If participants have no objections, tape recording your workshop also provides a useful way for learning more about the content and style of your presentations. I've found it works best to ask the group to come up with the guidelines they want to follow as they play together. What invariably happens is that they list at least 75 percent of the items I wanted to share. With that kind of group ownership it's then easy to suggest adding the few remaining ones from my list. Here are some of the guidelines I feel are most important.
Participation is optional.
When I lead activities I always hope as many people as possible will want to play, but sometimes people sit out. They may simply be tired or feel uncomfortable with too much touch, or have any other of a dozen good reasons why they aren't participating. Sometimes deep feelings have been triggered that need some reflection time alone. If I can help these people or support them in some way I will, but I won't attempt to push them out of their seats and onto the playground. Participation is always optional, and I respect people's wishes not to play.