Setting up and facilitating CAMEL cohorts

Critical friends should: 

• Motivate the institutions to adopt the CAMEL model and understand its value and benefits. Tell them the Uruguayan Farmer Story.
• Facilitate the preparation and follow-up to regular CAMEL meetings, taking into account practical issues (e.g. geography, time) and preferences.
• Support the capturing of learning and reflection e.g. emergent themes including using technology to capture ideas, knowledge etc.
• Support sustainability of activities.
• Adopt an ambassadorial role (promote CAMEL cohort, projects and make connections).
• Help projects to understand stages of maturity of a CAMEL cohort.
• Consider the use of techniques such as Belbin to help develop the CAMEL cohort.
• Agree protocols e.g. Chatham House Rule.

Support CAMEL cohorts in developing their themes of engagement

• CAMEL themes may be project-related or could be generic themes.
• Key themes include: 
• Project management/leadership.
• Communications, stakeholder engagement and winning hearts and minds sustainability/embedding.
• Change management.
• Evaluation .
• CAMEL cohorts like to hear about each others’ projects and to offer/receive peer critiques.
• CAMEL cohorts can provide space to test ideas and validate practice.
• Critical friends should ensure success is celebrated and impact measured.

Support CAMEL cohorts in designing, planning and running of events

• A CAMEL event typically runs over two days from lunch-time to lunch-time and includes an overnight social. The social evening and the idea of 'breaking bread' together is an important aspect to help achieve cohesion and trust in the CAMEL group.
• A two-day event is not always a preferred option for certain CAMEL cohorts - some prefer a one day event with an evening social at the end (parents of young children seem to prefer this format).
• Hosting should ideally be rotated.
• The CAMEL group itself decides the agenda, activities, themes - facilitated by the critical friend.
• Hosts generally organise the event with support from the critical friend.

Support CAMEL cohorts in production of outputs

• Critical friends should inspire and support CAMEL cohorts in developing collaborative outputs.
• Critical friends should propose and facilitate sessions at relevant events, e.g. JISC Experts Group Meetings, On-Line Conferences, Webinars, engagement with Special Interest Groups (SIG) and national conferences such as ALT-C, JISC Conference and Higher Education Academy conferences.

Support CAMEL cohorts in using social media

• Critical friends should support CAMEL cohorts in adopting virtual communications, information-sharing and knowledge-building.
• Critical friends should encourage CAMEL cohorts to “practise what they preach” in respect of using social media.

Support CAMEL cohorts in making links with others 

• Critical friends should be proactive in match-making between different projects/CAMEL groups/institutions as well as facilitating workshops/spin-offs/SIGs that may arise e.g. based on shared themes.

Support CAMEL cohorts in dealing with problems and issues

• Getting the CAMEL cohort engaged with each other can be slow.
• Discuss the use of the CAMEL process at the first programme meeting with reference to the JISC infoKit and especially some of the video clips that extol the benefits.
• Balance informal and formal activities.
• Use one-to-one meetings to identify emerging common themes that would benefit discussion in CAMEL meetings.
• Use one-to-one meetings to identify emerging good practice and encourage projects to showcase these at CAMEL meetings.
• Use one-to-one meetings to identify areas where projects would benefit from additional support  from experts external to the project and build this activity into CAMEL agendas.
• Set a task that all projects can engage in e.g. a joint dissemination event such as an Elluminate Wednesday session.
• CAMEL cohorts that cannot identify areas of commonality/mutual interest.
• Ensure that the process of CAMEL identification is clearly understood and relates to the overall focus of the programme.
• Use one-to-one meetings to identify emerging common themes that would benefit discussion in CAMEL meetings.
• Make sure CAMEL members understand that areas of commonality can be generic e.g. stakeholder engagement, impact evaluation, change management, project management.
• Provide a themed approach to meetings that fits with the programme lifecycle.
• Individual projects have different expectations of the CAMEL process.
• CAMEL groups use an ‘icebreaker’ at their first meeting and share reactions.
• Involve projects in the planning of the CAMEL event so that you can use the planning process to manage expectations.
• Celebrate the differences by making what happens and what has been achieved by/in cluster part of programme meetings.