Message text written by INTERNET:lpa...@inforamp.net >Open Space just got more visible in Canada. Day 3 of the Opening session of the Governor General's Study Conference 2000 was just held in Open Space. 250 of the "next" key leaders from business, unions, government and the non-profit sector prepared to go out on 10 day "tours" throughout Canada in Open Space. It was fully bi-lingual with Diane Gibeault and I playing different roles. I Openened the Space in Banff and Diane will Open the Space in Quebec City in about 10 days. It was a long, difficult political battle for the programme committee just to get Open Space as part of the conference. I don't think it will be difficult again.
Larry < Larry and fellow Canadian Open Spacers having just returned from my expedition to the North Pole, I am now in Montreal for the next month - aiming to put the experience into a digital story and hopefully onto the web...... While I need to focus on the film work and do not have a great amount of time, it would be great to catch up with some OS folks while here....... and I wonder if the Study Conference is coming this way too? my contact details are (514) 868 0656 and cell phone (514) 572 3827 if there are some Open Spacers around who would like to say "Hi" all the best Romy PS while on the trail and doing our nightly radio sched' report, each of us took it in turns to reflect on our learning on the journey. When I did mine, I found myself returning again to the OS principles...... Of course I was out there in really open Open Space in the Arctic - which added to the power of the principles. If you would like to, you can see our daily dispatches from the expedition on the website www.xdogs.com. While my words came out mildly interpreted.......you can see OS coming through: this is what is written as part of one of our web reports: Team member Romy Shovelton had this to say about her experience on the Trail, "I relearned some principles from the Open Space methodology: Expect the unexpected. Prepare to be surprised. Whoever comes along are the right people. Whenever it starts is the right time. When it's over it's over. And whatever happens is the only thing that could have. We have our intentions and goals and then we work with whatever comes our way especially in the natural world." You can probably imagine what I was refering to. In the Arctic, Mother Nature reminds you every day and every hour to 'Expect the unexpected'..... you just never know what the weather, the light, the ground underfoot is about to offer you. And....... as always.... the team..... together and as individuals... turn out to be the right people. Personally when I read the reflections of my teammates I appreciate them more on each reading - they really were the right people - and still are. And of course, in the mornings, preparing for the day takes what it takes... ..... and takes the time it takes............personal preparation (washing with 'wet wipes'), cleaning teeth and swallowing the toothpaste, pulling and pushing until the liners finally go back in your boots, collecting all the right clothing layers for the day and getting them on before you loose the warmth generated in your sleeping bag over night, attending to the most personal of personal needs !, communal food making including copious amounts of hot water creation (from snow) for breakfast and sufficient for each person's daily needs, packing our individual tents and the Siberian Chalet we eat in (but not packing it too soon), squeezing everything into the sleds in roughly the right order, chopping dog-food- filled fat and feeding our 18 pure bred Inuit dogs, and finally harnessing them and getting them onto the ganglines ... plus collecting whichever dog decides to run off, and finding the spare harnesses after one is chewed right through just before leaving etc etc.. So.... whenever it starts.... And then...... when I had to leave the expedition for the final three days (return on the last day to the Pole) because of frostbit in several fingers........ I truely learnt 'when it's over it's over'..... while resisting it with every fibre in my body. and gradually came to embrace 'whatever happens.......' So...... thank you dear Harrison, for the life wisdom you have given us..... ......... it's magic continues.......... even in the most far away places.....
