Dear friends and colleagues in Open Space, As many of you know, my passion to do with my work in the world includes a passion for encouraging ongoing organizational life that treats humans as though they are precious, works with Spirit, and achieves remarkable results. And this for me means enabling people to make genuine contact which requires an awakening of the organization as an Open Space Organization, and an awakening of individuals to higher consciousness of their freedom to make choices, follow their passion, and take responsibility for their lives and what they do.
Following this passion, I have had many mentors and wonderful teachers show up in my life, allowing me to learn processes such as Open Space Technology which fit so completely well with what I believe and what I hope is possible in the world as an ongoing way of working. As I have written about before, this journey continued for me in the exploration of the Open Space Organization and together with my husband Ward, the development of the Genuine Contact program. The Genuine Contact program (information is available at www.openspacetechnology.com) is the vehicle we have worked out to working with the Open Space Organization. This communication to the list is to tell you of my heartfelt gratitude to Spirit and all of my helpers and guides for the following three items of good news: 1.. the first "train the trainer" in the Genuine Contact program that is taking place in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA has over 20 participants. These are people from among hundreds around the world who have attended the component parts of the Genuine Contact program and are now readying themselves to teach it. Ward and I had initially thought that for this first year if we had 6 graduates, it would be a big success. But to have over 20 taking this program into the world . WOW. The people who are joining us are real pioneers, that share our vision of the Open Space Organization as an important work into the future. And this also means that there will be over 20 people doing training in the world in our session of Working With Open Space Technology!!!! assisting even more and more people to work with Open Space Technology and to do it in a way that has common key ingredients both for the Open Space Technology meeting itself and for information into the ongoing life of the organization about itself. And we are pleased because amongst the 22 participants 5 countries will be represented. And the Genuine Contact workbooks will be translated into Swedish, Russian, and Dutch so that the programs are available in the language of the people, led by people of the same language (which we think is important). Several other people have indicated that they are readying themselves for the program in 2002 and if they attend, the materials will be translated into yet more languages. It is our vision to have trainers in all countries from those countries working in their own language and culture with the workbooks available in the language of those countries. 2.. Phase one of our home and healing center and learning center is almost complete here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Great care has been taken to create a center with all the ingredients that we think are important for this to be a place of healing, retreat, and learning for all who come to us. Most of the Genuine Contact program trainings in the fall will take place here. The main room for the training has been designed for 25 persons, with another larger room to be built when we get to phase two. We wish to offer people the opportunity to make Genuine Contact with themselves while they are doing learning with us and we hope that many in the Open Space Community will find their way here. 3.. Three organizations that are conscious Open Space Organizations and worked with me in their initial stages of their awakening and shift to this way of working, five years ago agreed to be interviewed for a video. We wanted the story of the Open Space Organization to be told in the words of organizations who are working this way, each differently. We chose to go with three stories, giving each group interviewed the chance to say what they wanted. The two women who did the taping were to simply ask the organizations to tell the story in their own way of their own experience. Nothing more. This video should be available in September, if not sooner. We had initially hoped to have it available at OSONOS but dont know if well make it in time. All three are smaller organizations which was my choice of the organizations to work with so that it was easy to see the whole organization and to see the results of our work together more easily. The stories will stimulate the vision of what is possible, we believe. 4.. The four 2002 workbooks for the Genuine Contact program a) Session One: Working with Open Space Technolgy; b) Session Two: Whole Person Process Facilitation, c) Session Three: Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution and d) the Advanced Program in Open Space Technology focusing on the Open Space Organization (as one participant said, smiling, "this session should be called "Going deeply into Open Space Technology rather than using the word "Advanced" because thankfully nothing has been added to mess this simple effective technology up" are now complete (thank you Rachel). The two focusing on OST are about 180 pages each. Our work is progressing to have each of these on a CD ROM by the end of September complete with audio and video clips. Unfortunately the language is only in English. But it is a great beginning. We are using a production house for the finished product but in keeping true to the concept of "genuine contact" all taping was done live, genuinely, and with the assistance of a number of colleagues in Open Space to whom I extend thanks including Thomas Hermann in Sweden, Gabi Ender in Germany, Judy Robertson and Debbie Sexsmith in Canada, and Ward Williams accompanying me in my travels. The production house was not pleased with this way of taping, preferring it to be done in a studio for best professional sound and video. We could not see doing it that way and staying true to genuine contact and so the resulting product is GENUINE and from the heart. I wanted to share my gratitude for all of this with each of you. I thank the many of you who have assisted my journey with this along the way, who have supported the development of the Genuine Contact program, journeyed together with us in our first two years of offering this program around the world, and who have assisted in my own learning, evolution, and life. Blessings and love, Birgitt
