Tips

Tips for STELLA Facilitators

Thank you for facilitating a session!

To help the ﬂow of discussion and make sure that an overview of the session gets posted to the wiki, we suggest the following:

Begin by giving a brief explanation of why you proposed (or agreed to facilitate) the session. Give an overview of the session's topic, scope, and format.
Ask everyone to introduce themselves:
- Name and affiliation
- Why they came to this session
- What they hope to learn
- What they hope to contribute

Next, ask for a volunteer (or two) to take notes that will go on the wiki. (Ideally, notetakers will post their notes directly to the wiki, but if they have problems doing that, they can email their notes to Jill Cirasella at cirasella (at) brooklyn.cuny.edu or Joe)
Also ask for a volunteer to give a 30-second session summary at the wrap-up session. (This person may or may not be the notetaker, and may or may not be you.)

Ask for a timekeeper to help you stay aware of how much time is left.

Ask open-ended questions to encourage discussion.
If you use a whiteboard or a noteboard to record ideas, ask if someone can take a digital picture of the whiteboard at the end of the session.
At the end of session, ask everyone to help clean up the room for the next session.