Crash Course on Facilitating Disagreement

Every day, the Right is working to overwhelm our movements for collective liberation with attacks from all angles. As we work to protect our communities and advance our resistance, many of our groups are fragmenting under the pressure, getting into stand offs in our meetings, and are finding ourselves unable to reconcile our differences. Others of us are smoothing over differences for the sake of keeping the peace, resulting in watered down strategies.

Our differences are actually critical to our success. Now more than ever, we cannot afford to only work with people who agree with us. The Left needs to skill up in our ability to handle disagreement inside of our strategy and planning meetings so we turn towards each other, instead of turning on each other. This Crash Course on Facilitating Disagreement from AORTA is a 2 hour online training that offers practical meeting tools to surface differences early, cut through the tension, and carve out a path forward.

We will share:

• how we use foresight to anticipate disagreement in a meeting so you can set up the conversation to welcome it (being surprised makes everything harder);
• tools for scanning the group for differences early and building understanding;
• how to identify and stop “dust clouding” (imagine a small bird wiggling in the dust, and creating a big cloud), when an individual or group is unwittingly magnifying rifts in the group and causing confusion;
• strategies for discernment between personal feedback and a disagreement that’s worth the group’s attention.

Join AORTA, our co-hosts--18 Million Rising, Amplify GA, Dissenters, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and Jewish Voice for Peace--and many others in our movements, to meet this political moment by skilling up in practical tools and approaches so we can all say yes to disagreement.

Access information

• Zoom: We will be meeting via Zoom webinar and using the screen share function.
• Breaks: In our 2 hour training, we will be taking one 10 minute break.
• Captions: We will be offering CART Captioning during the training.
• Breakout rooms: This training has no breakout room interactions.
• Chat: This training includes use of the chat function in Zoom. Participants will be asked to enter responses in the chat throughout the training.
• Recording: This training will be recorded and shared with registrants for 30 days after the session. The recording will not include the chat transcript.
• Post-training Materials: After the training, you will receive a copy of the slide deck.
• Tech and access support: A tech and access support person will be present throughout the training to attend to any emergent participant needs regarding Zoom, the slide deck, and access.

How to choose your rate:

AORTA offers our public trainings at different rates depending on your individual and organizational access to money and wealth. Our sliding scale is an intentional effort to distribute resources equitably between organizations and organizers we work with.

Please reflect on the self assessment linked below to help you consider what rate to pay to attend this workshop.

https://aorta.coop/public-program-rates

Rates for Individuals

These rates are for you if you are paying for the training without financial support from an organization. The cost listed below is for 1 person attending the full event.

• Solidarity: $20
• Sustain: $40
• Full Cost: $60
• Redistribution: $80

Rates for individuals supported by organizations

These rates are for you if you are a member of an organization that is paying for your participation in the training. The cost listed below is for 1 person attending the full event.

• Solidarity: $100
• Sustain: $150
• Full Cost: $200
• Redistribution: $250

Please note our refund, transfer, and cancellation policy for virtual trainings:

AORTA is a small business that depends on stable revenue from our trainings and offerings. As such, we are not able to make exceptions to our refund policy.

1. All of our training fees are non-refundable.
2. All registrants will receive a recording of the training.
3. You may request a transfer of your ticket to a different date within the training series (e.g. a training in the Spring of a calendar year) if a spot is available at your selected ticket rate. Requests must be made more than 7 business days prior to the training.
4. Additionally, you can transfer your registration to a different participant (their name and email address must be shared at least 3 business days prior to the training).
5. If AORTA needs to cancel the training (due to unforeseen circumstances, such as the trainer becoming ill), then we will do our best to reschedule the training for a later date. If you are unable to attend at the rescheduled date, or if AORTA is not able to reschedule the training, then you will have the option to be fully refunded, transfer you registration as outlined in 3 and 4 above, or convert your registration fees to a donation to support AORTA’s ongoing work to strengthen movements and organizations working for social justice.