Larry, Thank you for your message . . . That is a wonderful story you have told, and I look forward to getting that OSI Canada info when you have climbed out of the abyss.
The Site for the Global Open Space Institute is "http://www.geocities.com/athens/oracle/9215"; Anyone and everyone . . . stop in and check it out and email me with any comments or suggestions . . . I have recently added a Bookstore in association with Amazon.com . . . where you can buy books from the world's largest bookstore . . . I am adding titles daily . . . if you want something and it isn't there, email me and I'll get it. Thanks, b Oh Birgitt . . . not to tease or anything . . . but sunny and 70 again today :-) Larry Peterson wrote: > Barry: > > Your work has been marvelous and I do have a bunch of stuff to send from OSI > Canada---soon. I have been Opening some Space lately and still havn't gotten > to the Workshop finances and receipts. I see a bit of clearing over the next > few days and hope to catch up, a bit. > > Yesterday, On Monday, I Opened the Space with a theme "Creating Welcoming > Communities". This small group is focused on enabling communities to welcome > the "disabled" and for communities to discover their ability to foster deep > relationships and real community. After an hour of context setting by the > group, which they and I thought was required with a group of largely > strangers, I Opened the Space for 4 hours. They jumped up, discovered new > connections and community emerged there. They had gathered bankers, > community workers, agendy staff, TV producers, academics, retired CEO's, > existing CEO's, most of whom have some link, through personal experience or > children, with what is called "disability". They found the stories they told > each other energizing. They were surprised at their own community in the > closing. They were taught lessons by one woman with only the use of her head > (quite proficient at directing her wheelchair with her mouthpiece). She > knows real community cannot be controlled. She has learned deeply how to > "let go". > > I then spent 3.5 hours the next day (today) enabling a small group (4) to > converging the reports into a proposal to go to funders. By the end of that > time, we had the basic elements of the next funding proposal outlined using > the Open Space reports as much of the data. After reviewing the reports as > to where the energy lay for future work, we framed the outline of the > proposal and set the priority reports in that context. We explored each of > the top reports and developed them into proposals, with elements of the > strategy and cost projections. Continuing the conversation with more Open > Space was a top priority. One member of the group will complete the > wordsmithing for first presentation on Saturday. The two days went beyond > her expectations--and mine. The energy stayed high. > > Larry
