refugee organization advice

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear Raffi,
summertime sees me here and there and I dont attend to my mails
regularly.
Still, here my thoughts:
Organize a planning group of maybe 4 or 5 people that represent the
system you want to bring together in the way you now see the system
and I would think the funders are a must.
With them, plan the os. Let them work on what it is they imagine to
be different after the event. Then, when that is spelled out (this
takes only a few minutes, use a mindmap to visualize it) ask them
what the title should be now that they know what the open space is to
achieve. Let each of them write down their provisional title. Then
pair them so that each member of the planning group can use the
resources of another member to improve on his/her title. Then let
them say their titles and record them on a flip chart. Give everyone
three sticky dots and let them "vote" (all three on one, or one on
three different, whichever way they want to). At this point the group
begins to get a fair reading on what their title might be.
When you have the provisional group title (see that it has a verb of
action in it, the whole idea being that action needs to be taken) ask
the group who all needs to be at the open space to successfully work
on the theme that they came up with. It is at this point that you get
a more profound reading on the system that needs to come together.
After all this, check the theme for the os with them again.
This takes mostly two and a half hours.
Next step then is to write an invitation, decide on how people are to
be contacted, etc.
When the invitation is composed one of the major questions is: who is
the sponsor?
Actually, this question should be clear at the very beginning, but
strangely enough, us os-freaks keep getting into situations where we
ourselves have a stake in the question at hand. Caution, reflection,
rethinking is then an important topic.
Hope you can do something with this.
As you noticed, I did not give you an example of an open space event
that already has worked in this field...my experience is that that is
of little help. It is, of course true, as my friend Florian Fischer
would say, that someone somewhere has already done an open space on
this issue...
eager to hear how this project is working out for you
greetings from Berlin
michael

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001 08:36:40 +0400, Raffi Aftandelian wrote:

>thanks michael.
>Might you be able to point me to some examples of analagous successful
>OS's.
>
>how appropriate would it be to have funders there? what parts of the
>system, for example, might it be worth having there?
>
>thanks,
>raffi





Michael M Pannwitz
Draisweg 1
12209 Berlin, Germany
FON +49 - 30-772 8000     FAX +49 - 30-773 92 464
www.michaelMpannwitz.de

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