From Commune to Community

Introduction to Moderation

From Commune to Community Bauhaus University Weimar Winter Semester 2014/2015 Ericka Zambrano Anna Khodyreva Olesya Yefimov

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This booklet is a documentation of the Final Moderation Exercise for Intoduction to Moderation Seminar.

It shows the process from the generation of the idea to helding a final session. In the following pages we give the description of planning and preparation for the event, methodology and the final result.

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“Elevator Breefing“ Preliminary name: Kommunalka / Community Living / From Commune to Community Preliminary idea: “After the October Revolution in Soviet Union architecture was strongly influenced by the idea of Communism and Community. Housing items were used to be designed for collective and communal life.

In the beginning, the dwelling complexes were supposed to have all the necessary amenities included, for example: Club house Bath house

Daycare & Kindergarden Residential buildings Apartments did not have kitchens, and bathrooms were supposed to be shared.

After all, this practice did not appear to be the perfect solution, because the personal opinion and privacy are important things to be considered.

Nowadays the idea of living in community is coming back, but in different quality. It is more about sharing care, knowledge, experience...The more you share, the less you pay is also a significant issue for a lot of people.

So, we want to learn what do different people think about living in Modern community and what features should it have.

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Concept of planning event

“From Commune to Community“ discussion is supposed to be a series of 4-6 events, aimed to collect information from people with different background from students and housewives to seniors.

Each event should last no longer than 4 hours and should be held in public space in the neghborhood (club or cafe), which people know and can easily find. The place, where they feel comfortable and relaxed.

From our point of view, it is better to have these meetings during weekends (Saturdays) when everybody has free time.

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Creation of the Poster

From perliminary sketch...

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Đź

talks series in the neighborhood

&

do it daily information agency

coffee corner studio & cafe

...to the final result. ne

u mm

om

co

to

co

fr

Invitation text The time of living in communes is gone but the idea of living in communities is gaining ist importance nowadays.

We need your opinion!

How do you want to see your community?

What makes you feel like you belong?

mm

un

it

y

what is your idea of living in community

?

share your opinion about care and knowledge sharing

exactly at

14:30

on january

26

come for discussion, coffee and cakes to coffee corner cafe

we need you!

Detailed Moderation Programme

Preparation Needed for the Event PREPERATION NEEDED FOR THE EVENT NR

10

FROM UNTIL DURATION

STEP/QUESTION

GOAL arrange the place (talk to the café) research for visual presentaion design posters, print spead posters & invitations prepare material (papers, pens, etc) make schedule

1

20

2

60

3

120

4

120

5

15

6

15

7

15

take pictures and collect data during sessions

8

20

hand in/email conclusion and pictures

METHOD PREPERATION/REQUIREMENTS WHERE? meeting with local café owner research for relevant visual material

buy office supply

collect data from activity during session

WHO?

COST

Detailed Moderation Programme Schedule DETAILED SCHEDULE NR.

FROM

UNTIL

DURATION STEP/QUESTION greetings + destribution of 14:31 1 handouts introduction od case 14:34 3 study setting topic/main 14:36 2 question

GOAL

METHOD

PREPARATION REQUIRED WHERE? ifEU

1

14:30

2

14:31

3

14:34

4

14:36

14:53

17

activity

to get the info

5

14:53

14:58

5

conclusion

summarize the results, give feedback

6

14:58

15:00

2

thanks + goodbye

WHO? ERI

to give an overview

OLE

refining the aim, making ppl think

ANNA café method prepare meterials

COST

ALL ERI OLE

Schedule of the Event SCHEDULE OF THE EVENT NR

FROM UNTIL DURATION STEP/QUESTION

GOAL

METHOD PREPERATION REQUIREMENT WHERE?

1

13:00 13:15

15

registration

spread the handouts

name tags, informal intro

2

13:15 13:45

30

introduction

explain the topic

presentati on

3

13:45 14:00

15

first coffee break rest, networking

4

14:00 15:10

70

group work

café define opinions, collect method, info free response

5

15:10 15:30

20

second coffee break

rest, networking

6

15:30 16:30

60

discussion

interaction/reaction

7

16:30 17:00

30

conclusion

2/4 parts boards

WHO?

COST

Handout For our 30-minutes moderation session we decided to start with short activity to bring people to action, “warm up“ and through that have a short introduction to the topic. We asked our audience a question: “Which spaces would you like to share with other members of community?“ As an answering tool we used table and post-it notes to help people to express their opinion in an easy and engaging way.

As a main activity we used World Cafe method to give our audience an opportunity to discuss different aspects of the topic in smaller groups.

After the discussion we collected the summary and asked out participants to explain their main ideas.

We received very interesting set of opinions.

Although some of them were not anything we expected or planned to hear, we recieved a wide review of the problem, which can be used for further research.

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13

14

Introduction Activity

Pictures

World Cafe method Discussion

World Cafe method Discussion

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Individual Feedback

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Ericka

During the moderation exercises I have seen an improvement of myself, on the way I present a topic and how to make people interact and really be involved with what I am presenting. The methodologies also helped me in other classes when I had to present.

One of the most important things that I learned, is to always be prepared with time ahead. That means to check the place, the equipment and the material available for the session. That will also help to prevent possible technical problems, and having that in control will also help us to gain confidence because we know that we have everything under control, even unexpected problems.

The seminar is also about being creative with the things we have available around us and not just depend of a projector and a Power Point presentation. The methodologies learned in the class can help us get results from people about topics that can seem to be complicated to have an agreement and solve several problems or issues all at once. These exercises also showed us that we can trust in our audience and their capacity to come up with good ideas, as long as the moderator let them express themselves.

One of my favorite methodologies is the future workshop, because the audience is the one that comes up with the topics and at the same time start a discussion about it. Nevertheless, the methodology has to be chosen with time ahead and look for the one that best suits the topic to cover, the kind and number of audience we aim to cover.

As a moderator I also learned to always keep a positive attitude and keep the energy up in the group, since everybody is at some point, directing their attention to the moderation, is the one who sets the general mood and energy of the session. Besides, he or she should know very well about the topic that is being presented, but at the same time should let the public develop their own concepts.

At the end, since all exercises are directed to people, we have to remember to respect every participant as a human being with all the background and culture that this implies, and make sure that everyone had a chance to express their ideas and that we will have a result after these ideas are being told.

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Anna

During the seminar I have learned a lot about myself and about what you can achieve in a group. It was very rewarding to see a general improvement of the class group after the feedback of our classmates, so we helped ourselves to put more attention on what we were having dificulties with.

In my opinion, one the most challenging situations was being cut of any technology for presentation and discover that after that, a person becomes incredibly creative and can learn to do more with less resources.

Also, I learned that time managing is very important when conducting a moderation has to be planned time ahead. Having this, will help to achieve the most in a shorter time and will also show respect of the audience’s time.

Another lesson that I learned is that you cannot predict how the participants are going to react about the topic, so the moderator has to be prepared to deal with possible situations that could affect the final results.

But on the other hand, I think that after these sessions one can always get a wider view of the topic from group work rather than any individual one.

Overall, this class gave me a better understanding of how group works, and how to help a group to achieve goal of a meeting. I learned how to direct the group, how to help the group to be efficient. This experience will help me to work on my future projects.

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Olesya Introduction to Moderation seminar was very interesting and useful for me.

During the class I learned about and practice: presentation technique and methods, moderation technique and methods, dealing with group of people which not always agree between each other and many more.

For class assignments we worked in team of three people and I was lucky to have Anna and Ericka as my teammates. Working together on group projects improved my understanding of teamwork, and allowed me to practice my new skills.

For me it is always a question how do I work with people who I don’t know, and most importantly, do not agree with. How do I arrive to a decision which none of us envisioned? How do we as a group manage hotly debated subject? In our sessions we were able to learn, practice and discuss different types of moderation techniques. Learning from peers was another useful tool for me – sometimes we had great examples what should and shouldn’t be done during meetings.

One of my most favorite exercises was to moderate the idea session. It is always interesting to me to learn how people with different personal background and cultural expectations see and see and try to resolve the issues.

It is crucial to respect all opinions and watch others to respect their peers as well. Expect an unexpected or unpredicted result.

Personal confidence, energy, time management are extremely important for the success of a session.

I would say that it was very informative class to me, and I hope I will be able to practice my new skills in real life very soon.

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