Participant Biographies

AFN 2004 Organising Group

Marilyn Hunt

Marilyn has up until recently been the convenor for the AFN Conference 2004, a role she is relinquishing as she prepares for the birth of her first child (currently known as "Cream Bun") the week before the conference. She intends to be available as a resource person to the organising group and conference for as long as possible, and to attend in some capacity, with Cream Bun. Marilyn has been part of the Zenergy team for four years, based in Wellington. She is a facilitator and coach who draws on 14 years of experience as a teacher, consultant and project manager. Recently Marilyn has been working in the mental health sector, co-designing and delivering a training programme for support workers to work alongside consumers/tangata whaiora in a peer relationship - an inspiring and rewarding project in which to be involved.

Karen Eriksen

Karen is picking up the role of conference convenor from Marilyn, and can be contacted at , or . Karen also works full time as a facilitator and coach as part of the Zenergy team based in Wellington. She brings with her extensive experience in both the corporate and community sectors including business analysis, project management, facilitation, training, business and life coaching, and management of teams. Karen has completed the Zenergy Diploma of Facilitation and has a special interest in facilitative management and self-managing teams.

Sharyn Devereux Blum

| Sharyn is co-ordinating the pre-conference workshops in Wellington, and is sharing the role of space holder with Mary Alice Arthur over the conference weekend. Sharyn is an experienced facilitator, trainer, teacher, consultant and coach who has a real passion for working with people of all ages. Sharyn is the co-director of the company Devereux-Blum Training & Development Limited. Life-long learning is one of her core beliefs and Emergency Management is an area of focus Sharyn finds very rewarding. She regularly trains and consults nationally within organisations all over New Zealand.

Mary Alice Arthur

Mary Alice is responsible for the conference programme, and is sharing the role of space holder with Sharyn Devereux-Blum over the conference weekend. Mary-Alice is a Facilitator for Inspired Change, a Conference Weaver, Storyteller, and Coach. She works with all types of groups, individuals and organisations to create clarity, collaboration and creative results. Conference Weaving and the use of large group technologies is one of her passions and she specialises in working with groups to create events that are more innovative, collaborative, productive and able to deliver amazing results.

Hilary Williams

Hilary is responsible for the financial aspects of the conference. Hilary is another member of the Zenergy team based in Wellington. Hilary works as a coach; creating access to each individual's or group's source of passion and energy to stretch goals, identify gaps and shift beyond their limiting habits. Hilary has a strong interest in the needs of children. Currently she delivers training in the field of child protection and facilitates programmes for children at risk. She has a desire to create a future which supports and ensures that all children reach their full potential.

Anne Pattillo

Anne is co-ordinating the Southern Lights Facilitation smorgasbord session, taking place on the Friday afternoon of the conference. Anne Pattillo has been working as a consultant in her own business in the areas of training, organisation development, business planning and project management since 1989. Anne's background includes work as an organisational change project manager, training and development manager and business planner. Her key skills and experience include her work as an exceptional process facilitator, an experienced manager of future search conferences and Open Space Technology planning and needs analysis processes, along with experience in training and working with Maori and people from other cultural groups.

Mark Butz

Mark Butz has experience in facilitation which spans more than 15 years, although this has been intermittent due to the distractions of employment. Based in Canberra, he is now the Principal of Futures by Design, a consultancy which includes facilitation among its offerings. Mark's work extends from small teams and groups to large and complex organisations, across sectors and cultures, from urban settings to rural and regional Australia. His work supports planning, participation/engagement, and performance development, set against background literacy in environment and heritage, and community health and wellbeing.is co-ordinating the Southern Lights Facilitation smorgasbord session, taking place on the Friday afternoon of the conference. Self-classification: a hybrid between Journeyperson and Seasoned Adventurer

Roberta Mead

For the last 10 years Roberta has been self-employed as an independent facilitator under the name 'Facilitation Professionals'. She works largely in 3 areas of facilitation - planning and change, community engagement, and teaching facilitation skills. She has an MBA and has previously made presentations or run workshops at both IAF and AFN conferences. She is part of the conference organising team for AFN 2005 in Perth. +61 8 9384 3435 Self-classification: Seasoned Adventurer

Lou Belle

He mihi nui ki a koutou katoa No Ahiterieria ahau Ko Scottish raua ko English oku iwi Ko Blue Mountains nga maunga Ko Hawkesbury te awa Ko Poihakina te moana Ko Lou Belle toku ingoa Lou Belle has a formal background in Environmental Management, Land Rehabilitation, Training and Education and five years practical experience as a facilitator in both Australia and Aotearoa. Her primary focus has been the facilitation of environmental education for sustainable land management. She has a passion for building community capacity, in particular the capacity of Maori at the hapu level to engage in environmental action. As a “journey person” Lou hopes to improve her practice through participation in the varied workshops offered at this conference. She is also looking forward to meeting other Pakeha/Tauiwi working with Maori communities.

Louise Wood

Louise Wood is a Grapecheque Facilitator with the Department of Primary Industries in Bendigo. Her background is in agriculture, and she has been working with groups for some time but is new to facilitation. Having less than a years experience, she is definitely a new recruit. As the name suggests Louise works with groups of grape growers, getting them to work together to determine and address common local issues, and providing them with access to the tools they need to run sustainable businesses. Louise's passion is working with rural people, attempting to bring out the best in them. She loves to try new techniques, and likes to make things fun. She is an outdoors girl, who loves horses (Clydesdale in particular) and just adores country life. She enjoys being in the bush, and incorporates that into her job by fighting bush fires over summer- just to add a bit of spark to life.

Felicity Fahy
	Felicity has a formal background in environmental management including experience in NZ, UK and USA. She is currently working for Environment Waikato, facilitating a wide variety of community, local government and industry groups. She is particularly interested in exploring and enabling sustainable management within communities.

Robin Clayfield

Robin Clayfield has been Facilitating Groups and Trainings for over 15 years often as one or two week residential intensives. Training Teachers in Creative Facilitation and Dynamic Group process has been a major focus for the past 12 years during which time she has offered this work in 8 diverse countries.She currently trains 5 of the 8 competencies of the Certificate 4 Assessment and Workplace Training Certificate (Aust.) using her 'Dynamic Groups' model. She is the co-author of 'The Manual For Teaching Permaculture Creatively' and author and publisher of 2 other books (which are slightly 'process' related). She often facilitates programmes, workshops, rituals and experiences for conferences, festivals, women's empowerment weekends, small business and community groups and is currently facilitating local action meetings in the Maleny Community's fight to stop Woolworth's taking over their town.

Jennifer Repper

Hi, I would like to introduce myself. I joined AFN after meeting the inspiring Viv McWaters. I am currently working with Rural Solutions SA as a Senior Consultant. My key role is as a program manager with the occasional facilitation role and short consultancies. I enjoy facilitation more than any other role and would like to concentrate my efforts in this field. I am passionate about its role in supporting change and general decision-making. I am particularly interested in exploring the contribution of systems thinking and facilitation in extension programs. I am looking forward to this conference to meet other “passionates” and to take my first step to becoming an effective facilitator.