Reminds me of a story... the 9th annual European symposium on organizational transformation took place in a small village in southwest Hungary in August, 1991. There were 80 people from 17 countries and we had five days in open space. A group of twelve Russians arrived the first day (after 36 hours on the train) and we all soon heard (through the spouse of a participant, who called him from England) about the coup attempt in Russia.
We organized ourselves in the open space to help the Russians figure out what to do... stay out, go back, what kind of communication network might we establish, etc. On the third day we heard the news that Yeltsin was standing on top of the tank and the coup had been rejected. That night the Russians opened one of their trunks and produced 80 vodka glasses and nearly as many bottles... we began with toasts from our countries, moved to songs, and on to dances. We five Americans came up with Old MacDonald Had a Farm and other great American songs... The conference continued with wonderful sharing about spiritual practices, organizational research, and everything in between. The "official" language was English, and most people seemed to have good English skills. But during the entire event people organized themselves into simultaneous translation. The circumstances may have been unusual, but I want to share this experience about the willingness of people to self-organize to take care of their needs in open space. I like Birgitt's ideas very much. Best wishes! Jeff Aitken
