"Together we will build a Powerhouse of Facilitators from the Southwest Region"
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The Southwest Facilitators Network (SFN) was started in 1988 in Dallas as the Southwest JAD Users Group (SWJUG) by Lori Ward from IBM, Lucinda Ruck from Ernst & Young, a person from Aviall, all from Dallas, and a man named Walter Viali from Texaco in Houston. The first meeting was at Aviall in Dallas, Texas. The groups’ focus was internal corporate JAD (Joint Application Design) facilitation. No outside contractors were included and no marketing by outside contractors was allowed. The objective was to exchange tips and tricks on conducting JAD sessions. The corporations supported the meetings and travel expenses for their members. Participation was active until the end of 1994. Around the same time, 1994, knowledge of facilitation was rapidly expanding around the world. The International Association of Facilitations (IAF) was formed to develop and expand the many types of facilitation that had been developed. In response, SWJUG changed its name and expanded its facilitation focus. SWJUG became known as the Southwest Facilitators Network (SFN) and the JAD focus was expanded to include the many types of facilitation that had been identified. External consultants were allowed as members. The SFN operated with the new expanded focus from 1994 until 1998. Four quarterly conferences were held each year in different major cities of the Southwest. In 1998, the SFN went inactive and remained that way for 2 years. In early 2000, the start of the new millennium, an effort was undertaken to restart the SFN. Many of the original SWJUG and SFN facilitators became part of the SFN once again. They adopted a new motto of “Together We Will Build A Powerhouse of Facilitators from the Southwest Region”. Two regional conferences were held that year, one in the DFW Area (Grapvine) and one in Houston. A group of 15 SFN Facilitators attended the IAF Annual Conference in Toronto. In 2001, the SFN had been recognized as a facilitation “powerhouse”. Due to the SFN’s strength, the International Association of Facilitators requested that the IAF 2002 Annual Conference be held in Texas. Work began on this effort in early 2001. A regional conference was held in Austin, in February. In May, a contingent of approximately 32 SFN facilitators attended the 2001 IAF Annual Conference in Minneapolis. This was an increase over the prior year of over 100%. |
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