5 Hour OS

[Douglas D. Germann, Sr.]

Hi--

Thought you would like to know the results of this 5 hour OS that so many
of you helped me with.

My special thanks to Albert Schinazi and Michael Herman: Michael for
spending over an hour with me on the phone answering questions and coming
up with ideas--as well as countless e-mails, and Al for actually coming to
the meeting and helping me with on the spot questions!

We ended up with about 16 people: 10 members and 6 guests. After some
motivational stuff and business (about 20 minutes) the meeting was turned
over to open the space.

The speaker who was scheduled to present and who had then graciously agreed
to have his presentation as one of the OS sessions offered his session in
the 10:30 am slot. When we got to the marketplace, the President pointed
out to me that that would not work since the meeting announcement had him
down for 1:00 and "several people" were coming just to hear the speaker. I
suggested she talk with the speaker and see if he would move his time,
which she and he did.

When it came time to have the 1:00 session, the other convener, a guest,
asked if he could cancel his session, since he had only one other person
signed up. I said he could if he could get agreement from the person signed
up for his session. He did and we ended up with one session, speaker
standing at the edge of a big circle, with flip chart, speaking.

As many of you suggested, this took the energy out of the group, although I
do not think many recognized it. I found myself sitting there wishing there
were another session to use my two feet to go to.

When we did the closing Listening Stick Circle, the discussion was at the
shallow end of the pool. But the comments indicated the day seemed to have
been received well: lots of people were glad to get to know each other
better, many questions were answered (my two main hopes for the meeting),
and people were reminded of some things that they needed to be doing.

The only two comments I had during the day were both that conversations
tended to wander from the assigned topics. (Al gave me an excellent way to
respond, next time I get such comments.) I attributed this to the fact that
we were dealing with professional speakers, who just love to talk!

If we repeat this next year, I would say it would have been better for this
group (Indiana Chapter, National Speakers Association) to have had 4
sessions at 45 minutes, rather than 3 at 75 minutes.

We did computer reports, which I will forward to all members of our chapter
as well as everybody who attended.

Thank you all for your help. I found this group as giving and sharing as I
have come to expect from people in NSA, which says a lot (those of you who
are members of NSA know what I mean)! Also, I feel I have found a new
supportive group of friends, with spirit. I intend to stick around.

Thanks!

                              :-Doug. Germann
                              http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com
                              Doug at FootprintsintheWind.com

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