Dear Kari,
there were about 8 events in my experience where I was what we call
"sponsor". I think in about the first 3 or 4 (its quite a while back) I
was also in the role of "facilitator". It did not work for me,
especially since it really shrunk my options for also being a
participant (in my way of seeing things today, the "sponsor" is also a
participant, at the latest when the OST event starts and the
"facilitator" is the "facilitator" is the "facilitator").
So, after those 3 or 4 events I stayed in the role of "sponsor" in the
following 5 or so events - which also gave me plenty of space to be a
participant - and saw to it that a "facilitator" who also looked after
the Team was found/hired.
One time, I was hired as facilitator by an agency that was under
contract to deliver a FutureSearch in a endagered neighborhood in an
inner city district in Berlin. Pretty quickly it became clear that there
actually was no "sponsor" but all kinds of funding from the district,
the city of Berlin, the EU in Brussels THINKING this intervention would
be good for the neighborhood. Against much opposition, we convinced the
funders that a system needed to be established of "relevant" actors that
would in the traditional sense be a collective sponsor (neighborhood
groups, community organizers in the area, shop owners, youth activities,
the local government officials, day-care providers, city planners,
police, social services---and people from the area)...it took us what
feels to me like a year's work which we felt at the time to be a good
investment winding up with a powerful, selforganizing, highly
representative sponsor-group. From there on in it was an easy ride and
we had a great deal of productive fun as "facilitators" of the
FutureSearch...which was followed by an OST event about 6 months later
to bring together all the acitvities and projects that had developed and
to have more of that...
(There is an english version of a paper I wrote for the german OD
journal published in FutureSearching ("All Systems "Go", But No
Sponsor", Number 20, Winter 2000/2001, here is the link to the article
in the FutureSearchin archive
http://www.futuresearch.net/public/futuresearching/view.cfm?fsid=113
I had to think of all this when I read your post. If I understand things
properly, the time to think of the event in any detail might not be now
AND it might be useful if you postponed that discussion into a more or
less near or distant future when there is a potent "sponsor"...and from
what I see you are meeting a potential part of them for an after lunch
meeting in three weeks.
From my memory in getting folks to be part of the sponsor in the
project above, it was a great help to start with one of them and get the
first one to be part of the "search" group suggesting or even themselves
contacting others... it snowballed (even though it seemed a slow
process) and me and the others kept learning through the questions
people had... so each next contact was more "qualified".
Once you have the sponsoring group (maybe in 4 to 6 months) you will
come to the point where the "event" will be looked at and planned. In
the case described, the sponsoring group installed the planning group
for the event (some in the sponsoring group decided to be part of the
planning group themselves others found someone in their organisation and
others came out of the nowhere offering to be part of the planning
group). It took a little time to get the planning group set up (also in
the sense of being somewhat representative of the entire "field", in
this case the inner city neighborhood in question)... but eventually
there was a very independent, selforganizing group that handled all the
stuff that you are thinking of at this point in the game.
Have a great time!
Greetings from Berlin
mmp
PS: The kinds of questions discussed here are also issues at our local
Stammtisch... sometimes resulting in collaborations I had not even
dreamt of.
On 05.08.2011 11:41, Kári Gunnarsson wrote:
Dear all on OSList
For some years now I have wanted to do a full 2,5 days of open space
with all the organizations that handle matters for people with
different learning disabilities to explore where we can work better
together for better outcomes. I have not felt ready to go forth with
this project until now. This makes me my own sponsor in sort and it
makes me uncomfortable. I have been thinking to create a team with
people from the leadership of the organizations to act as my sponsor
in order for me to better work the role of facilitator, or perhaps
there is a different set-up of roles that I could use.
I've Never set up such a big event before and it makes me a bit
nervous for I don't know from experiences all the details and
logistics of such a big gathering, until now I have only worked with
small groups or with short time. I also have some ambition for this
subject and this might also have an effect on the energy field that is
generated. Is there someone here that like to generate this energy
field with us?
My next step is to contact the leadership of the organisations and ask
them to join me for an after lunch meeting in three weeks where I will
invite them to explore the possibilities of learning with each other.
--
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
[email protected]
www.boscop.org
Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 432 resident Open
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Have a look:
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