Page 21 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J

4 Chapter 1

pringfield, Missouri, where one of us lives, has a two-day art festival each May,
attended by 15,000 to 20,000 people. Artsfest also offers music and dance per-
Sformers of all kinds, food vendors, and hands-on activities for children. This
combination art show and community festival requires the efforts of hundreds of peo-
ple. Artsfest is organized by a committee of volunteers working with representatives
of the Springfield Regional Arts Council and the Urban Districts Alliance. The large
committee of 15 includes LaShonda, an artist whose contacts extend throughout the
region. She is mainly responsible for artist recruitment and correspondence. Raj is a
technology guru who manages Artsfest’s social media campaigns on Facebook and
Twitter. Pam is a long-time community volunteer who knows everyone and is a lot of
fun to work with. Her extensive lists of contacts provide the core of volunteers who
work at the event, handling artist check-in, managing registration, taking gate receipts,
selling T-shirts and souvenirs, providing security, and so forth. In addition, Pam
encourages a warm and relaxed atmosphere in group meetings—she usually brings
cookies. Jerry and Selena, the event coordinators, are both well-organized individuals
who are not thrown by the level of detail that must be handled. Selena’s planning book
keeps details of prior festivals at her fingertips. She knows exactly how many T-shirts
were ordered in prior years, how many artists were new to the festival, and how much
money was made in soft-drink sales. Jerry’s list of corporate sponsors is extensive; if
one sponsor decides to drop out, he has three possibilities lined up to replace that
sponsor.
The committee meets every other week January through March and weekly in
April, with committee members keeping in touch with one another via technology
between meetings. For example, committee members used Dropbox to view and make
suggestions for wording on artist recruitment letters and other documents. When an
issue arose between meetings that needed a quick answer, members voted by e-mail.
The committee’s normal meeting location was unexpectedly unavailable at one meet-
ing; members were notified by text message of the temporary location. Jerry had to be
out of town during one important meeting just before the event; the committee used
Skype so he could participate. Members frequently call or text one another between
meetings as they think of things that need to be handled.
This example illustrates an important point: one person alone does not have what
it takes to accomplish a complex task. Working together, however, individuals in a
group can achieve far more than individuals working alone. And with the advent of
easy-to-use technologies, group members can make their participation in groups even
more effective.
1
Small groups are the basic building blocks of our society. Lawrence Frey, a lead-
ing scholar of small group communication, believes as we do that the small group is
the most important social formation:

Every segment of our society—from the largest multinational organization to the
political workings of federal, state, city, and local governments to the smallest
community action group to friendship groups to the nuclear and extended family—
relies on groups to make important decisions, socialize members, satisfy needs, and
the like. 2

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