I'm with Ric on this one. I recently held an OS with 250 people in attendance, a number of which were "powerful" leaders. There were a bunch of youth present for the opening and nothing stopped them from getting into the fray, as one would expect from anybody with passion for the topic.
The cool thing, though was what happened during the day. We held the OS in a community centre (an Aboriginal Friendship Centre) which is in the heart of the downtown Aboriginal community in Vancouver. It so happened that at the same time as the OS was going on the youth drop in centre was receiving its new pool table, so there were about 40 youth hanging around and setting it up and providing all kinds of advice. It didn't take long for them to be attracted to the din coming from the gym where our OS was in progress, and groups of four and five youth kept drfiting in, pul;ling up chairs and chiming in with their two cents worth. Some of them ended up volunteering for recorder duties, and one even ended up leading a discussion group. One young woman who came in late, immediately picked up on what was going on and found me and asked me for a piece of paper so should could add another issue to the agenda. She did so, and ended up convening a small group in the last time slot. None of these folks were present for the opening and none stayed for the ending. They just drifted in, graced us with their prescence and moved on. I still think of them fondly as angels, providing little nudges here and there to ensure that things happened the way they were supposed to happen. As others have said, these folks LIVE in Open Space, so I had nothing to tell them. It was the adults that needed unschooling. So in short...if you do nothing differently then the youth seem to me to already have an advantage. Have fun. Chris Ric Giardina wrote: > Andrew Donovan wrote: > > > The focus is on literacy and young people. Several young people will be > > attending (say 2-3). > > > > A member of the leadership team hosting the open space is very concerned > > that the process/the facilitator ensure that the voice of the young people > > is heard. > > Dear Andrew, > > Faced with a similar situation, I remember that Open Space runs on passion > bounded by responsibility. Unless the OS organizers purposely chose > "wallflower" kids (are there any left on the planet?), you are not likely to > find anyone with more passion than the young people. I'd say, trust the > process, trust the young folks, trust the adults. > > Ric Giardina > -- > * * * > What If Work Actually Got Easier? > Spirit Employed > 16190 Harwood Road > Los Gatos, CA 95032 > 408.264.9723 or 800.538.2001 > http://www.spiritemployed.com -- CHRIS CORRIGAN 108-1035 Pacific Street Vancouver BC V6E 4G7 Phone: 604.683.3080 Fax: 604.683.3036
