Incorporating ideas from people who cannot participate????

[owen]

At 09:13 AM 4/7/99 -0400, you wrote:
>I am about to facilitate a one-day Open Space for an agriculture-focused
>rural community (county-wide).  The weather is not co-operating (Spring has
>come early!) and some people who have been invited have declined but have
>sent long e-mails and faxes about "issues and opportunities" they would have
>liked to raise.
*************************************
sounds to me like an opportunity for some virtual Open Space. If the folks can
send emails, they could certainly participate electronically. You will still
need somebody who cares enough to raise the issues, and hold the space for
those issues -- but the others might drop in electronically. It's been done
before.

But the issue of CARING is most important. Issues that don't have some person
who really cares behind them aren't worth a hell of a lot. This is purely
practical. Good ideas with no passion to back them up are essentially useless.
I can understand the sponsor's desire to be nice and considerate. And indeed
the issues raised may be most important  -- but if they aren't most important
to somebody -- nothing will happen. So being "nice and considerate" doesn't
really pay off. At the end of the day the adage seems to be -- if you care,
come. And if you don't come you don't care -- enough.  Of course, since Open
Space is so easy to do, there is no reason why it can't be opened again  soon.

Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854   USA
301-469-9269 (phone)
301-983-9314 (fax)
email owen at tmn.com
Website http://www.tmn.com/~owen
Open Space Institute website
http://www.tmn.com/openspace
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