5toFold is a Genuine Contact Tool in the care and stewardship of the Genuine Contact Co-Owners Group.

>> Read more about the origins of 5toFold as shared by Birgitt Williams

As you learn more about 5toFold, this page gives a historical look at how 5toFold evolved as a GC Tool and how it is supported by the GC 5toFold Facilitation Team.

Starting in the mid-1990s, Chris Weaver was learning about consensus decision-making and developing a tool for decision-making that works for all kinds of groups of people – from intimate partners and families to large and complex organizations. Within a decade, he brought that development work into Genuine Contact. Since 2006, the developmental home of 5toFold has been within Genuine Contact and our international GCO.

To understand the timeline of Chris gifting 5toFold to Genuine Contact and its history as a tool within the Genuine Contact way of working, you’ll find a general overview of the timeline here. 

For members of the Genuine Contact Organization, it is well worth reading through all the documentation to see the careful consideration as well as passion, dedication, and commitment that members of the 5toFold Facilitation Team have put into this decision-making method. Contact Rachel Bolton, the Director of the GCO for access details.

First, a Definition. Who is the 5toFold Facilitation Team?

The 5toFold Facilitation Team (sometimes the 5toFold Team or the Facilitation Team) first began in July 2014 and is an ongoing functional team within the Genuine Contact Organization. The team was initially formed to offer its services in facilitating 5toFold meetings and its purpose grew over time, as documented below.

In the years since its creation, many people have contributed to the development of the team, supporting the Genuine Contact Organization and others in learning about and applying 5toFold, and we are grateful for their work and dedication. Any member of the Genuine Contact Organization can join this team to participate in its work and learn more about working with this method.

Story of the Evolution

  • 1998: Chris Weaver began developing Five to Fold.
    • Note from Birgitt Williams’s recollections: In 1997, she went to Pathfinder School to spend time with Chris. He explained how he was using OST and also this voting process that he had been introduced to and he was excited about. He learned the basics at Pathfinder Elementary School and then refined it for adult use, probably beginning about 1998.
  • 2004: Chris Weaver acknowledged that he first considered 5toFold as a GC tool 
    • Birgitt’s recollections: “as one of Chris’s mentors from about 1996, Chris and I had a number of conversations over the years about Five to Fold. By 2004 he was asking if we would consider it to be another module of the Genuine Contact program. From the discussions, he decided it was more appropriate as a  GC tool with a similar status to other GC tools, ie, the Deep Essence Tool. He was going to refine it further, with a hoped-for experiment with it within the GC community at a future international GC Trainers Mentoring Circle.”
  • September 2006: First use of 5toFold by the GC Trainers to create the Co-Ownership Model. (read more about this story)
  • September-December 2007: A draft proposal was created during the Trainers Mentoring Circle in September 2007 for how online voting would be conducted by the GC Co-Owners using Five to Fold. This was voted on using the proposed process and became an operating given to work with starting in 2008.
  • September 2008: During the International Mentoring Circle in Virginia Beach, Chris Weaver gifted Five to Fold as a GC Tool for anyone working with Genuine Contact to learn and use. This was done during a ceremony he offered during one of the nightly fires that took place on the beach. Those who were present and were Co-Owners received this gift on behalf of all Co-Owners, Co-Creators, and those working with Genuine Contact.
  • Between September 2007 and late 2013/early 2014 Five to Fold was used within the GC Co-Owners Group for decision-making. Two decisions highlighted a need to update our use of Five to Fold based on what we were learning about the use of 5toFold. Chris Weaver and Thomas Herrmann undertook the leadership to develop this updated way of working.
  • 2014: Chris Weaver completed his Train the Trainer and became a Co-Owner. He remained a co-owner until his death in 2017. His future work on the 5toFold as a GC Tool was done as a Co-Owner.
  • July 22, 2014: As Co-Owners, Thomas Herrmann and Chris Weaver sponsored a proposal to update the GC Co-Owners’ online decision-making process. This proposal included the creation of a GC Five to Fold Facilitation Team who would be responsible for facilitating decision-making processes for the GC Community and GC Co-Owners.
  • July 29, 2014: Thomas Herrmann invited via the GC List for people to join this newly forming Five to Fold Facilitation Team.
  • August-September 2014: The GC organization supported the set-up of this working team. A Google Group was created by the Program Director (Anna Caroline Tűrk). Provision was made for this GC working team to use Blackboard for its online meetings. A folder was created in Google Drive for resource storage and sharing.
  • September 10, 2014: First meeting of the Five to Fold Facilitation Team. During this meeting, a draft of the purpose of the team was created. It was “To serve & empower our community through high quality facilitated decision-making.”
  • November 8, 2014: Formal adoption of the name 5toFold as the branded name for this tool to provide a consistent name to support clarity of describing this method.
  • December 11, 2014: The decision was made that formalized the 5toFold Facilitation Team’s stewardship of 5toFold. It was agreed during the decision-making that some wordsmithing would happen to the approved statement. This statement was in addition to the purpose statement that had been created earlier. The original proposed additional statement was: “To act collaboratively as stewards of the 5toFold methodology by maintaining a process description and resources, revising the methodology as needed, and offering workshops and trainings that share 5toFold in the GC community and beyond.”
    The statement was adjusted and approved as “To act collaboratively as stewards of the 5toFold methodology by maintaining a process description and resources, revising the methodology as needed. We invite people to connect with us about using 5toFold and offering workshops and trainings that share 5toFold in the GC community and beyond.”
  • December 14, 2014: The 5toFold Facilitation Team added on to their purpose, based on the Dec 11 decision, as:
    • Service:  Providing Five to Fold facilitation for the GC Co-Owners and other communities we belong to, both within and beyond the GC community;
    • Mentoring:  To develop ourselves as facilitators of Five to Fold; and
    • Stewardship:  To be the keepers of the evolution of the Five to Fold methodology and its sharing in the world.
  • 2015: the 5toFold Facilitation Team continued to work together in mentoring and facilitating 5toFold decision-making. Materials were produced, including an updated guideline for facilitating decisions. The group lost momentum between the end of 2015 and late 2017.
  • September 2017: Chris Weaver passes away.
  • November 2017: A meeting was held to re-enliven the 5toFold Facilitation Team. One of the outcomes of this meeting was for Christiane and Marai to see about 5toFold being added to the genuinecontact.net website. This action was not moved forward until October 2022. You can read about 5toFold on our website here.
  • March 2020: Thomas and Marai offer a 5toFold workshop via the GC Specialty Series. It is one of the best-attended GC Specialty Series workshops to date.
  • October 2022: As part of the work being done to further develop the mentoring program within the GCO and further spurred on by the new activity happening around 5toFold, Rachel Bolton begins the work to revitalize the GC 5toFold Facilitaiton Team.

5toFold as a GC Tool

Members of the GC 5toFold Facilitation Team continue to fulfill the purpose of this team, acting collaboratively as stewards of the 5toFold methodology by maintaining a process description and resources, and revising the methodology as needed. The 5toFold Team fulfills this purpose through:

  • Service:  Providing Five to Fold facilitation for the GC Co-Owners and other communities we belong to, both within and beyond the GC community;
  • Mentoring:  To develop ourselves as facilitators of Five to Fold; and
  • Stewardship:  To be the keepers of the evolution of the Five to Fold methodology and its sharing in the world.

In this way, we continue to care for and steward 5toFold as a GC Tool, mentoring and guiding its present-day use and for its use by generations to come.

5toFold Team members invite people to connect with them about using 5toFold and offering workshops and trainings that share 5toFold in the GC community and beyond.