Thank you Zelle Nelson, Gayatri Erlandson, Chris Corrigan, Doug Germann and Chris Weaver for responding to my question about juicy convening questions with wonderful examples of projects that light up the world! The Kindness Campaign, saving a local 4-H camp, immigration issues in South Bend, Doers' Conference and the ongoing opening of space everywhere. Through your generous sharing, we're all reminded that: ~ Sometimes a speaker can create a common, compelling story from which to move into Open Space ~ In Open Space, we never know who might be in our breakout group who "just happens" to have grounded experience to share on a topic that was some else's passion. ~ As the planning group taps into their own passion and connects with their individual purpose to the event, a good convening question will arise. ~ Getting to action doesn't just happen - it needs an infrastructure of care. ~ Whenever possible, open some more space. That is the most natural way for initiatives to thrive. I so appreciate your reflections and sharing of resources. Here is the thread... Namasté, Christine Christine Whitney Sanchez KAIROS Alliance Inc. 2717 E. Mountain Sky Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85048 480.759.0262 www.kairosalliance.com <http://www.kairosalliance.com/> _____
_____ Hi Dear OS Friends, I'm in conversation with a potential sponsor for a large 1.5 day OS event next October, the purpose of which is to connect people for self-organized community action (non-specific at this point). The crowd is expected to be folks who live and work in a metro area and who may have a tenuous connection through one of several sponsoring organizations - but who have not had such a large scale experience with other members of their community. The planning team is meeting in a week or so where the sponsor will pitch the idea. She's pretty convinced that OST is the way to go but has the familiar concern that people who don't work together or are not part of an intact group can often come up with fabulous ideas that peter out quickly or never go anywhere at all. Among other things, I would like to offer the planning team a collection of especially generative convening questions from similar events that resulted in new action groups forming and concrete contributions to a community. Any links to similar OS events would also be very helpful. I'll compile the responses and feed them back by the end of next week. Thanks in advance for your help. Warmly from sunny, sweaty Phoenix, Christine Christine Whitney Sanchez KAIROS Alliance Inc. 2717 E. Mountain Sky Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85048 480.759.0262 <http://www.kairosalliance.com/> www.kairosalliance.com _____ Hi Christine, Out of an short (3 hour) OS following a?speech given by presidential hopeful Col. Robert Bowman in the summer of 2004, the Kindness Campaign - www.thekindnesscampaign.org <http://www.thekindnesscampaign.org/> was created and has been sustained to the present in Asheville, NC. I don't have the actual invitation - Gayatri Erlandson (Lee) created the actual invitation, but I will include a summary of topics created from this OS if that helps. Gayatri - do you still have the invitation? Sounds like a great project! Zelle Nelson _____ Hi Christine, You asked: Do you think the speech by Col Bowman was part of what catalyzed the Kindness Campaign? What I saw that night was a group coming together because they cared deeply about the upcoming election and they were looking for answers to what was happening in Iraq, they were looking for something that they could do and get behind, they also wanted to connect with others that had similar thoughts and feelings about politics and the direction of the US, and to share what they were doing to change the situation. I believe Col. Bowman was a catalyst. I believe he created a common story from which to move into Open Space. I believe Col. Bowman helped to create a focus point to create a deeper community than the loose community that was coming together around the election and a desire for change. If I remember correctly Barry Weinhold, the originator of the idea of a Kindness Campaign, was sitting in on the topic: Bringing Heart, Soul, Creativity, and Bliss to Politics and he was simply sharing something he had come up with and had started in Colorado at one point. From there the conversation just soared - people were excited about the story and thought how could we do this here (Asheville)? The Kindness Campaign was again talked about in the closing circle. When we opened the space for the Action round, the Kindness Campaign was reborn. It's fascinating to see OS at work... It's amazing every time! I've asked Gayatri for the original invitation. Below are all the topics that were generated after Col. Bowman spoke: Summary of Topics - 6/16/04 after Col. Bowman speech Topic 1: Electing Progressive Representatives Convener: Clyde Michael Morgan Topic 2: The Current Extinction Crisis Convener: Greg Wilcox Topic 3: The People of the World are with Us We are the Majority How do we Spread the Word? Convener: Robin Topic 4: How can we help the under 30 crowd and other citizens feel empowered enough to get involved in the political process? Convener: Cathy S. Topic 5: Local Power Over Economy Convener: Kevin Topic 5: Peace Dividend Convener: Brad Dienst Topic 6: Explore ways to identify and speak about the fundamental truths about which our government is doing. Convener: Hugh Huntington Topic 7: Patriot Act How to get our freedom back Convener: Pamela Topic 8: Unifying Global Resistance Convener: Mark Topic 9: Bringing Heart, Soul, Creativity, and Bliss to Politics Convener: Daniel Topic 10: Leadership Training Convener: Rich Livernois Action Notes: Topic A: Who wants to be in a network of people accepting REAL money, not Federal Reserve Notes Convener: Kevin Topic B: How to start a kindness campaign in Asheville Convener: Barry Weinhold Topic C: Lets Stay in touch with a Yahoo group or something similar. Lets work together Convener: Clyde Michale Morsan Topic D: Institutionalizing Change: Department of Peace; Ombudsman, Reform Convener: Grant Miller Topic E: Finding ways to speak the truth about our government Convener: Hue with grace and love, Zelle _____ Hi Zelle, I am glad to see OST spreading, as I've experienced it as the most productive way to bring people together and to generate innovative, long-term results. Thank you so much for your part in this - particularly your part in supporting my learning how to facilitate OS gatherings. As it turns out, the Asheville Kindness Campaign (AKC) is closing it's office this month - but a LOT was accomplished over the last two years and some of that will continue on. Dr. Barry Weinhold who founded it - first in Colorado in 1993 and then here after that OS gathering, has some serious health issues which require him to re-prioritize his life. Also, the funding wasn't adequate. Had it been more, he could have hired someone else to be the AKC director - something he said he wanted to do last fall - so he's wanted to step down (to just an advisory capacity) for a while. Had he been truly passionate about directing the project, I think it might have turned out differently because a number of people put in a lot of loving effort, in addition to his amazing efforts - in schools, churches, the business sector, city council, police-community relations, offering classes, retreats, working with kids, etc. etc.. I would say that the AKC was quite a success particularly because much more continues to unfold from these efforts, as you can see in the attached article. Here's his (unedited) article to be in the June issue of our magazine, so you can see some of what was accomplished (actually there was much more, but too much to mention in one article) - it's actually quite impressive. I hope this is helpful. Blessings, Gayatri PS I also am sending this to Chris Weaver who did an OST gathering that saved a local 4-H camp from closing its doors for a number of years, and is significant in expanding OST to nationwide efforts at sustainability - via the US Partnership for the Decate of Education for Sustainable Development ( <http://www.uspartnership.org/> www.uspartnership.org). _____ Hi there Christine: To my mind, it needs a bit more passion to come to a convening question. If I was working with the sponsoring group I might convene a smaller meeting of a few key community people and ask something like "What could this group of people offer to our community that isn't being offered?" In other words, with a precious opportunity in front of you, what is the highest good we could do together? That might even be the question for the OST, but a little deeper invitation development and support will go a long way to attracting a crowd big enough and motivated enough to catalyze action. Cheers, Chris Corrigan _____ Christine-- Not sure if this is the kind of thing your people have in mind. A year ago or so in South Bend, Indiana, we had The Doers Conference. The invitation and the proceedings can be found on this site: http://www.footprintsinthewind.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat= <http://www.footprintsinthewind.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Do&Number= > &Board=Do&Number= 473 1&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart= I see it ran to two lines. Let me shorten that for you. This should take you to the same place: http://tinyurl.com/gk3bk --it did for me. Oh! Then there was Immigration Reform: Issues and Opportunities For Our Back Yard. The invitation is here: http://www.footprintsinthewind.com/?page_id=703 Hope those help, Christine. :-Doug. Germann Seeking people making community change. _____ Hey Christine, I'm a week late on the draw in responding to your inquiry, but perhaps it's still relevant. You wrote that the sponsor has the familiar concern that people who don't work together or are not part of an intact group can often come up with fabulous ideas that peter out quickly or never go anywhere at all. In my experience, the sponsor's concern is well-founded. I've participated in (and facilitated) a number of community OST events in which the participants don't have prior connections. In my observation it is often the case that most people go back to their lives & business as usual and don't follow up/follow through on many of the collaborative ideas that emerge in the OST event. I believe that the sponsor and planning team can take some steps to maximize the opportunity for ongoing impact from the event. These include: * Taking the time as a planning team to connect with their individual purpose in opening space for the event, and sharing this with one another so that a deeper group purpose emerges. * Including in the OST event a solid action-planning component, in which the space is re-opened for specific new initiatives, and participants are invited to step into leadership for these new initiatives (I use the title "champions" for these emergent leaders). * Posting the action planning "Initiative Reports" to the web asap, and providing options for initiative groups to collaborate online (this is especially important when the participants do not have regular established contact with one another). * Committing to opening space for a follow-up OST event a few weeks or months down the road (the same theme usually works great). When participants know at the first event that there's going to be another one, this generates a field of positive accountability. Participants feel a stronger motivation to move the work forward so that they can share it with the community at the next OST. A commmitted ongoing sponsoring team can also take other steps, such as sending out simple email "newsletters" to the participant list (this works great when any participant is invited to submit a story about their ongoing work to be included in the newsletter). All of these steps are frequently part of the supporting infrastructure for highly successful OST work within a single organization, because the communication networks are already in place. With a community event, the extra time and effort to create this infrastructure makes a big difference in the outcomes. Working with a planning or sponsoring team in this way is an act of inviting them into deeper more conscious leadership. Chris Weaver * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
