Summer Retreat in Seattle

A 5-day in-person retreat held each August on the Puget Sound. Twenty-four practitioners, five senior instructors, full immersion. The most intensive training program we offer, most alumni return within five years, and many come back as guest faculty. Not a course in the traditional sense; a working retreat for senior practitioners.

• Senior practitioner standing, typically five or more years in a coordinator or investigator role, or current leadership of a compliance function.
• An invitation or sponsor. The retreat is not open registration; participants are referred by an alum, a former instructor, or a peer institution. Self-nominations are welcome but require a 30-minute conversation first.
• Ability to take the full week off from active casework. Email and phone are off during sessions, a design feature, not an inconvenience.
• Travel to Seattle and lodging at the partner property. Preferred rates are negotiated, but lodging is booked directly with the property at attendee’s expense. Travel is also at attendee’s expense.

• Attendance at all five days. The retreat is not modular, sessions build on each other, and one absence changes the whole cohort.
• Active participation in the operating-model audit: each participant’s function is reviewed by two peers, with structured feedback on Day 4.
• Submission of a follow-up reflection (3–5 pages) within 60 days. We read these closely; they shape the next year’s curriculum.
• 40 hours of qualifying continuing-education content. A SHRM Recertification Provider application is in progress; we provide attendance documentation and an hour-by-hour agenda for self-submission to SHRM and state bar CLE.

Our partner property is fully accessible, step-free site, accessible rooms (limited; reserve early), hearing loops in main session rooms, and accessible transportation between buildings. Dietary accommodations are handled at registration, including kosher, halal, vegetarian, vegan, and most allergen profiles. ASL interpretation is available with 30 days’ notice. The waterfront walk on Day 4 has an accessible alternative route. If you need anything we haven’t anticipated, email training@fractionalcoordinator.com, we work with the property to make it work.

Phones off during sessions and meals. The retreat depends on it; we can’t enforce it, but cohort norms make it work. Lodging is private rooms with shared common areas, bring what you’d bring to a peer offsite. Evenings include unstructured time for reading, walking, or peer conversation; programming ends at 5:30 PM most days. Confidentiality norms apply across the entire week, including casual conversation.

• Pre-reading: a curated packet of three peer-reviewed papers, two recent OCR resolutions, and one regulatory comment from the past year. Sent four weeks before the retreat.
• The Seattle Retreat field guide (72 pages, locally printed). Sent two weeks ahead. Includes the operating-model audit framework, peer-review prompts, and the reflection template.
• Access to the FC Senior Practitioner Library: 89 templates, the Operating Model Reference, the Function Maturity Index, and our annual State of the Field briefing.
• On arrival: a journal, a reading list, a name placard, and the printed cohort directory.