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Europe & Middle East

England-Wales

Welcome to IAF England & Wales. We are over 120 IAF members including currently 18 Certified Professional Facilitators (CPFs), spread throughout England & Wales and beyond. 
We convene regular, open face-to-face facilitation meetups for "IAF facilitators & friends" through regional meetup groups around England & Wales - currently all online, until further notice:
  • London & South East - monthly coffee meetups in London, Brighton, Oxfordshire & Winchester; plus in London each month either an afternoon or an evening learning meetup, or an evening drinks meetup.  
  • North of England - a monthly coffee meetup for the North (a collaborative of our former Manchester, Yorkshire & Leeds monthly meetups, for as long as we are all meeting online) plus three afternoon regional learning meetups per year. We are keen to support a new monthly coffee meetup in Liverpool in particular, when we return to meeting face-to-face.
  • South West of England - monthly coffee meetups in Bristol/Bath and Devon and three afternoon regional learning meetups per year.
  • Midlands & East of England - monthly coffee meetups in Birmingham, Nottingham & Cambridgeshire plus two afternoon regional learning meetups per year and our England & Wales Annual Conference in Birmingham during International Faciliation Week each October (16-17 Oct 2020, this year online).
  • Wales - monthly & bi-monthly coffee meetups in Cardiff and two afternoon learning meetups per year. We are keen to support a new monthly coffee meetup in North Wales.
See also our new neighbouring meetup groups in Scotland and Ireland. 
Members of all 7 groups come together online for a monthly virtual coffee meetup as well, launched in early 2019. We work to schedule a Certified Professional Facilitator assessment in the UK each year. Group members are encouraged to use the meetup groups to convene additional ad hoc & imprompt meetups wherever & whenever suits them, according to their own interests.
Are you interested to join like-minded facilitators to network, create and share knowledge around, or act upon, a specific interest area related to facilitation in England & Wales? Join us in Slack to find your tribe, and to connect and learn with each other there. Consider launching an IAF E&W Hub, if you could benefit from further tools and support to act on your shared interest together. Topic threads already established include Diversity & inclusion, Climate crisis, Deliberative democracy & citizens assemblies, Co-facilitation & buddying, Recognition of IAF & CPF in official procurement, marketing & selling facilitation, and ToP facilitation - take your choice or add your own!
May 2020 Update - Buddying 
Our new Guardrails for Buddying guidance has been developed by a small group of facilitators in IAF England and Wales, to help facilitators who would like to set up a 'buddying' relationship with each other. IAF England & Wales is not organising buddying, but if you choose to set up some buddying with another Facilitator, we hope this guidance will help you make the most of it and avoid some pitfalls.

We asked some of our regulars what they have appreciated most about IAF E&W Meetups and why should others be interested - they replied:

  • "The sharing of ideas" - Jonathan Bannister
  • "Meeting diverse practitioners of facilitation - and learning together" - Michael Ambjorn
  • "Expanding my thinking AND facilitation practice through peers generously sharing their ideas" - Andi Roberts CPF
  • "A brilliant initiative - a great way to build your faciliation skills whilst networking with like-minded sorts" - Neil Fogarty
  • "Diversity of input, quality of input, creation of our "own space", snowball effect over time as our numbers have grown, commitment of some key players @martingilbraith @orford @penny_walker_sd to name a few" - Mike Pounsford CPF 
  • "A wonderful opportunity to learn from each other, to share experiences and to practice new ways of facilitation in a friendly and fun environment... with fellow facilitators from different nationalities" - Pinar Akkaya
  • "Learning... It’s also great to feel a sense of belonging to a community... I think this feeling of being part of a profession or industry has all sorts of benefits to me as an individual (now a CPF) and my business." - Sean Blair CPF
  • "Setting out as a facilitator on my own was a scary decision but I have met so many great people through the meet-ups... Its a really wonderful community to be a part of!" - Camilla Gordon
  • "I feel I can relax and share openly, have fun and learn loads... There's a generosity and love of learning which makes these meet-ups special. And a surprisingly wide range of people and ways that they use their skills" - Penny Walker

Please join us at a meetup by clicking on the meetup group links above - everyone with an interest in group process facilitation is welcome, including facilitators and others who use or commission facilitation, IAF members and non-members alike. 

Connect with us online also, by joining over 1,000 IAF facilitators & friends in our Facebook and LinkedIn groups, by following IAF England & Wales on Twitter and Instagram, or by finding your tribe in Slack.  Please also take a few minutes to complete our online survey, to help to make IAF England & Wales and our free facilitation meetups more valuable to you in the coming year - thank you!

Subcribe to our #IAFpodcast to listen to #facilitation stories from other IAF facilitators and friends, and share your own - http://facilitationstories.libsyn.com/

IAF England & Wales montage

      RSVP now for an #IAFmeetup near you by following the links in the google calendar - now all online until further notice. Click on the down arrow (top right) to select which regional groups' events to view.

      For the monthly pattern of our meetup schedule, see the the image below (click to enlarge)

      IAF England & Wales meetups at a glance

      Further Information and to get more involved
      Contact IAF E&W Chair Martin Gilbraith, or another of our elected Board or wider Leadership Team:
      • Gary Austin CPF-M, Hertfordshire - Board Secretary, Communications, London evening learning meetups
      • Megan Evans, Cardiff - Board member, Wales region, Cardiff meetups
      • Martin Gilbraith CPF, London - Board Chair, Twitter, virtual meetups
      • Helene Jewell, Bristol - Board member, South West region, Facebook & Instagram, Bristol meetups 
      • Steve Lloyd, Plymouth - Board Treasurer
      • Hilary Topp, Birmingham - Board member, Annual Conference, Birmingham meetups

      Join us! We are particularly keen to welcome new members to our volunteer Leadership Team in the following roles - please contact us for details:

      • Local coffee meetup hosts for Brighton, Liverpool, North Wales or wherever you are!
      • Communicators to curate our LinkedIn group and a new blog
      • Podcasters to join our podcast team
      • Regional meetup group co-ordinators for the Midlands & East region 
      • England & Wales co-ordinators for Membership, regional & local groups and Hubs and for Partnerships.  
      Or, please let us know how you would like to get more involved! 
       
      For further information, view or download here: