On the morning of the final day Buzz informed the participants that the agenda had been slighted changed. The morning would be given over to conversations about the draft strategic plan for the Guild which is in development, with the afternoon being for open space discussions and time for reflection on the week as whole.
Discussing the strategic plan
The participants split into four groups to discuss the strategic plan and in particular two of the goals within it…
- To contribute to the professional growth of trainers and promoting quality of the educational activities implemented by the Guild members
- To strengthen the professional position of youth work trainers on European and neighbouring countries’ level
The groups were also asked to discuss other objectives which might not fit within these two goals. The groups kept a note of their conversations to share back to the steering committee and have their views fed into the ongoing development of the strategic plan.
Open space conversation
Following the strategic plan session the participants were invited to propose conversations to take place over two open space sessions. Some of the conversations were to be focused on existing working groups within the Guild while others were more general.
The open space sessions were…
- Membership working group – for those already involved in this working group to continue their discussions about the membership process and requirements.
- Human resources working group – for anyone to get involved in conversations about the newly created human resources working group.
- Trainers path – for participants interested in creating a digital version of the path to becoming a trainer which can then be used as an online resource.
- Communications working group – for existing members of the working group and anyone who wanted to contribute to the conversation about how the Guild manages its communications.
- Video tutorials – to support the development of the new KA2 application and create a prototype video tutorial for trainers.
- Steering committee – for the new steering committee to meet to discuss the outcomes of the strategic plan session this morning and plan their actions going forward.
- Trainers survey – to look at how the results of the trainers survey that the Guild carried out earlier in the year can be further utilised and shared with the wider trainer community.
- Mobility tool – to discuss the shared issues with the Mobility Tool so these can be fed back as part of the consultation on the issues trainers have with the tool.
- The way to membership – for those interested in becoming members to speak with existing members to find out more about the path to becoming a member of the Guild.
Each of the groups was responsible for capturing their out discussions and sharing this at a later date.
Reflection and closing
The final session of the seminar was led by Tommy and Kirsten, giving a space for reflection on the week and closing the seminar. The participants were invited to get into pairs and go on short walk with one person reflecting and the other supporting and prompting, then swapping roles at the half way point. Tommy asked them to consider three things during their walk…
- Learning
- Expectations
- What stood out – the ‘aha moment’
On returning from their walk participants were asked to mark themselves on a target for each of the three considerations, showing how close they were to ‘hitting the target’ through the seminar week. Finally, the participants were asked to show how close they felt they were to the Guild in a physical target drawn out on the ground in rope.
Following the final evaluation the participants began saying their goodbyes and enjoying an evening of celebration together before making their way home.
