Dear Listers
I had the honour to facilitate an OS for the association of midwifes of our region in the end of January in Bern. There was a bit of a conflict amongst different groups of them. Their president, midwife in a hospital, held a flaming speech in the beginning together with a freelancing midwife, pointing out clearly why the time has come for them to start cooperating closely in order to secure their future, instead of continuing to cultivate their differences (the cake is getting smaller, less births and less money!). What happened then was amazing. They only had an afternoon, but the 57 women present held 22 intense workshops in 3 time-slots and created 8 ongoing projects. They only realized afterwards that it didnt matter AT ALL what type of midwife was calling for a workshop or speaking in a workshop all of them were equally engaged and full of energy to promote their image in the public, to control the quality of their work, to start lobbying politically up to the national level, etc. The conflict had virtually disappeared and a lot of energy had emerged to tackle the tasks ahead. The president wrote a great résumé on www.bernerhebamme.ch <http://www.bernerhebamme.ch/> (go to Open Space) and just published it now in their online newsletter. Its in German, but there are pictures, too. In the short meeting we held this week with the preparation group to find out how to continue, they identified ways to keep the energy up and decided to hold another OS next January. :-) The preparation group had set up the rooms in 1.5 hours thanks to Michael Pannwitzs great cards (now translated in English!). I was assisted by a female participant from the OS for people living with AIDS from last October who wanted to learn more about Open Space, and by a young woman who was working with a member of the preparation group to find out more about becoming a midwife. They did a wonderful job taking pictures and with a very slow surplus copying machine we were allowed to use from the hospital the documentations had to be sent to the participants afterwards because the machine was too slow. So next time, we will rent a quick one to be able to hand out the documentations in the end! Thank you all for your help through discussions on the list and your websites! Catherine Catherine Pfaehler Senn Open Space Begleitung & Coaching Kellersriedweg 8 CH - 2503 Biel +41-(0)32 - 365 68 41 [email protected] * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
