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Choose it, Plan it, Do it!

What’s in this pack? This pack contains a selection of activities and tools for gathering ideas, planning and making decisions in groups of all ages. The pack is divided into three parts, with subsections. Each section is packed full of useful tools to make planning and decision making as a group easy, fun, inclusive and inventive: 1. Tools for getting ideas and making plans

• Ideas storming • Planning • Making decisions

2. Choosing group night activities all together

• Badge activity for Elfins and Pioneers • A very democratic planning process for Pioneers and Venturers • Poster activity for Pioneers and Venturers

3. Planning projects as a group

• Starting points • Getting into the plan

How do I use this pack? This pack is written in sections for you to dip into in any order, whenever you need a couple of ideas to help plan your programme, or get a project started. The activities in this pack are intended to help you plan creatively, rather than set out firm sessions – so just pick and choose the ones you want to try out and adapt them to fit the preferences of your group if you need to. Some of the activities include a few different options for running it, so you can choose an approach that might best suit your group. You’ll see that sometimes particular age groups are recommended for an activity, but this certainly doesn’t mean that it would be unsuitable for others. You can also use the activities with adults and mixed age groups – most people enjoy a change from more traditional meeting formats now and then!

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Tools for getting ideas and making plans There are lots of tools and techniques useful for gathering ideas within groups of all ages, to involve everyone in planning processes. Here’s a selection - from common types of ‘ideas storm’, through to more unusual creative methods.

Ideas storming This is a quick and easy way of getting ideas out to start off the process. It doesn’t matter at this stage if ideas might be difficult or unrealistic, so it’s important that everyone feels everyone comfortable calling out and saying ideas off the top of their heads. It can be useful to remind the group that there are no right or wrong answers at this stage, to think big and wacky if they want to and to listen respectfully to everyone’s contributions so that thoughts can flow freely. After getting lots of ideas out, you can then turn to discussing which are most practical, which might be problematic, and which should be discussed further. Mindmaps (also can be called brainstorms and spider-diagrams) Nominate a scribe. Write the title or question for discussion in a bubble in the centre of a big piece of paper. As people call out their ideas, draw line away from the central bubble with the idea on the end, creating a spider-like shape. Link further ideas and development on from their starting point so the spider grows outwards towards the edge of the paper. Lists Mindmaps don’t work for everyone, some people prefer to see writing in a straight line, so lists are also useful for storming ideas. Use the same principles as with mindmaps, but ask the scribe to write each idea as a point in a big list. Post-its ideas storm Divide into smaller groups (can also work well in pairs, or working individually to start with) and give each one some post-it notes and a pen. Write the question or topic to be discussed on a visible flip-chart or board. Ask the groups to write their ideas on the post-its (one idea per post-it). Leaders collect the post-its from groups as they are generated and stick them up onto the flipchart / board or a wall, clustering similar ideas together. Once all the ideas are collected run through what you’ve got and the themes that have emerged through clustering them. There could be some discussion about the themes and grouping – the post-its can be easily moved if some clusters later need to be sub-divided, or individual ideas moved across. Silent Floor This works like a mindmap, but can go a bit deeper. Prepare for the activity by taping together several big sheets of paper and laying them down on the floor, like a big mat. Then, like a

mindmap, write a question or topic in the centre. Group members then need to take their shoes off and find a marker pen. Everyone walks around the paper mat and writes their ideas coming off the central bubble. Keep moving around the paper, adding ideas onto other people’s and drawing linking lines from one point to another, until the paper ‘floor’ is full of ideas that have been ‘discussed’ and explored within the group mindmap. For this activity to work best, the group needs to be really quiet (silent, if possible). That way, everyone has space to think and can work as an individual, but interact with the shower of thoughts coming from the entire group. When the paper if full, take a step back and break the silence. Then as a group, try to feedback the ideas on the paper and summarise what you’ve come up with.

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Planning The following activities involve a little more discussion and so, while they can be used to storm initial ideas, they can also be useful in helping to develop ideas further and make a clearer plan. Collage Work in small groups to create collages from newspaper and magazine cuttings to illustrate ideas, plans, scenarios or settings. This can also be a useful tool to use when thinking about particular environments or audiences. You’ll need a good variety of old magazines and papers, scissors, glue and big sheets of paper to back the collages. It’s also helpful to give a pretty clear question and task to focus the groups’ work. Then they can think about how to address that, discuss their ideas and go through the resources to find ways of showing that. Group artwork A big mat of paper is also needed for this activity – either laid on the floor or pinned on the wall. You’ll also need to provide art materials. Give the group a theme (e.g. ‘the most amazing district camp ever would be…’) and then explore ideas by painting and drawing a massive group picture. You could either discuss ideas first so you start painting with a coherent vision, or just get stuck in with the artwork, talking as you go along, responding to what other people are creating and see what emerges in the end. Visual timeline To plan a big project, an event (like a camp or a day-long fete) or even a term’s programme, making a visual timeline is a good way of involving everyone in mapping it out. Use a long piece of string and tape it in a line (straight – or wiggly, as below) to the wall or floor. Using colourful

paper or card, label any firmly fixed points along the line - such as the different days, or meal times for a camp, or events you want to link with in a term’s programme, e.g. Refugee Week. Then take the ideas that have come out of earlier ideas storming planning activities, write or draw them on to individual cards and as a group decide where they should sit along the timeline. Keep shuffling everything around until the group is happy with their plan.

A visual timeline created by the TREE Steering Group (Pioneers, Venturers, DFs and Adults) to plan the programme’s activity for 2010. The cluster in the left-hand side of the picture represents the busy summer period with lots of activity planned at events such as Annual Gathering and Venturer Camp.

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Making decisions Dot voting Write up a range of options (either as a list on one big sheet of paper, or on separate sheets spread around the room), leaving space on the paper by each item. Give everyone 3 sticky dots (or another appropriate number) and ask them to stick their dots next to their favourite options to cast their votes. Continuum of agreement Set up an imaginary line across the room, clearly marking where it begins and ends – for example, with chairs, signs or masking tape on the floor. This is a ‘continuum’, with two opposing views at each end. One end represents ‘strongly agree’ and the other, ‘strongly disagree’ (it could be helpful to label these). Read a series of statements, and after each one, the group needs to shuffle themselves about so they are standing at the point along the line that represents how they feel about the statement. You could ask a few people to explain why they stood where they did, or just move straight onto the next question. This can be a useful way to see where a group stands on different issues, the spread of opinion, can trigger dynamic discussion and can even be used as a way of voting. It can also be a good starter activity for sessions on controversial issues and values-based discussions.

DFs place themselves along a continuum during a workshop in the woods at DF Camp 2009.

Temperature check: This is a really simple tool that can be used in lots of different contexts. A temperature check is a quick way of measuring levels of feeling within a group, large or small. It could indicate how happy people are with some new material, how much they agree with a suggestion, how excited they are about an idea, and more. Very simply, members of the group respond to the question – e.g. ‘how much do you agree with this?’ – by raising their hands and wiggling their fingers right above their heads to indicate strong agreement, nearer their chins for half-way, down by their knees for strong disagreement and anywhere in between to represent a variety of part-way emotions. Temperature checks can be taken as a group at intervals during discussions or activities or just at the end to conclude. Alternatively, individuals could use these signs themselves whenever they want to signal their agreement or disagreement with something.

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Choosing group night activities all together Woodcraft Folk groups of all ages work together in many different ways to plan their programmes of group night activities. Here are a few activity ideas, inspired by groups from Cambridge, Bromley and Hinckley. The activities are suitable for groups from Elfins through to Venturers, although they may also be useful planning tools for DFs and adults too!

Badge activity for Elfins or Pioneers One group found a way to include Elfins in planning their own programme, by turning the activity into a craft session. This activity might also work well with Pioneers. Each Elfin designed a new Woodcraft Folk badge, based on their favourite group night activity, or something they would really like to do with their group. The Elfins spent most of the session making beautiful, creative badge designs, and discussing their favourite activities as they worked. After this, there are a number of ways to pull their ideas together into a programme. The designs could be displayed and the Elfins could explain their badges and the activities they represent to the rest of the group. Elfins could vote on the activities they want to do (either by putting their hands up, or by ‘dot voting’ next to each picture), and group leaders could take the most popular ideas and slot them into the term’s programme.

A very democratic planning process for Pioneers and Venturers A Pioneer group wanted to be able to include everyone in the group in planning their programme and to make it as democratic as possible. A couple of Pioneers in the group came up with a system, which they now use each term, to plan the following term / half term’s activities (so it involves looking a little way into the future).

This system has worked with a pair or three of Pioneers (although it would be good with Venturer or DF groups too) to lead it, and it runs in the background of sessions throughout the term, rather than taking up a session on its own. Members of the group start off by putting ideas in a suggestions box for a week or two. After this the small group leading the process write up all the suggestions on a big piece of paper, leaving space for more things to be added if necessary. It’s then their job to bring this along to a succession of group nights, put it out in a corner and encourage the other members of the group to vote for the activities they most want to do the following term, at the beginning and end of meetings. The group who started this tried to consider when they last did certain activities and any other factors that might help their decisions as they narrowed down the list. By the end of the term (or half term), they’d have a shortlist of sessions that could be slotted into the upcoming programme.

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Poster activity for Pioneers or Venturers Another group use a similar idea, but add in some running around to make it more active. This, and similar activities, has been used a lot with Pioneers and Venturers. Their ideas for activities were written on lots of big sheets of paper and posted up all around the hall. After a signal, the Pioneers all ran around to stand by their favourites in order to vote for them, having nominated someone to count up how many votes each activity got. There are lots of variations on this. 1. The process could be repeated a number of times so that each young person gets more than one vote. 2. It could be made into more of a drama game, by moving between posters to cast the next vote in the style of… a monkey….a footballer...an ice cream van….(someone calls out the theme each time) 3. For a less energetic version (and without the need to someone to count the number of people at each station each time), group members could be give a certain number of stickers each, which they could stick on their favourite ideas. 4. As they cast their votes, the Pioneers or Venturers could add notes and detail to the big poster. For example, if the idea is cooking they could write more specific suggestions of what they’d like to make around the edge and others could indicate which of those suggestions they like the most.

Activities selected for Venturer group nights after running a poster activity with dot voting and comments (variations 3 and 4, above)

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Planning projects as a group

Most of the ideas and tools in the previous sections could be used in planning projects as a group, but it may be useful to have some more specific, in depth activities too. Here’s a series of ideas that could prove particularly helpful for planning action projects and campaigns in your community – discussing ideas for topics or issues to focus on, thinking how to address this, planning how the project could work and even applying for or raising some money to run it.

Starting points Who’s in my community? If you’re looking at doing a local project or campaign, it could be good to start by identifying what you see as your ‘community’ and who is in it. Is it people within a geographical area? People in your family? People from your school? People with common interests? People of a similar age? This activity will help each member of the group think about who they link to individually, before pooling all of their ‘communities’ to map out the networks covered by the entire group. You’ll need a piece of paper and pen for everyone, and a big sheet of paper for a group activity. Start with a quick discussion about what community means. Think of as many definitions as you can and write them down. Then you can move on to look at the range of different communities that group members belong to. Give out pens and paper and work individually to start with. Write ‘me’ in the centre of your paper and then link yourselves to each other group you are part of – from your neighbours to your netball team and everything in between. Include other groups that you’re linked to but not part of, by putting them further out from the centre, or joining them with dotted lines. The diagram below makes a start and gives some ideas.

When you’ve all finished, come back together and see if you can combine all of your maps to draw the community network for the whole group on a big sheet of paper. The best and worst This activity would lead on well from the previous one, but could also stand alone. It will help the group to think about what is good and bad about their community. First, take a few minutes to think as a group about what is good and what is bad about being part of a community. Think quite broadly, rather than about your specific communities for the time being. Write your ideas in two lists (good and bad). They might be things like feeling safe, belonging, friendship (good) and trapped, not appreciated for who I am and labelled (bad).

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Then using the good and bad qualities from the list, play the ‘continuum of agreement’ game from page 4. Mark the ends of the line with agree and disagree. Someone read out each item from the list as a statement relating now to your community. For example, “I feel completely safe in my community” or “I think that people label me in my community”. Group members respond to each statement by standing in a position along the continuum. Discuss why you’ve stood where you have and whether or not you are happy about this aspect of the community. Representing others This is a quick and fun activity that will get everyone thinking about a whole range of issues and concerns – as well as representing other members of the group to argue their case. It only

needs 15-20 minutes, some small pieces of paper, pens and a hat or bowl. First of all, everyone needs to take a small piece of paper and write on it something they feel really strongly about – it could be anything, from world poverty to friendship. Don’t show anyone what you write, fold up the paper and drop them all into the hat. Then all draw out a piece of paper and read what’s on it to yourselves. Take 3-5 minutes to think and come up with 3 short points about why the thing that some else has put on the paper is important. Everyone has 30 seconds to present these three points and argue the case for the issue in their pieces of paper in turn. Finally, reflect as a group on how it felt to have to speak on someone else's behalf and hear someone else representing you. Peeling the onion For this activity you need to choose, as a group, an issue you feel strongly about so that you can dig deeper and find out more about it. It may be helpful to choose something local that the group can act on, and is familiar with. If you’ve already run ‘the best and worst’ activity, it could be something which has arisen out of that. If there isn’t an obvious choice, you could vote on which topic best combines importance with scope for local action. Draw a huge onion (lots of concentric circles basically!) on flipchart paper and write the issue round the outside edge. Either as a whole group or in small groups, discuss why it’s an issue. Write your answer inside the first ‘layer’ of the onion. Then ask why again, and write the answer on the next layer. Carry on asking ‘why’ until you feel you’ve got right to the core of the issue. You may have a few answers at each level, converging on the centre of the onion. If you’ve got a few onions happening at once, try to all visit each one and add your ideas. Activities like ‘peeling the onion’ that get to the core of the issue can help you to decide what your goal might be. Once you’ve finished your onions, use an ideas storming technique to pool ideas about how to address the issue and then decide on your focus and desired goal.

Getting into the plan Once you’ve identified an issue as a group that you’d like to work on, you’ll need to plan what you’d like to do about it in your action project or campaign and who else in the community might be useful to connect with. Here are a couple of activities to help with that.

Forcefield This activity is a useful tool for thinking about how you’ll reach your goal and what might help you – or get in the way of doing this. You’ll need a big piece of paper, or board to write on, lots of pens and some post-it notes. Start off by drawing the ‘Forcefield’ – a number of concentric circles with your goal written in the middle. If there are a number of different aspects to your

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goal, you could spread them around the middle of the Forcefield. Then write “+ forces that help” at the top and “- forces that hinder” at the bottom, shown in the diagram below.

Work all together or in small groups (with lots of Forcefield copies) coming back together to share your ideas. First, write on post-it notes all you can think of that could help and hinder you in reaching your goal. Then stick them on both sides of the Forcefield – closer to the centre if you think they’d have a huge effect, and towards the edge if they’re less influential. Next, look at the forces on either side of your goal. You want to have the positive ones as close to the centre as possible, and the negative ones on the edge – so think about what you can do to move them in those directions. How can you change or neutralise the forces that might work against you? How can you use the positive forces around you to the benefit of your project? When you think of ways to move the positive and negative forces in or out, move the post-it notes accordingly, drawing arrows to mark where they moved from and write a note beside each one to explain how you’ve been able to move it. Community links This is another activity to think about forces that might help you – but focussing on the community and building links either through your project, or for your project. If you’ve already done the ‘who’s in my community’ activity, look back to it. If not, do it now! Look at who you’re linked to as an entire group and highlight (by circling, underlining or marking in some way) all of the groups who you might be able to work with in your project, talk to for advice and ideas, or who you might want to tell about what you’re up to. Are there any other useful groups missing from your map, for example, local media, or the council? Add any you think of around the edge, it doesn’t matter if they don’t have links to any group members yet – the next job is to build those bridges during the project!

And finally… If you enjoyed some of these activities and would like to develop a plan and run a project or small campaign to take action with your group, you could apply to the Woodcraft Folk Action Projects fund to get up to £500 to help you. The forms have been designed to be filled in at group nights so it’s simple to apply once you’ve got some ideas. Go to www.woodcraft.org.uk/action-projects for information. Most of the activities in this final section are adapted from a resource called ‘Act by Right’ and I’m very grateful to the author, Bill Badham for letting us ‘borrow’ his ideas! If you’d like to see more Act by Right resources, go to www.actbyright.org.uk.