Hello, Winston -- Let me try to answer some of your questions and perhaps Jeff or Brian or others can add their two cents (hi, Artur!).
> First, could you (Brian? Jeff?) expand a bit on the "agenda evening - start sessions next morning" design? I have heard it said, and it is my intuition, that breaking into the particular kind of energy (anxiety/curiosity/anticipation) which exists at the time the marketplace is filled (such as by having a "hiatus" like an intervening night) is generally not a good idea as it is hard to get that moment back... Yet obviously it worked well for you and has for others. Was it the "morning warmup" that did it? How did you regenerate the energy? Or was it necessary? Did you allow more postings at that time?< On Thursday evening I opened the space at about 8:00 pm (20:00) and we did the marketplace / agenda for about one hour and fifteen minutes. By the way, I agree with what Harrison and others have said -- it's a funny thing. No matter how big the group is, I have experienced this portion taking no longer than 1:15. Fascinating. Anyway: we covered the wall with 75 or so sessions. Then we closed for the evening with prayer and song designed to give us energy for the next day's work ahead. What I'm saying is that we chose text and song carefully to provide that kind of energy. And our Evening News (as it was not really a closing) was really beautiful. As the participants turned away from the wall after having signed their names on the sheets of paper to indicate what they would attend the next day, they were greeted with the sight of several hundred tiny candles in the center of the circle in the shape of a cross, and as the prayer and guitar music and singing began four young people lit the candles (Lisa looks up to see where the ceiling sprinklers are) and the lights in the room were lowered. Really beautiful. No wax on the floor, either ;o) They came back at 8:30 am (08:30) *so* eager to get to work, a) because they had put up topics of passion, b) because probably they were so curious as to how the heck we'd ever get all that done and c) because there was high energy and a bit of conflict in the room, which always makes things interesting. (You know, the conflicted feelings of those worrying the Church will change and those worrying the Church will never change...) No loss of energy. Morning News consisted of a review of guidelines and principles, opportunity to post new sessions, a short and energetic prayer / song series to bless our work and see us on our way and then off we flew. >Second, what DID you do about the escalating demand for prayer? Especially when (as would have been the case most of the time) you were not "in circle" as a whole group? Anything? Did mass get posted as a topic? I'm fascinated..< Let me tell you, I was fascinated, too. At first I said "so let them post it if they want to post it and whoever comes comes", when several of them asked for a Mass. And so some of us sat in the center and talked about that and my client explained to me about Mass being very different from other kinds of prayer. And even as she felt it was not necessary to have Mass, herself, in a working weekend (not even on a Sunday) she felt that as host it would help the process if they found the person who could do Mass, ask them if they wanted to, and *then* decided if we should help that happen. It turns out that somebody was really happy to do that. Meanwhile we had decided to use Mass as an optional evening activity (the OS was only until dinnertime) but in another room, not our main OS room. It all worked out very well that way. Not everyone went but about 80 out of the 115 did, and we were able to run around the larger room printing and posting and keeping those computers going to get that part of the job done during the same time. After Mass let out, a great stream of people came *back* into the main room with lots of wonderful energy! Some gathered in a singing circle, others applied themselves to grouping and regrouping and moving action items around on the action item wall (helping move closer to convergence) and others continued networking and socializing. Some sat back at the computers to finish entering their notes. We were thrilled, as they had the whole run of this beautiful retreat center (swimming pool, lovely evening) to run around, and they felt the energy in (and added energy to) the room they'd been in all day. It was really touching. >And third, what did you do about the languages? Were there only a few who did not speak English? Did you translate the opening? Or just let it all happen? And if the latter, if there was a number of folks who did not speak English how did you facilitate their involvement?> Regarding languages, I welcomed everyone in Tagalog (Filipino), Spanish, Vietnamese and English, the primary languages spoken by the participants. I reminded everyone as they posted sessions that they could hold a session in any language, provided they translate the notes into English when they entered them onto the computers. Everyone spoke English, though I tried to speak very clearly and succinctly so those with English as a second language could understand me (and they turned to friends for clarification when needed. But they seemed to get everything, because those same people with different language abilities went right in and announced and posted sessions in front of the whole group, even if their English was less fluent. There was lively discussion and also wonderful camaraderie at the computers as trios and duos helped each other find the right words for the English version (and nobody felt that was a burden). Stay tuned for some more questions and comments as I respond to my dear colleagues wonderful insights and messages... Lisa -- L i s a H e f t Consultant, facilitator, educator Experiential learning and Open Space Technology 2325 Oregon Berkeley, California 94705-1106 USA (+01) 510 548-8449 www.openspaceworld.com * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
