Convergence design follow up

[Chris Corrigan]

Those of you who shared some thoughts regarding my plans to converge the
Open Space we did in Vancouver will be interested to know that I took
your advice.

We had a planning committee meeting today during which I continued to
hold the space for the convenors.  It took a couple of hours but people
gradually realized that in fact the whole intiative was out of their
hands and that it made no sense to go forward without hearing from the
convenors first.  What the committee is now struggling with is the "how"
of providing support to the community so that the work that was started
in the Open Space can continue.  The committee is fortunate to have a
fair number of resources at its disposal, and money seems not to be a
huge problem.  The group decided that what they wanted to do was set up
a secretariat that could provide communication services, facilitation
support, resources and meeting space to the community based convenors
and at the same time liaise with the necessary government departments to
help find support there.

By now you may have guessed that they tapped me to provide the
facilitation support, which is nice, because it means they can keep
their participation active in Open Space.  Having clarified what the
role of the planning committee now is, they developed a strategy for
getting the support group up and running, holding a meeting with the
convenors to check on the progress of work and hear from them about
their needs, and beginning the important step of communicating the
results of the Open Space to the urban Aboriginal community and beyond
in Vancouver.  I'm sure there will be a website up soon for all of this
and I will forward the URL when it's active.

Many thanks again for putting on the alarm bells at the right time.  I
really value the support of the practitioners on this list.

Chris

--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
108-1035 Pacific Street
Vancouver BC
V6E 4G7

Phone: 604.683.3080
Fax: 604.683-3036