OPEN AIR OPEN SPACE?

[Dr. Susanne Weber]

Datum:          Sun, 6 Jan 2002 15:05:03 -0500
Antwort an:             OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Von:                    Gilbert Brenson-Lazan <gbl at amauta.org>
Betreff:                Some suggestions please
An:                     OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU

Hi Gilbert,
if the campus is that huge - couldn´t you do an open air open
space ? Depends on the weather ... but could work if the weather
is fine - and would keep the campus presence together - and the
spaces open. What do you think about that? Where will that event
happen? best wishes and good luck
Susanne, Germany

> Hi, all:
>
> Even though I have not contributed much to the OSLIST, due to commitments
> as moderator of several other lists y my collegial and profesional
> responsabilities, I am an avid reader and learner from this important
> cyberspace.
>
> Since there is no OSonOS in the next few days to help me with a big
> challenge I am facing, as it did a few years ago en Monterey, I am turning
> to the collective wisdom and experience of you all.
>
> I  have been doing OS and training facilitators to do it for several years
> now, not just in companies but also in community development and disaster
> intervention.  Now I feel almost like a victim of the success we have
> shared with this approch and have been approached by a very desperate
> university president.
>
> It is perhaps the most important and prestigious agriculture school in
> Latin America.  They have just had a BIG structural shakeup over their
> up-until-now famous autocratic style.  The 800 members of the student body
> are chomping at the bit to make the student affairs policies more
> participatory and relevant and the newer members of the faculty (yes, there
> is a BIG generation gap both in the faculty and the administration) are in
> agreement. Others are very fearful of the loss of absolute, hierarchical
> power;  some of them realize it and some of them don´t.  A very strong and
> influential alumni association also mirrors the same dynamic.  They have
> all spent more than two years "diagnosing" all the problems and now want to
> do something.
>
> I have been called in as a consult to recommend changes, a role which I
> immediately challenged, choosing instead to offer a startup with an a
> one-day OS process with students, teachers and administrators all together,
> to explore feasible strategies to make the processes por participative in
> the school.  I will then do a program of training and mentoring of the
> internal facilitators (grad students) of the school to keep the ball
> rolling.  With fear and trembling, the powers that be have accepted this
> approach.
>
> My question is on logistics:  There are six, 130-student residences which
> are microcosms of the school (the students live on a gorgeous 2000 acre
> campus).   There is no facility big enough to put all 900 (students, profs
> and admins) together.  Maximum
> meeting capacity would be 400.  I originally thought of choosing a critical
> mass of 300-400 for the OS but the main sponsor and supporter of the
> program would like to be able to close down the university that day and
> invite ALL those that want to participate.
>
> My only idea so far is to organize mini-OSs  in each of the Residences.  My
> colleagues and I would do the intro with two groups of 400 and then they
> would go to their respective residences to do their OS thing, with the
> support of a couple of previously-prepared facilitators to be on hand if
> needed  (I know that isn´t very kosher OS but in Latin America I have found
> it to be an excellent strategy).  Then they would return at the end of the
> day (also in two groups) to share results and form a followup
> commision.  Everybody would get everybody´s results.
>
> What bright ideas do you all  have?  Any Spanish-speaking OSers out there
> that want to help?
>
> Thanks a million.
>
> Warm regards,
>
> Gil
>
>
>       **************************************
>      AMAUTA INTERNATIONAL, LLC
>   Gilbert Brenson-Lazan - Socio-Gerente
>    Tel: (+57-1) 345-2724 - Fax: 345-2072
> U.S. Voice Mail and Fax: (206) 888-4386
>           e-mail: <gbl at amauta.org>
>          website: <http://amauta.org>
>          *********************************
>
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Dr. Susanne Weber
Institut fuer Erziehungswissenschaft
der Philipps-Universitaet Marburg
Wilhelm-Roepke-Strasse 6B
D-35032 Marburg
Tel. 0049-642128-23589
Fax.0049-642128-28946

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