When you are riding on a bicycle tour it's the collective capabilities of that crew that makes everything run smoothly. One thing that all the bicycle tour groups (and other NGO's activist groups) agree is that it's essential to have really effective ways of collaborating, planning, and being respectful along the way. Essentially, each tour is a reflection of what they really work together to be and with some easy little tips things can run pretty smoothly.

So without further ado here's some thoughts and suggestions we have for rad crews to get stuff done yo! A more extensive doc can be found here, which outlines all this is massive detail.

• Meeting Roles
• Just plain good practices
• Agenda Agenda Agenda
• Stepping into the Facil (Facilitator) Role
• Running the Meeting
• Being respectful - using consensus decision making
• Equal contributions and respectful progress
• Time Keep - keeping the meeting moving
• The Secret Ingredient - Vibe Watcher
• Commitments and Wrap-up

Meeting Roles - Keep the cogs movin and brains flowin
This is just a little list of peeps and roles you might want to setup for a good meeting: Facilitator (or facil as we call them), Time keep (oh yes essential), Vibe Watcher (get into this later), Note taker (can be facil too), and participants (what's a meeting without peeps).
Back to Top

Just plain good practices - like home-made apple pie
We found that during meetings having some (if not all) of these areas setup really helps a sense of equality, empowerment, and generally just good practice really.

• Good idea to sit in circles - allows everyone to get eye contact and can hear each other
• Rotate facilitators so that each person feels like they are contributing and have an equal role

Back to Top

Agenda Agenda Agenda...
It's pretty important as the facilitator for that week (we've rotated on weekly basis on tours) to do a bit of pre-preparation for the meeting putting together all the things that need to be covered for the meeting. They can also make some announcement earlier in the day to let people have a chance to add things to the agenda. It's a pretty good idea to set time estimates for each item to get an idea of how much time the meeting will take. It's also a really good idea to ask people just before the meeting if they have anything to add to give them one last opportunity to tack on things at the end.
Back to Top

Stepping into the Facil (Facilitator) Role
The first time that anyone does this type of work it's not that easy, but overtime you get better as it helps you step out of the role of a contributor and see things from different perspectives. No one expects a facilitator to be ace! It’s your role as a facilitator to really guide discussions and ensure (by watching the group) that everyone is able to contribute to the discussion.

Your main role is to ensure that a few things happen during the meeting:

• Start with FUN FUN FUN games - This will help get peoples attentions and get people ready to start contributing – YEAH! Find a balance between fun and discussion and take breaks when needed!
• Ensure everyone’s opinions are expressed - If you see that someone hasn’t spoken in a while and puts there hand up its safe to bump them up in the discussion quo as you want to empower each member to contribute.
• Line up your speakers – Let everyone know who the next three speakers are by saying something like “I'm going to take comments from Angela, Bec, and then Duncan."
• You are responsible for signalling the next person to speak
• Be aware of people who have direct responses
• Remove thy emotions - It's essential that you (as a facilitator) step aside from contributing your feelings when you are in this role because it ensures that the ideas you are trying to facilitate are considered influenced by your thoughts. If you feel that you must contribute it's essential to either let everyone know that you are removing your facil hat or that you don't facilitate the days discussion.
• Summarise those thoughts - It's always a good idea to try and summarise what you hear from peeps and get some consensus on those thoughts.

Back to Top

Running the meeting
Getting people together for a meeting can be difficult especially when peeps have heaps of things to do or are tired. It's a good idea to let people know about 10 minutes before the meeting that it's about to start (gives them time to grab their stuff, grab a tea, and collect). And then it's probably a good idea to let everyone know (cause they do get distracted) that there is 5 minutes before the meeting.

It's essential that you read out the agenda, ask for any new contributions, and then go through each item. Sometimes the meeting might get off topic or a new discussion idea might start to happen (it's inevitable) and it's a good idea to bike rack the idea for discussion at the end of the meeting if there is time. The main goal is to try and get through the agenda in good amount of time before people burn out. On that note take breaks if the meeting is long and play some fun games to spice it up a bit.
Back to Top

Being respectful - using consensus decision making
It's the goal of the facil and mob going on tour to ensure that discussions are done with respect, inclusion, and in a way that creates no level of hierarchy. In past tours and within Otesha (OZ) office we are constantly using consensus decision-making to create such an environment.

This can be done through the use of hand signals during a meeting as a great way to ensure that everyone has a say, encourages equality, and actually makes things flow much faster. It’s a good idea to agree on a set of hand signals before hand with the group to ensure that the facilitator understands how to interpret each one. We have found heaps of success with the "The Levi Hand Signal Technique" (LHST) system (read the following consensus doc or this really great hand signal document for more ideas).
Back to Top

Equal contributions and respectful progress
We compiled a bit of a list of things that can help you be more respectful and help to show everyone that you consider their thoughts and feelings important while trying to come to a collective decision.

• Keep a watch on how much floor space you are taking – Be mindful not to speak too long or contribute to many times to a discussion (it just inhibits the opportunity for others).
• Watch out for the amount of speaking you do - Don’t always offer your opinion each time someone makes a proposal, asks a question, or there is a lull in the discussion. Remember that some people just don’t feel comfortable talking when others are talking. Plus it’s a fun game to see how many other people think just like you and allows others to pipe up!
• Don’t speak with to much authority - Responding to someone’s comments with “Actually it’s like this…” creates a situation where you are almost diminishing or correcting their thoughts.
• Facial expressions can be killer - Watch out what kind of body language you are giving to others while they present friend
• Don't respond to each criticism of your proposal - Remember it’s the group’s responsibility to discuss each proposal and work through things. It’s better not to take things completely personally during a discussion.
• Do respect other peeps – It’s a given but sometimes when we feel strongly about something we can end up hurting others in the process. So just be aware of what you are saying and how you are saying it! Respecting people no matter what they say is super important and remembering that people all come from different places.
• Try to give the facilitator or speaker eye contact
• Use those hand signals - Giving a hand signal to recognize that you agree with someone else’s point is an amazing and effective way of communicating your thoughts without actually speaking.
• Share everything - This can never be stated enough. Share your ideas, thoughts, experiences, friendship, and new hand shakes with your group. It all helps foster a greater group dynamic!
• Be inclusive in your language - Including people in your language is really important to make everyone feel as an equal part in our group environment.

Back to Top

Time Keep - what time is it?
In this rotating role it's your job to watch the time of each discussion item, and let the facil know when there is 30, 10, 5, and no time left. This role is super important to ensuring the flow of the meeting and getting decisions made faster cause sometimes we can really discuss things for a looooooong time without much resolve.
Back to Top

The Secret Ingredient - Vibe Watcher
This is a really important role but not always used in consensus decision-making. Having a vibe watcher makes it easier for the facilitator, because their main goal is to watch the vibe of the group and raise any concerns you might have towards discussion points based on the vibe. Your amazing role will do the following for the crew (and usually this role is rotated as well):

• Individual monitors group emotions - this can be done by watching facial expressions and body language (sure you might not be that great at first but overtime your awareness will help)
• Bring up any vibes they feel might be occurring in group discussion and proposes a solution (i.e. games, break, identifying tension, etc)
• Helps to bring to attention any tension during discussion - this actually helps to break the tension because it results in people having to discuss what they are feeling (which is essential for the health of the crew)
• Allows group to rectify problem by addressing it - bringing things forward means they don't hang around in the air or as a part of the discussion

Back to Top

Commitments and Wrap-up
It's a good idea to make sure that people who commit to completing certain tasks decided give you a deadline for when they will complete the work. And then you can follow up with what they have completed later in the day or ensure that the work needed to be completed is addressed at the next meeting.

Also, it's a great idea just to try and summarise everything that was discussed and decided. As well, as bring up any issues that might have been bike racked during the discussion if there is time left over. If not be sure to indicate that those discussion points will be added to the next meeting the following day.
Back to Top