Collaborative Curriculum Subcommittee

Participation in this subcommittee was active and fruitful because of its clear goal and its short duration. In addition to certain members who volunteered at the collaborative planning meeting, other individuals identified at that meeting as training coordinators or content experts in the field were also invited to participate. The goals of this subcommittee were simply to take the suggested topics and to assign a number of training hours to them, then to create a logical sequence for the topics. Participants were then asked to review the list of recommended trainers and make additions or changes. Assigning numbers of hours, which can be a tedious process, was accomplished effectively through fruitful dialogue. Topics were posted on newsprint around a room. Each member of the group took a few minutes to explain why he or she believed the topics championed were crucial to improving the response to victims in Vermont. The training coordinator facilitated the dialogue in exploring the varied viewpoints. Following, each member was given a bank of 42 hours to "spend" any way the member wanted. Members assigned each posted topic the number of hours they thought it merited. There was a great deal of agreement, and when there was not, it was brought to the group for a facilitated process of consensus decisionmaking. Through this discussion, each topic was assigned a number of hours and a place in the presentation sequence. Group members agreed that the task of designing the lesson plan needed to reside with the actual trainers, who could be convened in an ongoing Curriculum Subcommittee that would replace them. They concluded their work together in one morning.