Yes, you certainly have my permission to hold an annual board retreat without an outside facilitator!  However, don’t pass up free advice from a pro or an experienced colleague associated with another organization.  I am encouraging you to get an outside opinion on your planning for this special meeting.  Following are a couple of questions that I would have if you approached me.

-        What are the most important outcomes the board needs to get from this event?

-        How are you structuring the time in activities/discussions to best get that those outcomes?

-        How much are you trying to get done?

-        Who will facilitate the activities/discussions?

-        What staff involvement are you anticipating?

-        What preparation and support do you need for the event?

I am sure that I missed something useful (I know, I always forget about the three f’s:  facility, food and fun) but that is my starter list of questions for the self-facilitating retreat folks out there.  Some pitfalls that I hope you can avoid would be:

-        Trying to do too much and intensity overload;

-        Inhouse facilitator difficulties, including retaining neutrality, insufficient surfacing of all input from all participants, dampening range of input with own opinions;

-        Inadequate engagement of staff and managing staff expectations prior to event; and

-        Inability to adjust agenda on the fly, being opportunistic to gain depth on core issues, in short – recognizing the elephant in the room when it emerges and the care and feeding of that wonderful creature.

The best way to avoid pitfalls is to consult experienced facilitators.  Even professional meeting facilitators should be willing to review an agenda and share some advice on a volunteer basis.  Find out which other board members have facilitated retreats before or have colleagues that can be consulted.  Be prepared for the unexpected to happen (because it will), willing to make adjustments in consultation with the participants at the moment and don’t be afraid of postponing low priority agenda items (even if it is on that sheet that you sent out in advance) if the good stuff is taking longer to get done than you had planned.

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3.22 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."