550 plus! AND WHAT ABOUT 5,0000?

[Joelle Lyons Everett]

Lena--

The thing which would be so great about an OS for 5000 (or whichever right
people come!) is that so many people would have an experience of democratic
methods and a self-organizing system.

Twenty years ago, when I was just beginning my consulting practice, we had a
big community meeting in the small town where I live--around 100 people,
which was considered a large meeting at that time, and a good number in a
town of only a few thousand (and they came from all the major systems in the
county, governments, NGOs, schools, etc.)

Neither Future Search nor Open Space had been invented, but we wanted people
to discuss in small groups, using brainstorming principles--not
revolutionary, but really way ahead of where most organizations were at that
time.  So we provided a short and simple training session for the people who
would lead and document each table group.  Now these people, and many other
participants, knew these simple methods and could take them back to their
organizations.  And it made a difference in the community.  We had four such
meetings during five years, and the communication and cooperation between
different systems just grew and grew--until they no longer needed the annual
meeting; they were strong networks all through the year.

I think your idea is feasible as well as important.  You will need plenty of
space, for sure.  And if the computers are not available, the American
consultant Ronald Lippitt, who facilitated many community meetings, did very
well for years first with hand-written notes and carbon paper, then with an
old-fashioned ditto machine to copy notes, which he handed around to all the
groups.

I think that you will do well to pay no attention to remarks that OS does not
work, or that you are promoting your own interest.  You know the truth about
what you are doing.  And if the critics want to participate in an OS or two,
then they can experience whether it works.  Changing the world is not easy
work--and many people the world over fear a situation where they cannot
exercise control over the outcomes.

I salute your tremendous energy and your big ideas!

Love, Joelle

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