Facilitators

The best ratio for a weekend retreat is one facilitator for every seven participants.  Rob and Tim count as facilitators so we’d need five more facilitators plus one extra (moderator) for a retreat of 50 people. 

The facilitators need to come into the weekend with positive expectation and in the right mental/spiritual space to serve all the participants.  It’s best to relieve the anxiety of the facilitators by making sure they understand their role clearly well in advance of the weekend.  Meet with them beforehand and try to keep them informed.  The facilitators can follow the Healing Program link to this website to view an example of Tim facilitating the three small group discussions (stress on Saturday morning, reframing on Saturday afternoon, and the fears and hopes small group on Sunday morning).

Also available here is a general overview of what happens on the weekends (schedule for facilitators) and a second document outlines facilitator responsibilities in the small group discussion specifically.

It’s helpful to have cancer survivors as facilitators and very helpful if people have experience facilitating small groups – but those who are naturally talented and compassionate can facilitate the groups well.  The moderator can roam from group to group and keep people on schedule.  If a group is having difficulty the moderator can join the group – this is another way to relieve the anxiety of the facilitators – they know they have backup.  Two facilitators per group of eight participants works well if one of the two is quiet throughout. 

You can invite an observer to the weekend to bring them on board for a subsequent weekend.  But we don’t want too many facilitators relative to the number of attendees.