What a vivid description of spontaneous organisation at play. And what a wonderful gift to be able to participate from a distance and even to be able to listen to key sessions.
Nicely done, Chris and Laurel and Gabriel and all co-creators. Good to converse, with love Alan Aussie Rogue ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Corrigan" <cor...@interchange.ubc.ca> To: <osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu> Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 4:39 PM Subject: Story of a recent 2.5 day OST > Colleagues: > > I opened the space the other day for about 70 people here in Vancouver. > Just thought I'd let you know how it went. > > These folks were a motley collection of rubes, rogues and spirited > tricksters, dopplegangers, shapshifters and ghosts. Some were old, and > some were very young. Some were sick and some were tired and some were > infected with enthusiasm that made me reel with giddiness when I was in > their prescence. > > They had nothing in common with each other, which was kind of cool. > > As the vast majority of them were OST facilitators, it felt to me a > little like telling jokes to comedians. In some ways it was the hardest > OST I have ever done and in other ways it was easy. > > We gathered in the Sty-Wet-Tan Great Hall at the First Nations longhouse > at the University of British Columbia. The theme of the gathering was > "Improving our practice of OST" or something like that. The 70 folks > who were there came from Canada, America, Taiwan, Australia, Denmark, > Germany, Sweden, Russia, Israel, Belgium, Portugal, and Haiti. There > were tranplanted Americans from Taiwan, a transplanted Turk from > Germany, a transplanted Australian from America, a transplanted Pole > from America and a transplanted Ojibway from Bowen Island....that's me. > It was a decently eclectic crew. > > Walking the circle was not too hard, and I managed to remember pretty > much everything I needed to say. Folks were polite in that they didn't > rush into the middle too fast, but they didn't hang back so long that I > broke into a sweat. > > We had lots and lots of sessions proposed for the 2.5 day meeting, and > it took a while to get everything up on the wall. In retrospect i > probably should have allowed for more time for the posting, but as each > session was 1.5 hours long, shaving a half hour off the first one was no > big deal. We had lunch breaks of one hour scheduled from 12:30 to 1:30 > which was a good move I think. > > Holding the space was harder than I expected, partly due to the fact > that I had a migraine and a nauseous stomach (Caused by? Chicken and > egg? You be the judge...). For the first time in my life, I took a nap > during an OS meeting, over the lunch break, which worked out fine except > that I missed out on a feast of alder-smoked salmon and bannock. Rats. > > I felt better after that and after the eight hours of shut eye I had > overnight. My colleague Laurel Doersam (whose name means "breath of > fresh air, bringer of light and saver of bacon" in my own private > language) did the morning and evening news sessions both days. On the > second day, morning news went on and on and on with lots of interesting > material, but the cool thing was that it ended itself. People just > collectively realized that they had two feet and they put them to use. > > Some of the participants remarked on how much more silence there was and > attributed this to the fact that we had a much more diverse > international crowd, a large part of which may be used to silence. > Other remarked that the silences were too short, so I guess the > observation was right! > > The closing circle was a very profound experience for me, listening to > people talk about their experience of this particular OST meeting. Many > people talked about the depth of discussions, the solid friendships made > over 2.5 days, the unwillingness to leave, and the generosity of spirit > that pervaded the room. i was in a kind of grief during the whole > closing circle, becasue as a facilitator, I had really not experienced > the event in the same way. I was privately mourning my inability to > have connected in that way, and in some small way secretly regretting > that I had volunteered to be the one person in the room who was not > available for that kind of experience. That was hard. > > I felt, as my dear partner/teacher Caitlin said when she was in labour, > like a ghost, living between two worlds. I felt like an actor finding > his way through the darkness of the wings, or like a goalie whose team > is scoring goals at the other end of the rink all night. Sure I was a > part of it, but in a different way. > > I ended by giving away a few things: the talking stick that we had > acquired for the event, carved by a Nisga'a carver, a carved wolf plaque > to our silent partner Gabriel Shirley for his help in putting our > conference online, and my small bag of tobacco, with which I had been > making offerings for success, to my colleague Laurel Doersam (whose name > means "spirit buttress, one who cradles and nutures the soul, strength > of ages" if you say it differently). This confirmed my hunch that to > have a successful OST meeting, you have to give away > something...something really meanigful. There is an element of > sacrifice that is not in the User's Guide, or on Michael Herman's > website or in any of the training that I have ever taken. And yet it is > known by all OST facilitators after they do their first one. > > Anyway, it worked out pretty well in the end, and next year it seems > like this gathering will be repeated in Australia, which is great news. > If you want to read to proceedings, they are onlilne at > http://catalyst.bigmindmedia.com/osonoslogin.html or at > http://www.openspaceworld.org in the near future. > > Cheers, > > Chris > > > -- > CHRIS CORRIGAN > Consultation - Facilitation > Open Space Technology > > http://www.chriscorrigan.com > cor...@interchange.ubc.ca > > RR 1 E-3 > 1172 Miller Road > Bowen Island, BC > Canada, V0N 1G0 > > phone (604) 947-9236 > fax (604) 947-9238 > > * > * > ========================================================== > 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...@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
