Raising Awareness of OS

Wed Jun 21 13:47:56 PDT 2000

Dear Open Space Community:
I promised the Board of the Open Space Institute of the US that I would post
this appeal, so here we go - a missive to both lists!

Our board is considering the challenge of how we can promote a greater
awareness of Open Space in the larger community, without spending a great
deal of money (which we don't have) and in a way which benefits members of
the Open Space community (and specifically OSI members).  Here's what we've
come up with.

The OSI could prepare a general "press kit" about Open Space for use by Open
Space facilitators in bolstering their case to attract media to specific
events that they're about to facilitate.

If the press kit worked as intended, it would help OS facilitators attract
media to their events which would in turn:
1) Bring greater awareness to the issues addressed by the event
2) Bring greater awareness to the community of the facilitator's services
3) Bring greater awareness to the community of the methodology of Open Space.

What would be in the press kit?  That's up to us.  It could include:
Impressive articles (ideally about events of a similar nature elsewhere),
contact information about the Open Space Institutes and their web sites,
background information on the technology, references for books and videos for
further information, and tips on preparing a news release to promote yourself
and your event.

The facilitators would have to customize it with a news release about the
particular event, and perhaps something about themselves and the sponsors,
but it would supply the platform.

The kit could be available in hard copy for a fee, and/or elements of it
could be downloadable from the openspaceworld website.

The beauty of the idea, as we see it, is that a little effort on our part
could nudge facilitators all over the place to make the extra effort (in a
totally decentralized, personally responsible way) to publicize their work in
a win/win way for them and OST.  Let a thousand flowers bloom
 (or articles
about Open Space
)

And making hard copies available (say at cost) could be a member benefit to
members of OSI.

So that's the idea.  Here's what we like to know:

1) Is this a good idea?

2) If so, what specifically would you like to see in the kit?

3) Should it be web-based (do it yourself) or published as hard copy for
resale, or both?

4) What would you use it for, and how often?

5) And, of course, who out there has expertise in press relations that might
like to help us make this happen, for the greater glory of Open Space and for
extra credit at Judgment Day?

Thanks for your thoughts, and be well!

Jay

Jay W. Vogt
Peoplesworth
166 Hubbard Street
Concord, MA 01742 USA

(978) 371-3134    Voice
(978) 287-5431    Fax
jaywv at aol.com      Email

>From  Wed Jun 21 23:34:45 2000
Message-Id: <WED.21.JUN.2000.233445.0200.>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 23:34:45 +0200
Reply-To: florianfischer at ff-wey.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Florian Fischer <florianfischer at ff-wey.com>
Subject: Re: Elevator Speeches?
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854";
 x-mac-creator="4D4F5353"
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elwin,
that sounds very well, gives a good sense,
is relating as well on my experience:
to get acceptance for open!space without
using the term open!space.
that reminds me on the rule of judo-fighters,
never to speak about the ability to fight in the manner of judo:
to create or to maintain situations out off fighting.
regards
florian

Elwin and Joan schrieb:

> ...Using the term Open Space is
> NOT helpful at that juncture (at least in my experience) and so I have an
> "elevator speech" that, I think, is the right approach to getting acceptance
> i.e., the check signed
>
> You can not "sell" an experience, you can only have one!!
>
> eg

>From  Wed Jun 21 16:34:23 2000
Message-Id: <WED.21.JUN.2000.163423.0500.>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 16:34:23 -0500
Reply-To: mherman at globalchicago.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Michael Herman <mherman at globalchicago.net>
Organization: Michael Herman Associates
Subject: Re: Raising Awareness of OS
MIME-Version: 1.0
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hello jay,
thanks to you and the board for bringing this forward. i am
wondering, though, how (other than the printing part) this
is different from what is already possible via the
openspaceworld.org website.  could the whole press kit thing
be organized at minimum cost and maximum shared
responsibility as new attention, perhaps even a new forum or
collection of webpages, at the existing website?  could it
be available only to osi members?  (though i wouldn't favor
such a limit).  could it not then be provide a menu of items
that individual practitioners could mix and match to suit
their situations?  also, how does bringing added attention
to the method undermine the work that's going on in the
events, in line with the last elevator speech just posted?
just wondering, m

--

Michael Herman
...inviting results in evolving organizations

Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Avenue #1105
Chicago IL 60610
312-280-7838 voice/fax
mailto:mherman at globalchicago.net

The Global Chicago Network
http://www.globalchicago.net

Michael Herman Associates
http://www.globalchicago.net/mha

>From  Wed Jun 21 16:46:23 2000
Message-Id: <WED.21.JUN.2000.164623.0500.>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 16:46:23 -0500
Reply-To: mherman at globalchicago.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Michael Herman <mherman at globalchicago.net>
Organization: Michael Herman Associates
Subject: MAKING THE SWITCH
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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maybe i missed something, but are we in a trial period of
maintaining both lists?  if one has something important to
say or ask, is one supposed to post it to both?  i'm still
signed on to both, but would like to dump one.  can we all
agree to a cut-over date (like today) and then let the old
one die?  with no criteria for what's where, it seems likely
to get double-messy.  can we all agree to stop posting on
the old list so that it will go away?  could we set up some
function to deny new postings and autoreply with the new
address.  or, if i'm missing something, will someone please
clue me in?  many thanks, m

--

Michael Herman
...inviting results in evolving organizations

Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Avenue #1105
Chicago IL 60610
312-280-7838 voice/fax
mailto:mherman at globalchicago.net

The Global Chicago Network
http://www.globalchicago.net

Michael Herman Associates
http://www.globalchicago.net/mha