Dear Abigail, We have held several meetings outside, some in the open, some in a tent with sides, and one in a tent without sides (not great during the storms that brought torrential rain as we clustered in the center of the tent but got wet anyway). I also have a funny story of an OST meeting in a hill station in northern India, high up in the mountains. The room was inadequate so we made good use of outside space. The venue had a lot of mischievous monkeys. As my husband Ward posted reports outside on the newswall (we used the outside wall of the building), three of the monkeys were in the space with him, watching him. When he looked at them, they turned their heads away pretending they were not watching. As soon as he put his attention to the wall and posting reports, they moved their heads again to watch closely. I am sure you can imagine what happened. The monkeys removed reports from the wall and made off with them. Participants ended up finding their reports scattered over quite an area. By the last day, all reports had been found with one exception and the missing report was 'staff retention', a topic common in most organizations as a big concern. Our group of Indian colleagues handled this situation in a beautiful and very Indian way. First, they laughed, then they created stories and shared them.the stories of course becoming part of the mythology of that organization. One story was that the monkeys really needed the wisdom of that report as they were also having similar issues, in which case our participants were happy to share their wisdom. The second story was in relation to the monkey-god of the Hindu religion, Hanuman, one of the main gods. As the story developed, the agreement was that because this was such an important concern that was not easy to solve, that the monkeys on site had taken this particular report to Hanuman to work on. Thanks was given then to Hanuman for handling this subject matter, and the participants moved on to the other topics of concern, knowing this one was in good hands.and thanked the monkeys for their part.
Now, some tips: -we use thin ropes and string them between posts of some sort, creating one or more clotheslines for posting the agenda wall and for posting on the newswall and for posters etc. Four such lines of good length do just fine. We supply a lot of clothespins and participants pin their topics etc up on the clotheslines in much the same way as they would pin up the washing -have a backup plan for inclement weather. If using a tent with sides, this is great for rains, and yet it can get very hot so fans would be a good back up -test your marking pens on the paper..in humidity, some pens run.so you want to get a kind that does not run -microphones and good sound system essential -digital audio recorders are very inexpensive these days as are digital cameras. I encourage use of both, supplying one per breakout area. Audio recording is most useful if done at the end of the discussion as a summary, in accordance with your report form headings. In many OST meetings, we do not use computers, favoring a photo protocol of reports. Participants could include pictures of their group, they can do drawings or other form of art, or even using their bodies to form an image that they want to convey.and all can be photographed for the report.no literacy skills needed. As well, if there is one person in a group recording the discussion on flip chart, these would be captured in pictures. Your job with a computer would be to download and sort into some kind of order. Sharing the digital record of the proceedings can be done easily using something like dropbox. -note, in order to give participants the opportunity to use artistic forms of expression, bring along a lot of arts & crafts supplies, objects from nature too if they cannot be found at the venue, plenty of glues, scissors, colorful paper. Warm wishes for a successful and joyful event, Birgitt Birgitt Williams President and Senior Consultant, Dalar International Consultancy <http://www.dalarinternational.com> Author, The Genuine Contact Way <http://www.genuinecontactway.com> 919-522-7750 The Look Lo Res.jpg AW104 GCP Logo Yellow w Blue Back.jpgCo-Owner of the Genuine Contact <http://www.genuinecontact.net> T Program rss.png Genuine Contact Way <http://blog.genuinecontactway.com> blog <http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Genuine-Contact-Way/241784543761?r ef=ts> cid:[email protected] Become a fan <http://www.facebook.com/genuinecontactway> of the Genuine Contact Way <http://twitter.com/genuinecontact> cid:[email protected] Follow me <http://twitter.com/genuinecontact> From: Abigail de Vries [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 2:40 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [OSList] tips for holding OST outside, and other questions hi all, am new to this list and to the OS process. am part of a sponsor group organising an OST meeting for 150 pax that we want to convene outside in a field rather than use a rather small and dingy meeting room at the venue. we would need to put up a tent (in case of rain. this meeting is in Sabah, Malaysia!) and build our marketplace walls. anyone with experience doing this outdoors and can offer and tips or things to look out for, would be much appreciated! also, does anyone hv suggestions for ways to take convenor notes for participants who may not be comfortable writing? are specially assigned note-takers for groups who may need/want one advisable? or hv used other forms of documentation i.e. audio recordings or whatever? we expect a diverse group and some may hv disabilities or discomforts in writing. thanks everyone abby
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