Community Consultants

Are you dissatisfied with the quality of your meetings? Is your group confused about process agreements? Do you need help dealing with a “hot” issue? The people listed here are trained community consultants that may be able to help.

FIC’s Process Consultant Clearinghouse

One of the FIC’s most frequently asked questions is who can offer group process training, or expert outside facilitation for handling a difficult topic. Because we believe that how groups make decisions and how they learn to work together effectively is one of the most important challenges of community, we offer this list of people who put themselves forward as community consultants.

There’s a lot of variety in what groups need and what experts offer. Areas of support may include consensus decision-making, skilled facilitation, conflict mediation, values clarification, organizational structure, and more. Because there is so much subjectivity in assessing how well a particular consultant is able to help a specific group, the FIC makes no recommendation about anyone on the list. Instead, we offer this advice:

1. Interview the candidate to see if they have experience and ideas that appeal to you about how to work constructively with your particular situation. (Note: Some people may be better at teaching process theory than demonstrating how to practice it, and vice versa—be clear about what you want the consultant to do.)

2. Ask for and check references. Ask about clients who wanted help of a kind similar to what you are seeking.

3. Be clear on what the fee covers. Besides the work on site, possibilities include handouts, follow-up consultation by phone or email after the visit, a written report afterward, and more.

4. Find out how long the consultant has been offering their services professionally.

Fees need to be negotiated directly with the community consultants. If anyone gets work as a result of being listed here, they have been asked to donate 5% of fees to FIC (exclusive of expenses), to help maintain our program of services for and about community living. If you hire someone through having read their listing here, please let both us and the community consultants know.

We are also interested in hearing your experiences with this service, whether or not the community consultants listed were helpful to you, and how things turned out. If you are a community consultant who wants to be listed here, you may contact us. Or if you know of community consultants who you think should be listed here, send us their info and we’ll get in touch.

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Community Consultant List

West (WA, OR, ID, CA, NV, UT)

Tree Bressen
Eugene, OR
541-343-3855
[email protected]
www.treegroup.info

Facilitation and workshops on consensus, conflict resolution, meeting facilitation and more, plus a website offering extensive free resources. While I work with a variety of nonprofits and other organizations, my base is in communities of people who live and work together. I’ve been involved with the communities movement for over a decade, and bring a deep caring to this work—group process is truly my passion. My workshops are consistently reviewed as informative, fun, and practical.

J. Brush
11640 SW Boones Ferry Rd., Portland, OR 97219
503-245-0484
[email protected]

Facilitator, mediator, and trainer with 15 years of experience supporting healthy process in activist organizations, cooperatives, collectives, non-profits, intentional communities, and other kinds of groups. With an active approach rooted in attention to patterns and relationships, brush helps grow consensus into living reality beyond formal procedure. He draws on experience as co-founder of the residential worker collective Cedar Moon, the non-profit TLC Farm, and the group process collective A Circle Group.

Irina Contreras
Night Kitchen, 6143 Fountain Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90028
323-679-5573
[email protected]

Irina has worked as a group facilitator and mediator with experience in conflict resolution within collectives, worker cooperatives and intentional communities. She specializes in organizational and community development, strategic planning, and educational justice and reform.

Kristen Gardner
1112 Harrison St., Berkeley CA 94706
415-205-9111
[email protected]

I have over 15 years of experience working with consensus-based groups as a member, facilitator, and consultant. I recently completed my Masters Degree in Organization Development to expand my skills in helping groups identify their goals and how to reach them. I can offer meeting planning and facilitation; training in consensus, facilitation and communication; and a participatory process of problem solving and communication. This process increases the group’s skills while solving its own concerns.

Goodenough Community (5 listings)
2007 33rd Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98144
206-323-4653
[email protected]
www.aboutcommunity.org

John L. Hoff, Th.D.
John Hoff co-founded the Goodenough Community with his wife Colette more than thirty years ago as a way to develop leaders and effective participants for a peaceful and sustainable society. John has a lifetime of experience as a trainer and in community development, for NIMH, NTL, church and social groups and universities, as well as intentional communities. John is an interfaith pastor and a therapist practicing family and couples counseling in the Seattle area.

M. Colette Hoff, M.Ed.
Colette Hoff co-founded the Goodenough Community along with her husband John. She is a life-long learner and has made the learning process her life focus. She has a Master’s degree in education and is a pastoral counselor as well as a pastor in the interfaith tradition. A Taoist by nature, Colette is a sensitive relational coach and a family life educator. She teaches group facilitation skills and is an effective organizational trainer.

Richard Kenagy, Ph.D.
Richard Kenagy is a research scientist at the University of Washington, is married and has three children. He has been instrumental in developing the men’s culture and program in the Goodenough Community, and currently co-leads the Conscious Couple’s Network with his wife Lee. Richard has been president of our community council, and is well-trained in group process and facilitation. Richard has been a member of the community for 24 years.

Rebecca LiaBraaten
Rebecca is on the staff of the community as Outreach Director. She has a background in organic agriculture, both as a grower and as a field advisor. She is a skilled negotiator and group facilitator. Rebecca has three children and has helped raise several foster children. She is on the board of the Northwest Intentional Communities Association and is responsible for the newsletter. Rebecca lives in a communitarian household of 2 children and 6 adults.

Kirsten Rohde, R.N.
A former union organizer, Kirsten is an experienced and well-trained facilitator, administrator, and negotiator. She has held a number of leadership roles in the Goodenough Community in the last 18 years, as well as having an extensive background in group dynamics and facilitation in her professional life. She is a nurse, currently working with US Veterans, as well as administrator of an Alzheimer’s research project. Kirsten also has interest in communitarian finances and alternative currencies.

You may contact any of these people through the Goodenough Community Office, listed above.

Katie McCamant
CoHousing Solutions
241 B Commercial St., Nevada City, CA 95959
530-478-1970
[email protected]
www.cohousing-solutions.com

CoHousing Solutions has direct experience with all aspects of community development. We can assist you with every phase of a project’s scope from site feasibility to growing and strengthening your group; from overseeing the political process of planning approvals to outreach and marketing. In addition, we can help you structure investments, create budgets, and get financing. We’re also skilled in facilitating options and upgrades selection, managing the construction process, and preparing the community residents for move-in.

One of the nation’s leading cohousing experts, Katie McCamant has designed and developed dozens of communities. She and her husband, Chuck Durrett, introduced cohousing to North America with Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities. She brings the depth and diversity of her experience as an architect, developer, and cohousing resident to her clients.

Tim Hartnett, PhD
Consensus Facilitation
Santa Cruz, CA
831-464-2922
[email protected]
www.groupfacilitation.net

I offer group facilitation, training and mediation services to non-profit groups and community organizations. I have lived in community for thirty years, including co-founding my present community, Sunshower Farm. I recently wrote “Consensus-Oriented Decision-Making” (New Society Publishers, 2011). I earned my doctorate researching how to help high conflict families in divorce and I taught group process at JFK University. My facilitation approach combines nonviolent communication, conflict resolution, and a deep understanding of group dynamics.

Kim Krichbaum
Eugene, OR
541-485-5477
[email protected]

Kim offers trainings to help groups live and/or work together more effectively. His trainings address communication skills, individual awareness and empowerment, and creating cooperative decisions. Each training is tailored to your group and can include progressive leadership, dealing with projection, conflict resolution, and addressing burnout, among other topics. Kim’s trainings work for groups who are working together well and want to get better, as well as groups who are struggling. Joyful community is possible!

Lafayette Morehouse
Lafayette, CA
925-930-6972
[email protected]
www.lafayettemorehouse.com

Lafayette Morehouse, a communal group, has thrived pleasurably for over 40 years, devoting those years to researching and achieving an ever-improving life in a group. Unlike many experts in the field, we actually live together. Drawing on our experiences, our consultants describe and demonstrate the time-tested successful communication processes, conflict resolution techniques and methods of sharing and agreeing on goals, attitudes and values we have found to produce gratified individuals in a cohesive and harmonious group.

Ron Milam
117 Bimini Pl., #220, Los Angeles, CA 90004
323-793-0591
[email protected]
www.ronmilam.com

Ron Milam is a skilled and experienced facilitator, having worked with many groups using a consensus decision-making process, including the Los Angeles Eco-Village where he has lived for eight years. Ron’s listening skills, his enthusiasm and his understanding of the group decision-making process have helped numerous groups make important decisions that have enabled them to grow as communities.

John Perkins
5201 22nd Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
206-524-4496
[email protected]

In egalitarian communities the same people conceive, decide, implement and live with the results of important actions. I customize my facilitation to help you with the situation at hand while respecting the nature of your community. I can also facilitate real issues–like power–in ways that will strengthen your community. I believe that we can always create a way through that holds the group together while advancing the discussion.

Karl Steyaert
Seattle, WA
206-890-8767
[email protected]
www.findflow.org

A clear & compassionate facilitator, conflict resolution specialist, organizational consultant, and group process trainer, Karl has over 20 years experience facilitating groups internationally, and 16 years living in intentional communities (including 3 years teaching at the Findhorn Foundation). His depth of process skills is rooted in an embodied, natural approach to Nonviolent Communication (he’s a Certified Trainer in NVC), Restorative Circles (a community-based approach to restorative justice), Process Work, and collaborative governance (consensus, Sociocracy, Holacracy).

Kristen Reynolds
Portland, OR
540-342-9996
[email protected]
loving-community.com

Groups often wait until there is an emotional crisis before calling upon a facilitator. I understand. Most people are hoping they can deal with the emotional storm themselves. Many times, however, a group can’t see the layers beneath the initial issue. I have the ability to see the bigger story and to help a group of people understand the real nature of their conflict. I have received training in Process Work, Mediation, Nonviolent Communication, Sociocracy, and Circle Process.

Eris Weaver
FrogSong
101 Ross Street #5, Cotati, CA 94931
707-338-8589
[email protected]
www.erisweaver.info

I work with cohousing communities, other intentional communities, and nonprofits to:
* Facilitate meetings on difficult or emotional issues
* Coach process teams on agenda planning and facilitation techniques
* Teach workshops on consensus and other collaborative decision-making techniques; communication skills; and conflict resolution.
I am based in Northern California, but available to travel.

Brandon WilliamsCraig, Ph.D., 4th dan
Berkeley, CA
510-962-3921
[email protected]
www.culturesmith.com

“Peace is conflict done well.” I have been practicing and offering various process arts in community since 1998 and am happy to teach “aikido beyond the dojo” body language, as well as provide community building facilitation, consensus and conflict training, and an introduction to the “myth of peace” through several approaches including archetypal psychology, co-creative culture-making, and Martial Nonviolence. Please visit my website for free downloads and shared resources.

Southwest (AZ, NM, TX, CO)

Eric Best, Ph.D.
Mariposa Group Community
10316 FM 1841, Bivins, TX 75555
903-799-6161
[email protected]
www.MariposaGroup.org

Community building, conflict resolution and issues of power, control, and decision making are so often all wrapped up together that to approach just one issue separately is to invite less than full success. The “community” work I offer successfully integrates and addresses all these issues across the full range of people interactions: physically, emotionally, socially, mentally and spiritually. Founder of the Mariposa Group Community. Offering this work for 20 years to communities, private groups and corporations.

Jeff Grossberg
1080 Oakdale Pl., Boulder, CO 80304
303-859-3132
[email protected]
www.guidestoneconsulting.com

I offer different services than many of my fellow community consultants.  My specialties are strategic development, business planning and fundraising (having raised over $75 million).  I lived in an ecovillage for seven years (Sirius) and in a spiritual community for 13.  I have 40 years experience as the director of several nonprofits and foundations, including Omega Institute and the Waldorf Foundation and have consulted with over 200 communities, nonprofits and progressive businesses.

Shari Leach
Wonderland Hill Development Company
745 Poplar Ave., Boulder, CO 80304
303-449-3232
[email protected]
www.whdc.com

I work primarily with cohousing groups. Together we clarify their vision, shared values, methods for decision making, and expectations. I facilitate groups’ clear communication, setting realistic goals, with a focus on the intention behind decisions. I have an MA in Facilitating Community Development, and have developed a workbook to guide groups through their important forming stage. I also do consulting work with other non-profits. I’m a former president of the board of The Cohousing Network.

Middle Plains (MT, WY, ND, SD, NE, KS, OK)

No listings currently in this area

Midwest (MN, IA, MO, WI, IL, IN, MI, OH)

Ma’ikwe Ludwig
Sol Space Consulting
Midwest, Southwest and Plains states
[email protected]
http://www.maikwe.net/

Ma’ikwe offers facilitation and consensus training, consulting around group process and structure, outside facilitation for challenging meetings, and a variety of workshops for groups. Ma’ikwe has lived in community for 17 years, has been both a founder and joiner, and is particularly passionate about how cooperative group dynamics contribute to a more sustainable world. She regularly partners with her husband, Laird Schaub. See her writing in Communities magazine. More bio is available at: http://ecovillageeducation.us/staff/teachers/

Autumn Brown
16524 Schuman Lake Road, Avon, MN 56310
718-483-8291
[email protected]
www.iambrown.org

I offer training in consensus decision-making, facilitation, community organizing, and public speaking for radicals. I also work as a facilitator with community-based organizations, collectives, and non profits, specializing in visioning and organizational development . All of my services are available at a sliding scale or for barter. I use identity and rank awareness in order to understand and leverage conflict for growth, and all of my workshops offer opportunities for community-building.

Also see Autumn Brown’s NY listing in the Northeast section.

Jacob Stevens Corvidae
Detroit, MI
313-410-0439
[email protected]

I have over 10 years of experience with facilitation and conflict resolution in a variety of sectors. Gender and race issues are comfortable terrain for me, as is the question of when consensus is and isn’t appropriate for a group. I recently co-founded the Detroit Facilitation Guild.

Insight Unlimited
Grace Potts (in MI)
734-975-1293
[email protected]

Please see Insight Unlimited’s main listing in the Midatlantic and Northeast section.

Rebecca S. Krantz, PhD
Many Stones Consulting
2116 Jefferson St., Madison, WI 53711
608-213-7207
[email protected]

“Step by step the longest march can be won,
Many stones can form an arch, singly none”
–Union/folk song

A collection of stones can be a pile of rubble, or a wall–or, if carefully aligned, a graceful doorway. Through verbal and somatic coaching and group process facilitation, I assist individuals and groups to transform their unexamined habits and conflicts into more liberating practices and to move powerfully towards their visions.

Laird Schaub
Rt. 1, Box 155, Rutledge MO 63563
660-883-5545
[email protected]
sandhillfarm.org/canbridge.html

Laird’s work is rooted in 29 years of community living and 24 years of active involvement with consensus-based nonprofits. Since 1987, he’s been a consultant about consensus, up-tempo meeting facilitation, conflict, and organizational structure. Key to his approach is encouraging people to welcome the full range of human responses. This expressly includes non-rational input—such as emotional, intuitive, and spiritual—in recognition that people know, process, and transmit information in a wide variety of ways.

Albert Schinazi
Integrative Solutions/Community Construction
7928 Barlum Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46240
317-259-0759
[email protected]
www.integrativesol.com

Facilitation of groups that heightens self-awareness, encourages creativity, values each voice, fosters self-organization, and inspires movement toward cooperative decision-making and action. Meeting formats include: Dialogue, Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry, & Community Building Workshops. Training in Nonviolent Communication and Mediation. Extensive Construction related experience. Over 25 years experience in Sustainable Community Development, Design, Construction, Consultation and Inspection. Excellent ability to interface with Residents, Contractors, Architects, Municipalities, and Stakeholders on specific issues or complete Project Management.

Ann Waterhouse
PO Box 332, Cottage Grove, WI 53527
608-839-3229
[email protected]

The work I love most is process facilitation, working to identify the challenges the group faces, finding the question(s) and facilitating a process that will help them uncover their path through these challenges. I have been consulting for over 20 years and am currently self-employed with EagleHeart Consulting. I have worked with people in intentional communities in the past, on both conflict/mediation work and coming to agreement on vision and values for their community.

Southeast (AR, LA, MS, TN, KY, AL, GA, FL, SC, NC, WV)

Patricia Allison
Earthaven
1025 Camp Elliott Road, Black Mountain, NC 28711
828-664-0067
[email protected]

I offer weekend consensus workshops, 1-2 day facilitation workshops, and meeting facilitation. Also, in late February 2003, after completing mediation training, i will begin offering mediation services. Experience: 20 years practice in consensus decision-making, 10 years of active facilitation, 5 years teaching consensus process. Training: Caroline Estes, C.T. Butler, Bea Briggs, Rob Sandelin. My most profound training, however, has been as a facilitator at Continental Bioregional Congresses and Earthaven Ecovillage Council meetings.

Diana Leafe Christian
46 Another Way, Black Mountain, NC 28711
828-669-9702
[email protected]
www.DianaLeafeChristian.org
www.EcovillageNews.org

Author of Creating a Life Together and Finding Community and former editor of Communities magazine, Diana has taught consensus and offered consultation-workshops on problems associated with community decision-making for cohousing communities and other kinds of intentional communities in the US and Canada since 2006. She also offers consensus training for new members of Earthaven Ecovillage, where she lives. Her consensus teachers include Caroline Estes, CT Butler, Bea Briggs, Tree Bressen, Laird Schaub, and Ma’ikwe Ludwig.

Arjuna da Silva
Earthaven Ecovillage
1041 Camp Elliott Road, Black Mountain, NC 28711
828-669-0114
[email protected]
www.earthaven.org

Arjuna da Silva is a founding member of Earthaven Ecovillage, offering experienced group process and Consensus facilitation and education. A counselor and hypnotherapist, she’s studied Process Work with Arnold and Amy Mindell, and trained in various Consensus decision-making styles. “Adding Process Work to Consensus brings the group’s background into focus with the foreground.” A graduate of the New School for Social Research, she is committed to building a natural life at Earthaven.

Midatlantic (MD, DE, DC, VA)

Sky Blue
Charlottesville, VA
434-806-9486
[email protected]

I facilitate group process, lead trainings/workshops, and consult on cooperative organizational development. In my 10 years at Twin Oaks Community I’ve served a term on the Board of Planners and spent years on the community’s Process Team. I’ve helped start and run small, co-operative businesses. I was the staff facilitator for a co-operative healthcare fund. I’m on the Boards of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities, the Fellowship for Intentional Community, and Ecovillage Charlottesville.

C.T. Butler
Food Not Bombs Publishing
7304 Carroll Ave., #136, Takoma Park, MD 20912
800-569-4054/301-270-0401
[email protected]
www.consensus.net

C.T. Butler is the co-author of the book On Conflict and Consensus and is the creator of the consensus process known as Formal Consensus. He is available for facilitating and consulting in consensus decision making, better meeting process and conducting conflict audits.

Su Flickinger
6111 44th Ave., Riverdale, MD 20737
240-351-6057
[email protected]
www.SJF-Consulting.com

I work with nonprofit organizations on strategic planning, meeting facilitation, and conflict response training. I also have background in project evaluation. I use participatory methods, utilizing knowledge and expertise in the group in order to move forward. In addition to working for nonprofits, I have served in leadership roles on local and international nonprofit boards. These experiences have given me critical understanding of group process and organizational planning/management from various points of view.

Christopher Kindig
Baltimore, MD
443-422-3741
[email protected]

I have lived in a number of intense group situations, with lots of roommates (or bus-mates!), and am planning/dreaming of an ecovillage with a food forest. I have a degree in Psychology, but my main area of expertise is in entrepreneurial, administrative, and project management pursuits for communities, organizations, and small businesses. I am experienced in online marketing, building websites, e-commerce, IT systems, branding, packaging, online distribution, budgeting, business administration, and sales. I am the Advertising Manager for FIC, both for Communities magazine and on ic.org. I was able to grow this income for FIC substantially. I am also the Business Manager, and have lead the efforts to digitize all of FIC’s work, boost sales, build a new website, create new products and income streams, and improve our financial situation. Now in addition to my work with FIC, I also work as the Operations Director, and IT Manager (busy man!), for the Global Ecovillage Network. Let’s brainstorm and create a plan to boost your community, organization, or business opportunities!

Ryan McAllister
Washington, DC and Takoma Park, MD
[email protected]
Maitrihouse.org
NotJustSkin.org

I enjoy supporting communities and strong interpersonal relationships. I have experience with group and interpersonal facilitation, clarifying organizational vision and values, parenting, and supporting relationships. I have also co-founded several relationship-building projects:

• NotJustSkin.org, an all-volunteer organization supporting parents, children, and communities.
• Maitri House, a family-inclusive intentional community operating by values-based consensus.
• the Human Support Group, a regular relationship practice and support group.

I work locally, on sliding scale, and accept barter.

Patti Millar
CoachThink
Washington, DC
301-299-3234
[email protected]
www.coachthink.com

I have devoted a 20-year career to helping individuals and groups reach their full potential, using methods like Appreciative Inquiry and Dialogue Mapping to develop strategies, charter teams, resolve conflicts, and clarify responsibilities. With my process facilitation support, people shift from judger into learner mode so they can engage deeply, honor each individual, and access the collective wisdom of the group. I want to help people and communities thrive. It’s my passion. Flexible fee schedule.

Beth G. Raps

RAISING CLARITY: to cultivate abundance in noble causes, people and organizations

PO Box 117, Berkeley Springs, WV 25411-0117

304-258-2533,[email protected]

http://www.raisingclarity.com/

RAISING CLARITY works individually and with communities to improve money flow as a function of messaging, staying true to mission, uniqueness/brand, and good grassroots organizing and relationship building. We emphasize clarity–inner and outer. We have an amazing history of over 25 years of success. Our blog is designed to give away free many of the tools we teach: http://www.raisingclarity.com/ We welcome all serious inquiries and offer thanks for your work.

Northeast (PA, NY, NJ, CT, MA, VT, NH, RI, ME)

Alejandra Liora Adler
1562 First Ave. #284, New York, NY 10028
Please note that most of the year I am traveling in South America, so email is a better way to contact me.
[email protected]
www.lacaravana.org

Meeting facilitation and workshops in consensus decision-making and conflict resolution. Training of facilitators. Bilingual English/Spanish. I have taught workshops and/or facilitated meetings in fourteen countries. Co-founder of Huehuecoyotl Ecovillage in Mexico and la Caravana Arcoiris por la Paz. I have a creative, dynamic approach to my work and emphasize practice sessions in workshops. I am working on applying consensus process to daily life and spiritual growth as well as to governmental structures in South America.

Autumn Brown
718-483-8291
[email protected]
www.iambrown.org

Please see Autumn Brown’s main listing in the Midwest section. (Currently lives in Minnesota, often returns to New York so also potentially available there.)

Giovanni Ciarlo
In US: PO Box 811, Watertown, CT 06795
In Mexico: Ecoaldea Huehuecoyotl, Apartado 111, Tepoztlan, Morelos 62520 Mexico
In US: 860-945-0056
In Mexico: 739-395-5077
[email protected]
www.iifac.org

I’ve participated in Consensus, Facilitation and Conflict Resolution in communities of various kinds (nomadic and place specific) since 1977, and helped found Ecoaldea Huehuecoyotl in Mexico where I presently reside. Am fluent in English and Spanish and can manage well in Italian and French. I’ve received Facilitation training with Caroline Estes and Bea Briggs. In 2002 I became an associate member of the International Institute for Facilitation and Consensus.

Craig Freshley
Policy Development, Inc.
98 Maine Street, Brunswick, ME 04011
[email protected]
www.Policy-Development.com

I offer professional meeting facilitation on all topics with a focus on efficiency, inclusiveness, and good documentation. I help groups decide missions, work plans, etc. I live in a cohousing community and I’m especially experienced at consensus decision making. Please visit my website to see what others have said and a list of clients.

Greg Hessel
5 Timber Lane, Brattleboro, VT 05301
802-251-0048
[email protected]
ReGenerationResources.org

I have 15 years experience living in communities (domestic and international) and currently teach in a conflict management program (Woodbury College, VT) and direct a community mediation center. I assist groups with meeting process, consensus building, visioning and conflict resolution plus offer free monthly electronic newsletters with practical tips. I usually start my work with an assessment and then partner with clients to design trainings or interventions to best meet their needs.

Insight Unlimited
P.O. Box 44
Middletown, CT 06457
www.insightunlimited.org

Alice Leibowitz (in CT)
860-956-9299
[email protected]

Insight Unlimited provides facilitation, process training, mediation, and strategic planning services to communities, grass-roots organizations and non-profits. We believe that groups have the wisdom to create solutions for themselves–our role is to create a space for that wisdom to emerge. Please feel welcome to call us for a free 2 hour consultation. Our services are free or low cost for communities working to create affordable housing for the lowest income brackets ($25K/year or less).

Also see Insight Unlimited’s MI listing in the Midwest section.

Jerry Koch-Gonzalez
120 Pulpit Hill Road #8, Amherst, MA 01002
413-549-1747
[email protected]
www.communicatingwithcompassion.org

I offer training, coaching, consulting, mediation, group process and facilitation services grounded in my 30 years experience with Nonviolent Communication (NVC), consensus and dynamic governance (sociocracy), diversity training, counseling and social change. I am a CNVC certified trainer, a certification candidate in sociocracy, and have an M.Ed. in Organizational Development. I have lived in cooperative housing and intentional communities all my adult life, and have been living in the Pioneer Valley Cohousing Community since 1994.

Julie Mazo
3 Mountain Laurel Path, Florence MA 01062
413-587-0798
[email protected]

Nine years membership in Shannon Farm intentional community, member of Pathways Cohousing community since 1998; 23 years as professional facilitator, mediator, trainer of conflict management skills and consensus decision-making processes; consultant in organizational capacity-building and strategic action planning; design and conduct retreats, skill-development and problem-solving sessions; facilitate community-wide meetings to deal with difficult issues. As a way to support the communities movement, I charge communities for expenses only.

Claus Sproll
AdminService.org
PO Box 401, Uwchland, PA 19480
610-291-4887
[email protected]
www.adminservice.org

AdminService supports administrators in private schools, Waldorf schools, intentional communities and business managers in both schools and nonprofit organizations. AdminService is not a consulting service, but specializes in working alongside you on the project, simultaneously completing the project and training your staff. Projects range from Strategic Planning, board development, administrative reviews, policy and procedure manuals and transition from pioneer to administrative phase. We also can work on financial aspects of your organization. We bring a spiritual orientation to the work.

Canada (western: BC, AB, SK, MB)

Joy Emmanuel
Turning Times Research and Consulting
[email protected]
250-896-3578

Turning Times offers co-op development services for housing and land co-ops – including working to introduce the equity co-op model to BC. Services include: visioning, governance and organizational development, business plans, strategic planning, consensus decision making, policy development, and co-op research. I am a member of CoopZone, Canada’s Co-op Developers Network, former Research Director of the BC Institute for Co-operative Studies and live at OUR Ecovillage.

April English
YES Resolution Group Inc.
94953 Prince Albert St., Vancouver, B.C. V5W 3C5
604-325-4553
[email protected]
www.yes.bc.ca

April has worked as a mediator, facilitator and trainer, and believes passionately in our potential to work together with respect and equality. She specializes in organizational and community development, strategic planning, multiparty conflict intervention and mediation, adult education, and workplace issues of discrimination and communication. She has extensive experience in housing communities, and has worked as a mediator and trainer for both the Cooperative Housing Federation of B.C. and the Cooperative Housing Federation of Canada.

Jan Steinman
EcoReality
160 Sharp Road, Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K 2P6
250-537-2024
[email protected]
www.EcoReality.org

Jan offers training and implementation on computer-assisted process management, including collaborative document authoring, on-line consensus making, policy development, decision modeling and recording, coop formation, asset management, financial organization, and more. Jan has 20 years consulting experience in addressing social issues with technology, having done process management consulting in Switzerland, Canada, and various US locations.

Andrea Welling
Community Leader – Facilitation – Social Policy
Vancouver, BC Canada
604-825-8149
[email protected]

I have 12 years experience as a group facilitator and social policy maker. I tackled the “stuck” issue of community contribution through a focused and creative consultation process that included everyone in the community. Through team collaboration, we created a policy by consensus. I offer leadership, training and listening skills to move communities through challenging issues towards understanding and effective decision-making.

Canada (eastern: ON, QC, NB, NS)

Manon Gaudreau
4430 rue de Niverville, Saint-Hubert, Qc J3Y 9E9, Canada
450-550-1213
[email protected]
www.celebratingcommunity.ca

I offer my services as a facilitator to small groups, in French or English. I invite groups to welcome diversity of personalities and opinions, to honor the self-organizing co-creative energy of the group and to collaborate in non-linear problem-solving. I have lived in community and have experience as a teacher and as a therapist. I enjoy meditation, yoga, massage and computers.

Jérémie Schaeli
Gatineau, Québec, J8Y 2A6
819-661-1086
[email protected]

Group facilitation in French and English for non-profits, associations, cooperatives, communities. I draw from active listening, group dynamics and non-violent communication, with special care given to creativity and humor. The facilitated process will allow you to clarify your position, decide for action, and experience change. I would also be pleased to assist a group in the co-creation and co-facilitation of their own process. And I work on a gift economy basis. Contact me for more info!

Mexico

Beatrice Briggs
International Institute for Facilitation and Consensus
Plaza Corporativa #113, Domingo Diez 1589, Col. El Empleado, Cuernavaca, Morelos 62250 Mexico
Tel/Fax: +52 (777)1022288 and 1022290
[email protected]
www.iifac.org

Meeting planning and facilitation, conflict resolution, training in consensus decision-making and facilitation, consulting on organizational change. Because I am a USer who lives in an ecovillage in Mexico and has worked extensively in Latin America and Europe, one of my specialties is working with diverse, multi-cultural groups and meetings that require translation. I am bilingual (English-Spanish). I also am experienced in working with large groups, annual assemblies, board meetings and other complex gatherings.

Europe

Kathy McGowan
28 Vasil Kolarof Street, Voditsa, Targovishte, 7851 Bulgaria
Phone: 0035960386286
[email protected]

I have worked for over 20 years helping groups to facilitate change. I’m especially interested in the generation of ideas, project development, sustainable community/rural development, adult education, group foundations, consensus decision making and resolving conflict. If you’re based in the EU, I can help with accessing EU funding. I have a Low Impact Facility in Bulgaria if you all want to come here.

Louise Romain
La Fonderie de la Dure, 11170 Montolieu, France
+33 468 24 81 81
[email protected]

I specialize in sharing and performing consent agreement using dynamic governance/sociocracy and Nonviolent Communication for which I’m a certified trainer. I have facilitated small and large groups since 2005, helping to empower many groups to resolve conflicts in difficult situations, improve efficiency at their meetings, and lead courses on Nonviolent Communication and consent decision making. My clients include small businesses, associations and co-operatives.