The Midwest Facilitation Network (MFN) is a not-for-profit, volunteer, professional service organization founded by Sue Leonard of Amoco Corporation and Paul Collins of Jordan-Webb in September of 1992.

The organizers received such positive feedback from the first conference that they expanded the planning committee and agreed to produce additional conferences.  This extended planning committee (Board of Directors) is continuously defining and developing a non-traditional, non-hierarchical organization.  (Directors)

To date, the MFN has produced 41 full-day Facilitator Conferences and 6 Professional Skills Development Workshops.  The first conference was hosted by Amoco Corporation in January of 1993.  These events continue to provide valuable experiential learning, sharing and networking opportunities for people who facilitate work teams or who manage and employ facilitators.

Over the years, MFN's distribution list has grown from 125 to to over 1200 people including management and staff from Fortune 2000 companies, consulting firms, educational institutions, government agencies, military installations and independent consultants. 

There are no membership requirements or fees and the structure of the organization and of the board is non-traditional and non-hierarchical. 

MFN is self-funding in that the fees collected at events are used to support current and future events.

MFN strives to present programs about facilitation or related to aspects of facilitation that would be of interest and value to a wide variety people who use facilitation in their work.  The "membership" includes people who facilitate in private, public and non-profit sectors in areas that include organization development/transformation, strategic business/marketing planning, information technology planning, scientific research, leadership/management development, new product development, quality management, human resources, military planning, environmental planning, advertising and marketing research - to name a few.

Generally, between 40 and 80 participants attend each event.  However, our May 1999 Conference at Motorola and our January 2000 Conference at De Paul University each had over 100 participants.

Hostis
Much of the MFN’s success must be attributed to the people and organizations that have provided facilities and resources for our conferences and workshops. 

A host organizations' primary contribution is to provide meeting facilities and specific resources for the events:

• a main meeting room
• one or more breakout rooms
• usual and customary a/v services and/or a/v equipment (overheads, flip charts, screens, tables, microphones, projectors, etc.) - MFN has access to much of this equipment
• dining area for continental breakfast, lunch, etc. (usually in one of the conference rooms)
• a conference registration area/table
• a materials display area/table

Some host organizations have been willing and able to contribute more.  For organizations willing and able to contribute other resources, including:

• absorbing the cost of the reproduction and mailing of conference announcements
• reproducing conference hand-out materials
• absorbing the cost of continental breakfast and an afternoon snack for event participants
• absorbing the cost of lunch for event participants

In turn, MFN provides the host with an number of complimentary or reduced price seats at the event.  This number is determined by agreement, in accordance with the level of the partners' contributions to the event.

Hosting organizations may also wish to provide a presenter for the conference.

All of the planning, organizing, publicizing and production of these events is done by MFN members. The hosting organization's participation in the planning & production of the event or in preparing a presentation is welcome, but not mandatory.

Sponsors
One of the major sponsors who has contributed resources to MFN is Nightingale-Conant, of Niles, Illinois.  Nightingale-Conant has been a supporter of the MFN since its inception in 1992.  The company is the largest producer and distributor of instructional and motivational audio and video tapes for Personal and Business Development, Wealth Building, Sales, Mind Technology, Health & Wellness and Spiritual Growth.  The organization also provides Coaching Services and also has a full-service Speakers' Bureau.  Since MFN's first conference in January 1993, Nigitingale has provided MFN with the vast majority of the products that have been distributed to participants as door prizes.  For more information about N-C, visit: http://www.nightingale.com

Other significant sponsors have included MG Rush Systems, University Associates and Mindware.