Phelim, After I read your long and wonderful email, I wondered how long it would take before we heard from the man with the hat knowing exactly what he would say: "don't work so hard"...!!!
We feel your hospitable welcome already and felt it in Berlin with Matilda's unforgettable invite. The same applies to Juan Luis and the gang in Chile. I learned a long time ago that if I worked too hard in my hosting job, it made others feel they had to do as much when they invited me. So now I try not to fuss cause I know that it's being in the same space together that means the most. Warm regards, Suzanne On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 4:09 PM, Harrison Owen <[email protected]> wrote: > Phelim -- sounds wonderful and stop working so hard! > > Harrison > > Harrison Owen > 7808 River Falls Dr. > Potomac, MD 20854 > USA > Phone 301-365-2093 > www.openspaceworld.com > www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of > [email protected]: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > > -----Original Message----- > From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Phelim > Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 10:44 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Wosonos 2012 first open space > > Dear OS listers, > > As Jon Harvey has already reported on the os list, two weekends ago the > first open space was held for our Wosonos 2012 event. The Improbable office > booked the space for us and I opened the space. It was a great turn out > considering we had limited time to drum up support and interest. Thank you > for helping make that happen. There was a lot of enthusiasm and lots of > sessions called and of course the beginnings of the rumblings from the > field > that come up when one takes the initiative on starting an event like this. > I > got to meet some faces for the first time and also met some people I didn't > know I knew. > > > So here's my feedback on the whole event. On Sat/Sun we had a day and a > half > in open space. > After the event there are a number of things that are "up" for me. One is > Improbable's heart responsibility towards creating an event like this and > ultimately what the nature of their involvement is. Improbable took the > initiative on making this invitation happen at the 2010 Wosonos, thanks to > Matilda with support from Jon and Romy, and it was as such that it was > accepted in Berlin. With this we have been handed an ineffable something, > we > have been entrusted with it and we have responsibilities towards it. It is > like a gentle flame (a metaphor which came up a lot over the weekend) and > We > feel a onus to look after this and make sure it doesn't go out. We must > honour its journey from Berlin and its previous historic invocations it > will > be coming to us via Chile and end up in the UK. So we are Honouring the > past > whilst looking towards creating a new space for it to burn brightly in the > future. So at present we are cupping it in our hands trying to shield it > from our autumn win! > ds here. At the same time we mustn't hold it too tightly so that the > flame > gets smothered and loses it's oxygen and spirit. So can we balance the > fact > that we made the invitation and are the trustees of this accepted > invitation > without controlling it too much? > > All these challenges seem like a perfect opportunity to use what OS is > designed for. As a company (theatre not business although it of course is > both) some of the benefits we have are of being a very small organisation > who has in the past facilitated some very big events so we have some > experience here. We also have a pool of people in our own open space > community (mostly but not wholly from the artistic world) who have a > passion for and interest in open space and it's divergent possibilities and > uses. > > My personal interest is in finding out if we can use open space itself to > unfold an emergent organisation/community/team who will help make all this > happen. Can we learn how an organisation might create itself out of open > space principles? At the crux of the process we hope to use this > opportunity > to hold a space where open space practitioners feel welcomed, where we are > welcoming amongst ourselves and consequently in a good place to turn > outwards to the world to invite people to the UK. We are creating a > community that welcomes a wider worldwide community. > > In this first OS we did the minimum of "organisation" hoping that the > people who turn up will take responsibility for doing/changing things they > want to make happen. > > So the tension we find ourselves holding in is looking after the trust that > has been placed in us to host this event with the desire to not "control" > or > dictate how it happens. This is also important to us as we genuinely cannot > do this alone and need the support of others in order to manifest this > event. > At the moment we are still negotiating the fact that some people are > turning > up and ask: "How are you going to be doing this?" Well ultimately it will > of > course be how are we going to do this? > > > The idea for what the event should be included some of these criteria: > > It should be: An exciting party; Open to all; Have many by-products that > are > beneficial to the UK open space community & worldwide communities; Help > build and coalesce the latent UK community which is "out there"; Ensure > all > the people who want to be a part of it are given the opportunity to do so. > Welcoming people from the wider world to our Open shores. Transparency is > an > essential ingredient for the central host team. > > > I also saw lots of the prime ingredients for the fertile compost open Space > thrives on. This is a list of the criteria for OS to operate at a high > performance level. > > > #1: A real business issue: > Yes we have it. A commitment to make this event happen in 2012 in the UK > for > the UK OS community and the world. > #2: Voluntary self selection: so our invite has gone out and already a > group > of interested people have shown up. There is a commitment to do a number of > open spaces which invite the UK OS community to take part. This has been > flagged as hopefully not just being London centric so our reach has to go > further but I imagine those who can and are interested in working with us > will come to the next open spaces or stay in touch with us. We are aiming > to > do open spaces outside London to pick up other memebers of the community > and > widen the net. This continued activity of opening space in different spaces > will unfold its own self selection process. Anyone who is interested in > other parts of the UK who wants to host an invite in your area of the UK > please let us know! > > #3: High levels of complexity: Already the challenges we face are I feel > beyond the ability of one single "old style" directive organisation of > encompassing or holding. The challenges we face in looking after the UK and > world communities their demands,dreams and hopes for the event are > incredibly complex. > > #4:High levels of diversity: > This is an interesting one. I actually feel there was a good level of > practitioner diversity at the event but feel the call to do further events > really wants to engage with this. Ambassadors will be essential in > fulfilling this criteria on all the potential colours and possibilities. > > #5:Presence of passion and conflict: Yes present and correct I feel: in the > feedback on how we did the event, gossip and certainly present in some of > the sessions and interactions I had. Hurrah! > > #6:Decision time of yesterday: > People keep asking us when its going to happen on the OS list and also > who's > doing it so I guess we are already late by some peoples clocks! > > > The reports from the first OS have already gone online as a blog for the > people who were there to contribute to and comment on. > > Overall > Speaking for Improbable I'd like to say what is important for us is our aim > to ensure all the people who want to be a part of Wosonos 2012 are given an > authentic opportunity to do so. At the moment I feel that as a core > organisation unfolds or emerges we will be part of that or have a strong > relationship to it. We aim to maintain the links with the world community > and the world institutes. As this story tells itself Improbable must make a > decision as to what level of responsibility we take in it. As this happens > we will make an informed decision as to how central we are to that > organisation either as a company or as individuals. It is all unfolding. > > In terms of actions, what needs to be decided and actioned on is: Where and > when the next open space to continue creating this team happens? Who hosts > it? We already have one offer which we need to say yes or no to soon. I'd > like to know if there are more out there? Either from the people who came > to > the event or others who didn't come. So that would also include all kinds > of > offers from suggesting a good space, a good place in the rest of the > country > to go to or include, offers to host with or without our support etc.. > Etc..All variations considered! Please put the word out and get in touch > with us as soon as possible! > > Best wishes to you all out there in the world > > Phelim x > > > > > Sent from my iPad > > * > * > ========================================================== > [email protected] > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of [email protected]: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > > To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: > http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist > > * > * > ========================================================== > [email protected] > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of [email protected]: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > > To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: > http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist > -- Suzanne Daigle NuFocus Strategic Group 7159 Victoria Circle University Park, FL 34201 FL 941-359-8877; CT 203-722-2009 www.nufocusgroup.com [email protected] twitter @suzannedaigle * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
