Community-based OS Leadership Program
Brenda Herchmer
bherchmer at niagarac.on.ca
Mon Sep 25 08:30:07 PDT 2000
Greetings. We used Open Space in a similar situation two years ago in the city of Welland, Ontario, Canada with an event titled Legacy 2000.
It was the specific result of a handful of individuals who felt there
needed to be more done to address the "big picture" of the community and its leadership (or lack of??). It was found that planning efforts too often focused on one "silo" or sector, rather than addressing the assets and unmet needs of the entire community. Anyway, through the media, invitations were extended to the entire community of 50,000. Flyers were also mailed to all businesses and non profit organizations. Over 100 people attended the first meeting, representing a broad spectrum of government, business, and community groups as well as others who came simply as interested individuals. We used an open space format around the theme "Legacy 2000 - issues and opportunities for making Welland a better place to live, work, and play". The advisory committee didn't believe anyone would come for more than half a day so the event was hosted in one morning. They served breakfast and managed 30 meetings on 30 different topics before noon with a powerful closing circle. It was amazing...and was the beginning of some very exciting initiatives...a youth drop in centre, community gardens, trail clean ups, rehabilitating vacant lands, attracting new businesses, touring circuits, community music events etc. To keep the momentum moving, community meetings are still being held one evening a month. The ongoing theme is "Building a stronger, healthier and more vibrant Welland...one project at a time". As you suggest, the elected and government officials were originally somewhat cynical. They are now much more supportive. In fact, the mayor was at the first meeting and hasn't missed one since. The open space being provided is now being seen as a powerful vehicle for change. More importantly, it has generated community spirit - something that had been sorely lacking in a town hard hit but factory shut downs. While much of the work we do with OS takes place in a business or organization setting, it truly does work in a broader based community setting. My family and I were so impressed with what we heard at the first Legacy meetin
potential, that we ourselves have moved our residence and business to Welland!
______________________________________
Brenda Herchmer
Manager, Niagara Centre for Community Leadership
"a one stop resource center for the voluntary sector because community matters"
Niagara College
300 Woodlawn Road, Box 1005
Welland, ON L3B 5S2
(905) 735-2211 ext 7775
(905) 736-6006 (fax)
>>> Viv McWaters <viv at THEREEF.COM.AU> 09/24 8:30 PM >>>
Hello all
I think I'm onto something very exciting but I need the wisdom of this
group to help me, please.
I was recently asked to come up with a proposal for a community leadership
progream in a semi-rural area of Australia. The program started as
Leadership - but has evolved into something like 'building social
capacity'. The purpose of the program is to develop in the community the
skills and abilities to self-manage and lead community organisations - such
as play groups, environmental action groups, parents associations etc etc.
This is in response to a lot of community burn-out, lack of access to
training etc. A key element of the program (which incidently will run for
12 months) is a project that participants implement in their own community,
using and building on the skills they have learnt.
I have proposed that OS underpin the program. Instead of a committee
identifying the content of the program we have a one-day community OS where
the partiocipants themselves explore what they need to build capacity in
the community - and from that, hopefully, will emerge a corte group of
people willing to take this further (using OS as a basis but also
incorporating some specific skills training where its been identified as
impirtant).
I've said my role would be as a coach/mentor - opening spaces where
appropriate and supporting the participants with specifics, support etc.
Has anyone done anything like this before? I'd love to hear your insights.
I've also heard that the sponsor (a Local Govt) thinks this approach
wouldn't work in their community. I believe it will work, but do you have
any suggestions on how I could approach their concerns. I have a meeting
with the sponsor later this week to further discuss the proposal.
Cheers
Viv McWaters
Viv McWaters
Beyond the Edge Pty Ltd
PO Box 665, Torquay 3228
Victoria Australia
Ph/Fax: 61 3 5278 3864
"Thus the task is not so much to see what no-one yet has seen, but to think
what nobody yet has thought about that which everyone sees." Schopenhauer
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>From Mon Sep 25 11:01:01 2000
Message-Id: <MON.25.SEP.2000.110101.0500.>
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 11:01:01 -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: training with harrison
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
okay all,
the chicago training is now history, and fully documented at
http://www.globalchicago.net/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro
so i'm officially passing the "next training is..." baton to romy and
martin in the UK. here's how to get in on the next training with
harrison and birgitt and martin and romy (wow!)...
To book (or to request a brochure) please send an email to
mailto:bookings at roffeypark.com, mentioning the title of the workshop "Creating
Space for Effective Change"
If you would like to discuss the workshop in more detail, please call Romy
Shovelton at WIKIMA Consulting on +44 207 229 7320 or email:
mailto:romys at compuserve.com
please pass this along to anyone you might know of who would be interested
in the proceedings from chicago or in attending the next training in the
UK.
many thanks, michael
Michael Herman wrote:
> hello all, having a grand time in chicago here with harrison. have 30
> people in the training and another 50 in the one-day conference within
> the training. 5 major corporations, church, govt, education, music,
> dot.com, independent and internal consultatns, the UN, and more
> represented. what a trip! rained yesterday, but sun today and sessions
> convened down the street in the park. oooo-la-la! wow! most of our
> proceedings to date have been posted at this address: butterfly by if
> you care... michael
>
> http://www.globalchicago.net/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro
>
> --
>
> Michael Herman
> ...inviting the extraordinary to work
>
> 300 West North Avenue #1105
> Chicago IL 60610
> 312-280-7838 voice/fax
> mailto:mherman at globalchicago.net
>
> Resources, Reflections, Results
> http://www.michaelherman.com
>
> **PLEASE NOTE NEW WEB ADDRESS**
>
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--
Michael Herman
...inviting the extraordinary to work
300 West North Avenue #1105
Chicago IL 60610
312-280-7838 voice/fax
mailto:mherman at globalchicago.net
Resources, Reflections, Results
http://www.michaelherman.com
**PLEASE NOTE NEW WEB ADDRESS**
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