For the first 3 weeks of the 8-week Forum, participants will work on the question of meaning in life using their past and present experience, without reading the work of philosophers, religious prophets, and psychologists. In the second 3 weeks, participants will begin to consult work of others. For the 7th week, participants will concentrate on refining the ideas they want to present in their papers, which they will present the following week.
The 6-week Forum follows the same format, except participants will begin to refine the ideas they want to present in their paper in the 5th week.
When it comes time to look at literature, An annotated bibliography of work which might be useful will be provided. Participants will also be encouraged to suggest helpful literature or art to each other.
For the first 45 minutes or hour of the session, participants will talk with 1 or 2 other participants. Generally participants will talk with a different person each session, but this arrangement is flexible.
For the next 45 minutes, each participant will talk to the whole group about what she or he has been thinking about and working on during the meeting and in the previous week.
The meeting will conclude with a whole group discussion focused on synthesizing what has been presented and discussed during the meeting and defining new directions and questions to explore before the next meeting.
In the final session, participants will have 10-15 minutes to present their paper to the group and to answer questions. This will be followed by free conversation/ congratulations, and we will conclude with a group discussion.
In addition to this basic role, the facilitator could also facilitate the discussion and the questioning process, and other group processes, like decision-making or voting. The facilitator could also help participants on any part of the processes involved in the Forum, from developing a question to revising the paper.