Birgitt, Thank you for your comments. They caused me to reflect further... at this point in our endeavor here, nothing is yet given, not even the existance of an organization. The givens are not yet given, and fateful choices will have to be made. All is pure potential, desire, dream.
Excuse me if I wander; I am thinking this out as I go. There is interest in sustainable living in our community. There are people who have related skills and experience and motivation. There is a demand that is not being met by the market. Money and other resources are floating around. We have all the preconditions for the emergence of a complex adaptive system, although perhaps we are a bit short on chaos. If, as I intend, this all congeals into a way for a group of us to earn our living by providing something that the world needs, then some givens will have to emerge around taxes and liability and contractual obligations. The question I am asking myself is: how can we create a legal structure, which represents a minimum of givens, that best supports, and least impedes, an Open Space approach to doing business? If "myth is to an organization what DNA is to an organism", then we are near a moment of conception, when pieces of DNA are coming together. Based on my experience in this community, I suspect that the word "cooperative" will have to be a part of our myth. The major categories of legal structures that I am aware of are; For-profit, Non-profit, and Cooperative. The Cooperative priniples seem to have more overlap with Open Space and InterActive organizations than the other two, and there are several succesful cooperatives now in Ithaca. I look forward to reading about your "Story of the Open Space Organization"! Peace be with you, Todd * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html =========================================================== osl...@egroups.com To subscribe, 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign up -- provide an email address, and choose a login ID and password 3. Click on "Subscribe" and follow the instructions To unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@egroups.com: 1. Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist 2. Sign in and Proceed
