Copied and posted with permission from KACIL, March 2009

(Kansas Association of Centers for Independent Living)

Happy Hour presentations are about compassion fatigue, burn out, and proper life balance of staff members in nine life areas. Presentations include signs, symptoms, causes, avoidance, life balance, and a fun and interactive game time for all participants with very affordable and common "toys". Participants enjoy prizes, letting loose, laughing at life and themselves, and learn valuable techniques to overcome stressors at work and home and everywhere in between. Originally designed for a group of 35-40 participants, this very first session ended up being done on the fly for 150 people who registered for it at the KACIL Conference. Despite the unexpected record number of attendees, the training session was a huge success. These are non-alcoholic and professional workshops, which just happen to hold serious amounts of fun at the end.

The evaluations from all participants are in, and this is what they had to say:

KACIL CIL Conference,   November 12-13, 2008

          Best Western – Wichita, KS

PARTICIPANT EVALUATION RESULTS

Happy Hour!

Presenter:  Christine Pechstein

1.  How would you rate the workshop overall?

COMMENTS:

Everybody should have gone to this & every center should have her do a day in-service.

This got everyone involved & feeling less stress & release.

Great!

Excellent!

Well it was fun!

Woke me up!

Great info.

Good game for a large group.

Good ending.

Fantastic!

There were a lot of people going through a lot of personal & work related.  This conference gave relief that was well needed.

Awesome presentation!  Good job!  Best workshop!!!

Didn’t get any goodies for the talk.

2.  How would you rate the workshop presenter(s)?

COMMENTS:

All staff statewide need to hear her.

Interaction was great!

Made it fun.

Couldn’t hear you much, but the session was fun.

Very good!

She had passion!

Best presenter of the passion!

It was great fun.

Christine Pechstein was a great presenter and had a wonderful personality.

Excellent!

She was very exciting!

Passionate, very good speaker.

She has a lot of patience with loud people.

Excellent!

Inspiring!  Way to go!  So true – so Refreshing!

3.  How would you rate the information/materials presented at this workshop?

COMMENTS:

Lots & Lots of fun but very serious message.

Need a copy of presentation so we can take it home to help keep the passion alive.

Would have liked more material.

Very good information, but hard to follow with distractions.

I hope enough ‘staff in charge’ see this and use some of the things you said.

The hands-on portion was great.

Good handout.

Not enough; not very interesting!

No handouts, but info was great.

Nice to know some of the feels(?) I get are normal.

Wonderful.

Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Bravo!  You did an amazingly awesome presentation!  Thank you!  I needed this!!!

Interesting.

4.  How will you use the information gained at this workshop when you return home?

Not get so stressed out at work.

Stress to the ‘cape wearers’ to lose the cape.

Keep the passion in the work area no matter what.

Remember to calm down after a stressful day.

Destress.

Make staffings more fun.

I’m gonna refer to the handout a lot!

I will play with all my toys.

Have fun.

Work at preventing burn-out & compassion fatigue in the workplace.  Advocate for change in IL.  Use our passion.

Awesome information I will use in my day to day life at work.

Take these ideas back to the office to make life & work more fun.

Lighten up.

Try to implement games in the office at all times as well as still work professionally!

To take the edge off when the job starts to get stressful.

Have happy hour in our own office!

I will encourage my center to look at how much burn-out and a lack of compassion affects our consumers and center as a whole.

Host our own Happy Hour.

To find ways not to get burn-out at work.

Very fun & thought provoking.

Make sure I take time to laugh each day, take my vacations and not feel guilty, and continue to put focus on the consumer.

To not get burned out.

To try & have fun.

Stay motivated and inspired!

To renew & refresh.

To be motivated.

Reflect.

Relax more.

Confirmation – Thanks.

Learn to have a good time together.

Loosen things up.

For my own well being as well as my consumers, I need to prevent burn-out.

How to break the monotony with inexpensive toys.

Already use this in our office.

Break up a busy day with some fun.

To just help to remind you that when things get tuff to keep positive and enjoy life.

I will know that it’s OK to walk away for awhile then come back & hit it head on.

Clear out café.

To ease the burn-out times.

Loved it!

Take a mental health day to refresh.

To help take a break!

Try some of this at work.

I had fun…. Thank you!  J

Daily at home, at work and with family & friends.

To encourage participation.

Resources to improve health of people with disabilities.

Sharing with persons served.

Trying to work with consumers on healthy life style change.

Give me idea to help my consumer up lift their passion.

At staff meetings to encourage laughter and relieve stress.

Help others calm down when they get upset.

To re-fuel my passion and keep the work atmosphere less stressful and help keep from burn-out.

Help consumers.

5.  What did you like best about the workshop?

Presenter was knowledgeable and pretty open to information.

Presenters knowledgeable & others.

Resources with community ideas for advocacy (voices for farmers matters).

Dialogue.

Detailed information about different programs available.

The fun opportunity to relax.

The straws were a hoot!

Having fun.  (lots of those)

Stress busters on table.

Everything. (lots of those)

Loose & relaxed.

It kept my attention.

Being able to enjoy & retain info.

Games.

The games & camaraderie.

Relaxed, great way to end conference.

Toys.

Ok to whoop it up.

Not being quiet.

The speaker.

Unwind.

Interaction.

The energy.

Closing speech.

It was fun and sometimes IL work is grueling.

Openness – allowed input from audience.

Interaction with different tables.

Lots of info.

The idea of balance.

Release of stress!  Passionate presenter.

Speaker was very enthusiastic, got the audience involved!

The laughter, camaraderie, toys, toilet paper flying, balloons flying, all the hot men!

Games/party favors.

Positive & constructive.

Everything was great, but the props were the icing on the cake.

She had everyone’s attention.  Good talker.

Great presentation.

The freedom & release of everyone.

Letting some stress loose.

The speech.

Creativity.

The interaction, flexible, laid back.

I like this one the best of the workshops.

Immediate fun.

Games you could play.

It was very motivational.

6.  What did you like least about the workshop?

Nothing to go home with.

Nothing. (lots of those)

Nothing – but it had to end.

Sometimes hard to hear or focus on what was being said.

Too loud – couldn’t hear speaker.

People being disrespectful when the presenter was speaking.

Maybe that the people I know who could use it the most, listened the least.

Not all tables had party favors.

Not enough toys.

Not long enough.

Wish we would have brainstormed ways for the organizations to help keep the employees from burn-out.

You said good things and I wish more people could have heard/listened.

Couldn’t hear the speaker because we were all de-stressing!

Everything was well liked and useable.

7.  Did the workshop/meeting room meet your needs?

Yes = 65%                  No = 0%                     No comment = 35%

Noisy A/C!

The room was really cold.

I needed to laugh.

Many ideas to take back to home office.

8.  Is there anything else you would like to tell us about this workshop?

Do it again!

Lots of fun!

I really enjoyed it.  It was the best!

Need more ideas!

Just have fun!

Please have more sessions like this at caucuses and KACIL conferences, etc. etc.

Thank you.

Had a great time!

Need to make a handout.

This was great!

Make sure all rooms are accessible for participants.

It was a fun time with an excellent speaker.

This one should remain on the workshop options in the future.

When adjusting a large group, have a sheet with ideas for centers to ‘let loose’ or for fun with consumers.

Play more games.

Keep it up!

Do this again at the next one!  Next time give us clown noses!

Be more interactive.

Fun session.

Excellent!

It fueled my passion!

Feel re-fueled & more passionate after this presentation.

Great job Christine!!

More toilet paper.

Very fun.  Great reminder to always to wind down and not get overwhelmed.

Please, Please, Please utilize her to spread this information statewide.  She was terrific!!

It was great!  Have a wonderful day.

Christine was awesome!  Great job!  Thanks for refueling my IL passion!