Hi Erich, Some of us have wrestled with the question of what is open space and what is it not. In my opinion, when space is opened, and really open, it doesn't matter if it is a teeny tiny little space because an organization has so many "givens" like the police, or a large space like at OT. It is still open space if it is a short time or a long time. However, it must be truly open. For me, that means that the opening is done including the circle, reminder of the breath and the wisdom in the circle, the theme, the givens, the four principles and one law (by the way--what are humbles?). The agenda gets built and the bulletin board created. The marketplace gets opened for choice. And it all is closed with a closing circle. Whenever I have left out any of these ingredients, for example because I am with a group that has participated in many open spaces, they always conclude that I should do all of the parts each time or it just doesn't feel safe and open. An opening including choice of topics can be done in less than 30 minutes. A closing could be about the same. One session time is all you have, so it will have to do. The shortest ones I have done have had two session times and it worked just fine. Handwritten reports will have to do, although this has its own problems. I always use guide sheets for people to fill out--I think Harrison's "user's guide" has an example of a report form. So, the leaders pick one of these up and fill it out and get it back to you. You need to figure out how everyone can have a copy of the report after the fact--get names and do a mailing maybe. I recommend that a book of proceedings come of it. This is important work you are doing and there may just be some very important treasures that surface.
I have done open space work outside to work with street youth. People floating in and out, some curious and joining in. No problem---it worked just fine. Good luck to you. And I hope that people will be so pleased by the process that when the meetings move inside, there will be a request for more open space :-) Warmest regards, Birgitt Birgitt Bolton of Dalar Associates www.openspacetechnology.com 55 Ravina Cres., Ancaster, Ontario, Canada L9G 2E8 phone: 905-648-5775 fax: 905-648-2262 -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Mag. Erich Kolenaty Sent: Monday, September 20, 1999 5:00 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Is this still open-space- or what? Hi list, my name is Erich Kolenaty, I live and work in Austria (there are no cangoroohs in Austria) as a consultant and LGI' facilitator. I was joining the list so far as a reading member, but now I would like to ask for your experiences: The background situation: Imagine a european city (Vienna in Austria). A peaceful country, but the war is nearby (Bosnia, Kosovo), less than 1000km apart. It turns out the difficult question how to keep in a peaceful way and how to support while war with and without weapons at the same time. In Vienna a NPO was running a weekly programme "bridges to peace" from June up to now in a park right at the city center with different kinds of discussions, presentations, workshops, music performances etc. to find different points of views, to keeps things in awareness, to find maybe solutions. Now in September the weather it is getting ugly over here, anyway too cold to maintain an open-air thing. So they will change inside and have their closing event next week. And this will include an 2-hours OS to approach the question An collegue of mine will accompany the OS and invited me to join. And I know very well, this is not an OS like we all use to do it. So there are two important questions I would like you to share with me: 1. OS on open air right in between the public: though there might me a lot of every weeks costumers, we will not have a common setting with regular participants etc. Let's say the humbles and the bees are the standard population.What are the special effect of an OS on open air in an evening session like this? 2. It is a micro-OS with only one working-round. Does this make sense? How do you operate the beginning in that case? And whats about the reports ? Does anyone of you have experiences with this kinds of setting?Or better leave that all? Is this still open-space- or what? my best greetings from Vienna Erich Kolenaty **************************** Mag. Erich Kolenaty TRAIN Management Trainings- und Organisationsberatungs GesmbH A-1070 Wien, Zollerg.7/6 Tel: +43-1/526 07 40 Fax: +43-1/526 07 409 www.train.at e-mail: [email protected]
