Event Details

SHRMA Presents: How Better Meetings Advance Social Justice

Join our webinar to hear from Ann McFarlane as she shares how holding better meetings can advance social justice. Topics will include consensus for decision-making, authority and role of members, meeting discussion, courtesy and respect, dealing with difficult members, taking one thing at a time, promoting equity and inclusion through Robert's Rules of Order, and your role as a leader.

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Presenter: Ann McFarlane

Ann and her husband developed the company "Jurassic Parliament" as a way of helping people run productive meetings. Their approach makes Robert's Rules of Order understandable, enjoyable, and easy to learn. They published Mastering Council Meetings: A guidebook for elected officials and local governments in 2013.

Ann Griffin Macfarlane studied Russian and Ancient Greek at the University of
California, Santa Cruz. She was awarded a Marshall Scholarship by the British
government to earn a B.A./M.A. degree from Cambridge University, England.
She began her career as a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. Fluent in Urdu,
Ann served in Lahore, Pakistan and on the Bangladesh desk of the State
Department before becoming the first woman staff assistant in the Near East
South Asia Bureau. In that position she supported Henry Kissinger’s shuttle
diplomacy in the Middle East and supervised the flow of reporting and
memoranda for other hot spots in the region.

After study at the Army Russian Institute in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Ann
married fellow Foreign Service Officer Lew Macfarlane. She served on the Soviet
desk before resigning her commission to devote herself to their family in the
Congo, Tanzania, and Kathmandu.

The Macfarlanes returned to Seattle, Lew’s native city, with their three sons. Ann
became a professional translator and was elected President of the American
Translators Association. She then served as Executive Director of the National
Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators before becoming a partner
with Andrew Estep as an owner of ERGA, Inc., an association management
company, from 2007 to 2014.

Education and Credentials:
• Professional Registered Parliamentarian, National Association of
Parliamentarians
• Certificate in Nonprofit Management, University of Washington
• U.S. Army Russian Institute Certificate, Garmisch-Partenkirchen,
Germany
• B.A./M.A. Cambridge University, England
• Marshall Scholarship, Her Majesty’s Government, United Kingdom
• B.A. with highest honors, University of California Santa Cruz
 

A zoom link will be sent to registered attendees a few days before the event.  

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