: breakfast: ______

lunch: ______

dinner: ______

THURSDAY NIGHT

Team Meeting (1 - 1.5 hours)

--Identify who will remind people at dinner to arrive with anything needed for Expressions of Self, soil and object for altar to evening session.

--Review checklist (at end of Flow Document) to see that everything taken care of or accounted for.

Arrival & Check-in (greeter available to new arrivals)

Set-up:

Community Bulletin Board, Purpose of Symposium on flip chart paper.

If it is a new venue, check on availability of rocks for Saturday night rock-reading.

Prepare Notebooks to hand out

Have bell/timer ready for timing people’s introductions and two-minute shares, and train timer about how to ring.

Have a roster of participants ready to start making who has done their 2-minute self-presentation.

(2.5-3 hours)

I. WELCOME, SET-UP, ESTABLISH CONTEXT, BUILD COMMUNITY

A. Welcome & Introduction of Facilitator Training Team (______)(20 minutes?)

Introduce ourselves & roles—team
Who’s coming late
Brief Overview of the evening

(25 minutes?)

B. Open Sacred Space & place objects on altar (______)

See Modules document for suggestions re opening sacred space.
Placing objects on altar: Take breath, look & connect with group: State name, where from, energy you bring, no more than 1-2 sentences to describe object you bring for the altar, place soil in bowl—next person standing ready in wings as each one finishes.
Option: Invite them to say 1-2 sentences about the object they are bringing. Caution: they often take much longer than one sentence—think how you will respond if this happens. Set it up so that they understand that they will get a longer time to be introduced right after this.

(40-70 minutes, depending on number of participants)

C. Introductions of Participants (______)

Who’s here—breadth of experience. Now we’ll have a chance to learn about each other.
Exercise: Pair up with someone you don’t know, five minutes (for each person) to interview each other, then introduce partner to whole group in one minute, giving the essence of that person. Find something you have in common and tell us about it (1 minute each)
Before introductions, offer context: why we need to limit our time so carefully—a skill needed in Symposium, and to make weekend work for everyone; importance of self-management (maybe get their express agreement for this), how bell will work
Group sharing: What was that like for you?

(10 minutes)

D. Acknowledgement of what this time together means, and guidelines (______)

What this time together means—not primarily about “learning” material, but about being grounded in a sense of the possibility of changing the Dream of the modern world, as part of a community of Facilitators who deeply share that sense of possibility. So that sense of possibility comes from your very core.
We can’t do it as Lone Rangers, but only in community. Being part of the Facilitator Body is a key element—beginning of forming teams, importance of team work and collaboration, supporting and sustaining each other.
This is in keeping with the collaborative spirit of the entire Awakening the Dreamer Initiative
How to Participate (____)
Be empty vessel (afterwards, you can take back and utilize all your expertise)
Guidelines for participation:
(If not said completely earlier) Self-manage time (as in Symposium); Importance of coming back from breaks on time—be in seats at agreed time, not just in back of room
Focus your shares, move action forward;
Listening with focus also important—draws out the best;
“Step forward, step back” If you find that you are speaking significantly more than others (or if that is your normal style), then invite yourself to “step back” and see what that quieter role feels like. If you find that you are speaking significantly less than others (or if that is your normal style) then invite yourself to “step forward” and try on that role feels like, especially in the supportive and safe space that we want to create here.
Get permission to give them “focus” sign (hands pointed down at angle with fingertips together) when they need to focus on what they are saying;
Jargon—importance of not slipping into this;
Ways to acknowledge other than clapping, when clapping breaks energy (wiggling fingers [sign language for clapping] or Buddhist namaste sign.
You’re free to get up, go to back of room and stretch and move whenever needed—not necessary to stay in your seats all the time.

(10 minutes)

E. Preparation Assignment Completion: (______)

Purpose of prep assignment—get you started with a continuing engagement with educating yourself in the issues raised by the Symposium. A process has begun in you. And of course, many of you were already doing this—purpose is to invite you to take it deeper.
You all get an “A” –regardless of how much you completed.
Process: But just so we know where we stand in terms of the Prep Assignment, and complete any energy that is locked up about that, how many of you feel that you completed pretty much all of the preparation—raise your hands. Great. How many feel like you did most of it—more than half? Very good! How many of you did a good chunk of it, but less than half? Great! How many of you did very little of it? Good! How many of you said, “What Preparation Assignment?” That’s good.
Whatever you didn’t do, we invite you to complete it during or after this weekend—there’s a lot of rich stuff in there. It can be a continuing project for you.
And, if you haven’t prepared a Two-Minute Expression of yourself, need to do so tonight so you can present in the next day or two—and the letter to yourself would be especially helpful, and at least a five-minute section of the Symposium to deliver to the rest of it, so that you can begin relating to the content that way.
Group Share: Ask: What was the preparation work like for you? What, in particular, was valuable for you? What did you learn? Any favorite articles?
Where to go from here with the preparation work—recommend you complete it.
NOTE: Go over the 10-minute sections from the Symposium that they prepared and explain it so that they understand it. Purpose was that they engage with the materialby studying it this way—so will only actually deliver about five minutes to your fellow participants. It’s not about “presentation skills,” doing it well, but about engaging with the material as someone who can generate it within themselves. Time for that delivery will be Saturday afternoon or Sunday.
If the issue comes up regarding how closely you follow the words of the Manual: follow the flow of ideas in the Manual, generating it from within yourself. “Generating it” means that, if you read the words, make them come from within you. Or generating it can mean that you put the same basic ideas and flow of ideas into your own words, without adding new material to what is in the Manual. “Paraphrasing in your own words” might be one way to say it.

(20 minutes)

F. Overview of this Training: (______)

Pass out the Training Notebook and walk through it.
Review together and “own”: Agenda, Purpose and Intended Results for this Training Session (do P & IR in “popcorn” style),
Distinction of 3 roles (Host, Producer, Presenter)
Ask: Is anyone here seeing themselves as a host, and not as a presenter? (Talk with them later to discuss how the training is oriented, how best to give them a satisfactory experience during this initial training session—and keep this in mind throughout the weekend, adjusting your language accordingly.)
Discuss: Basic flow of the Training is “knowing, doing, being,” with the focus on “being” the first full day, the focus on “knowing” on second day and early part of the third, and then “doing” is the focus on most of the day Sunday and during the Practicum. Discuss reasons why “being” precedes “knowing.” Make sure this design is very clear—saves them from frustration about wanting to “get into the content” sooner.
What you can tell hosts/producers that amplifies on this explanation: the first day is about the spirit of the Symposium, so relates to all 3 roles. The second day is about knowing the content of the Symposium, which is essential for presenters and an essential foundation for hosts and producers (they have to know what is said, when, and why). The third day will focus mostly on the team, working together, and next steps. It would be very useful to you if, for the course of this initial training session, you related to the content as if you were going to present it—a very valuable way to learn it, whatever your ultimate role. And many who begin thinking they only what to host/produce end up presenting.

OPTION: Take a minute and think of what your intention is for the weekend, and jot it down on this P&IR. (Possible: A/B share)
Fundamental question: Importance of being responsible for your own training. Agreement?

(20 minutes)

G. Background of The Pachamama Alliance & Origin of the Symposium (_____)

The “call” from the Achuar; the creation of the The Pachamama Alliance, two-part mission. Your being here as your response to the same “call.”
Tell this almost with the energy of a bedtime story—you are planting seeds.

(If time available)

I. Learning About Each Other (_____)

Presentations: Invite Self Expressions, limited to 2 minutes or read Letter to Yourself. (Must follow the same two-minute time limit, so plan accordingly.)

NOTE: start noting on a roster who has delivered this presentation.

(10 minutes)

J. Wrap-Up (______)

Set Up Homework Overnight (they can review contents of Notebook; create two-minute expression of self if not already done, or work on 5-minute presentation)
Invite creation of Movement Team: (_____)
Movement Team setup: Who loves movement? Would you like to share your movement ideas with the community?
Suggestion re Inspiration “Team”: don’t do an inspiration “team” but instead just invite people to be ready with poems and songs and quotes, to be called up or to suggest when one is needed. On Saturday, invite a team to form just for the Sunday morning inspiration time.
Suggest Movement Team meet during tea time. Meet with them

about need for Movement Time at beginning of each day and very brief movement breaks throughout the day.

Evening Logistics Announcements—whatever is needed (anyone need help getting up on time, everyone clear about room, start time & place tomorrow).
Dream time: Pay attention to dreams or what comes to you right before sleep or after waking up, or any unusual experiences, encounters with nature, etc. Emphasize: look for messages that might not be for just you personally, but maybe a message for the entire group.
Poem/Ritual Closing—call for theirs and/or have one ready to read
Ice-breaker-type activity to close (as appropriate, and if time allows)

Tea, snacks, time for networking.

END OF DAY: De-brief time for Team

FRIDAY

(______)

BREAKFAST

[FRIDAY MORNING SESSION]

Begin outside with Movement Team activity, then move inside (20 minutes)

--Recommended: close with the “name game” activity in the list at the end of this Flow Document. Great for learning names and some good laughs.

Set-up: Purpose of the Symposium and Four Questions of Symposium on flip chart.

Arrange for music or drumming after the Van Jones DVD.

Pieces of paper and pens for the “one issue not three” exercise.

Handouts: none

Opening: (______) (Timing varies widely, and depends on dream content shared)

Shares of insight from dreams or right before sleep or right after waking up or time in nature, that might be a message for the entire group.
Briefly review agenda for today

II. INTRODUCTION TO THE TRAINING PROGRAM

(15 minutes)

A. Where We Are Going in this Program (______

Structure of Facilitator Training, what it will take from you
The real work to be done—engaging with something already inside you, or continuing & deepening, something that already senses or knows a New Dream—it’s in your DNA.
Urgency of this work, getting out and making it happen
It’s about you as individual taking responsibility and you working within a community. The job is to do and be both: an individual who is completely responsible, living in a community that is responsible.
Being part of the Facilitator Body; being part of a community group. “There is nothing lacking in community.”
What is the role of a Facilitator (term for all three roles)? Again, it is not primarily “delivering information,” although that is part of it. The role is actually changing, as awareness grows (the cultural context for the Symposium has changed dramatically in the last year, and the arrival of V-1 changes the context even more). You’re signing up to be Dream Changers—people who can be catalysts in their communities, bringing people together in the context of the Purpose of the Symposium (which is big enough to contain any of the millions of ways that the New Dream can and is emerging), and give them a context and language to connect with each other and be bound with each other in new ways, which we can’t predict or control, only catalyze.
So we are bridge builders, the “Velcro or Leggos” that Van Jones talks about. One way to say it might be that we are “community catalysts”—we enable community to come into being without necessarily being full participants in it.
How do we become “community catalysts?” We don’t know, but some of you probably already know parts of it, and others know the rest––and we’re going to figure it out together, in community.
(What’s your group’s name??)

(2-3 Presentations of expressions of Self—and throughout the day, as breaks)

(Time depends on how thoroughly this was covered the night before)

III. ORIGINS & PURPOSE OF THE SYMPOSIUM(______)

Put up Purpose of the Symposium (stays up throughout weekend)
Tell origin story, if not told previous night

Move on to actual creation of the Symposium: This “change the dream of the North” was in the Pachamama Mission statement, but not much done on it until 2005 –in response to what was not happening (“we have to do something, even if it is in the direction of a mistake!”); team working together intensely rather than coming from one person—a creation of “group mind” (refer to article in their reading, “How to Make a Decision Without Making a Decision”); meant to be ongoingly updated and current—never a “fixed” product
And it has changed in major ways: Explain development of the Symposium (S-1 thru S-5 was 7-8 hours; C-1 was flexible from 3-8 hours or more. .

And a new version is just about to be released, and you’re going to get in on it at the very beginning: the Video Intensive Version, the VIV, or “V-1”. Meets the need to have a version that makes delivery of information easier, using the full power of images and graphics, and leaving the Presenter free to focus on the processes and interactions among the participants, which are so important.
This will be one of the first Facilitator Trainings that teaches VIV––you’ll help us develop the best way to teach this. You downloaded the C-1 Manual, which some Facilitators may continue to use (and you could use, too, if you want)—but in this training, you’ll use C-1 primarily as a background or context for learning the VIV. The truth is, both Symposiums go through almost exactly the same “spaces.” What is important is that you learn that sequence of spaces and how to manage them, whether they occur in a C-1 or in a V-1.
Option: Show one module of the VIV—2-B on Social Justice?

Process: What stayed with you from your Symposium, what were the “turning points?” How it engaged you or you engaged with it? Your experience of the Call? Many, many turning points for people in the Symposium.
Social justice: deepening this part of the Symposium; interweaving of the three elements.

3-4 2-minute Self-Presentations