Weekend Intensive Template
A two-day intensive session bringing participants together for sustained work that weekly sessions cannot reach. Useful for foundational themes, retreats, moments of organizational need, or building cohesion across a chapter or community.
The intensive draws on the Highlander tradition of residential workshops, where gathering people away from their daily contexts changes what is possible. Even a one- or two-day intensive in a familiar town can produce work that weekly sessions cannot match.
See the facilitator guide for general facilitation guidance. This document is the structural template for the format.
Before the intensive
- Choose theme and rough purpose. (Foundational study? Organizing retreat? Theme launch?)
- Identify facilitators (more than one, given the length)
- Find a space that can hold the group for the full duration, including meals
- Plan food. People learn better when fed.
- Confirm logistics: parking, accessibility, childcare if needed, lodging if overnight
- Select material: less than you think, taught in more depth
- Distribute pre-reading at least two weeks before
- Send participants a clear schedule and what to bring
Sample schedule: Saturday-only intensive
A single day, eight hours including breaks and a meal.
9:00 — 9:30: Arrival and welcome
- Coffee, tea, light breakfast
- Greet people, especially first-timers
- Brief overview of the day
9:30 — 10:00: Opening
- Extended opening circle. Each person speaks longer than in a regular session.
- Prompts: who you are, what brought you here, what you are hoping for
- Establish working agreements for the day
10:00 — 12:00: First movement
- Engage the main material together
- Discussion-based, with shorter framing input from facilitators
- Break in the middle
12:00 — 1:00: Lunch
- Eat together. Conversation continues but is not directed.
- Lunch is part of the work, not a pause from it.
1:00 — 3:00: Second movement
- Deeper engagement. Connect the material to participants’ lives and contexts.
- Small group work for part of this segment, allowing more participation than full-group discussion enables.
- Break in the middle.
3:00 — 4:30: Third movement
- Application, practice, or strategy work.
- What does what we have studied today mean for what we do?
- Often the most generative segment if the day has gone well.
4:30 — 5:00: Closing
- Extended closing circle. Each person speaks.
- Prompts: what stayed with you, what shifted, what you are taking out
- Acknowledgments and gratitude
- Next steps if there are any
Sample schedule: Weekend intensive
Two days, residential or commuter.
Friday evening
- 6:00 — 7:00: Arrival, dinner together
- 7:00 — 9:00: Opening session. Welcome, working agreements, framing for the weekend. One light reading or film together. Closing circle.
Saturday
- 8:00 — 9:00: Breakfast
- 9:00 — 12:00: Main study session, with mid-morning break
- 12:00 — 1:30: Lunch and informal conversation
- 1:30 — 4:30: Second study session
- 4:30 — 6:00: Free time, walking, rest
- 6:00 — 7:30: Dinner
- 7:30 — 9:00: Evening session. Often quieter. Reflection, art, song, story, or a film with discussion.
Sunday
- 8:00 — 9:00: Breakfast
- 9:00 — 11:30: Application, strategy, or planning session
- 11:30 — 12:30: Extended closing
- 12:30 — 1:30: Lunch and departure
What makes intensives work
Less material, studied deeper. The temptation is to assign more reading because there is more time. Resist. The depth comes from sustained attention, not from coverage.
Meals together. Food is not a break from the work. It is part of the work. Conversations at meals often develop what discussions in session began.
Movement and rest. Long sessions are exhausting. Build in walks, rest, free time. People learn worse when ground down.
Generous opening and closing. With more time, each participant can be more present in opening and closing. The longer arcs let people be more vulnerable, more thoughtful.
Music, art, ritual. Highlander used music. Songs were part of the workshops. Bring this in if it fits your community. A poem, a song, a moment of silence, a meal blessing. These mark the work as serious.
A clear purpose. Intensives that try to cover everything cover nothing. Pick one theme, one question, one purpose, and let everything serve it.
Things to watch for
Burnout. Even committed participants can be overwhelmed by a full day or weekend. Watch for it. Build in flexibility.
Domination. Intensives can amplify the patterns of weekly sessions. A person who dominates in a two-hour session can dominate a whole weekend. Address it early.
Exhaustion of facilitators. Co-facilitate. Trade off. Make sure no one is responsible for everything.
Logistical chaos. The fastest way to derail an intensive is to lose track of basic logistics. Food, space, time, materials. Have a logistics lead who is not also facilitating.
After the intensive
- Debrief among facilitators within a week
- Notes documenting what was studied and what surfaced
- Follow-up communication with participants
- Consideration of what the intensive produced and how to build on it
- Share back to the broader project what worked