thanks lisa, & a long example of prework

[Chris Weaver]

Thanks Lisa for your wisdom on morning/evening news with 500, and your good
wishes.  You're always on my shoulder.

This particular gig is SO interesting and full of implications that I am
going to share part of the story.

I am working with a group planning a "Council of Elders" for next September.
The three-day gathering is entitled "Earth Wisdom, Elder Wisdom:  Reclaiming
Passion, Purpose, and Voice."  (http://www.EarthSpirit-Rising.org) The
program planning committee is invitation-based, and they sought me out with
OST in mind...but they wanted to do a "hybrid" type of event.  I have deeply
enjoyed working with this group...AND it has been a great challenge, because
a number of people got VERY COLD FEET when I told them that a hybrid event
(with fixed curriculum tracks concurrent with an OST) wouldn't work -
something could come first, but OST needed to be OST without a net.  (I
benefited greatly from Birgitt, Harrison, and others on the list in
preparing for these discussions).

My first instinct was to step back:  the "okay, they're not ready and I'll
be invisible til they are" approach.  Stepping back was made easier by the
fact that walking the circle for 700 does not feel like my cup of tea (you
know, I'm a very shy person...)  But a week later, as I was reading some
emails between the program planners, my own passion welled up like a great
wave.  A gathering of Elders on this scale at this time is just too
important, and I must be finding myself in this mess for a reason.  So I
wrote the long email below.  It may be of interest to people who have been
in the position of inviting/enticing a group that is accustomed to a
traditional conference into taking the leap.

There is more to this story, which I will share at a later date.  Michael
Herman (who has so much spare time lately <grin>) and I have been talking
about the power of OST Councils of Elders, which we imagine could spread
like wildfire...Another thread for another day.  Here's my letter.

Dear Program Committee Members,

My two cents' worth, and some questions sprinkled in.

First, amid the emerging consensus about a "hybrid" event and about the
desire for "fixed tracks," I choose to again voice my viewpoint that Open
Space Technology could be the ideal container for all that happens between
Monday morning and the closing initiation on Wednesday.

I trust that each of you seeks to discern the deep nature of the opportunity
of this conference, and to design a process that best serves this
opportunity.  This is what I am doing.  We may disagree about the deep
nature of the opportunity, and/or we may disagree about the best design.
This is life, and indeed this is the fruit of B and J's invitation for those
who care and are so called to develop the program collaboratively.  What
kind of fruit is it?  It's a grapefruit, big and heavy, sticky, with a tough
peel, bitter inner skin, and a flower of inner sancta like the kingdom of
God itself.

So let me write as if the talking stick has come to me, about what I discern
as the deep nature of this opportunity.  As the director of a camp for
children and youth, I put all my eggs in the basket of one philosophy:  That
each young person is already on a journey of becoming and creating who
he/she is meant to be.  For all their glorious complexity and diversity,
their requirements for this journey are simple and few:  Freedom to seek and
create the experiences they need, a community of wise and caring
mentors/guides, and deep access to nature.

I have been told many things when I have described to other educators how
Open Space Technology works as a practical process-container for this
philosophy with young people.  It will be chaos, They may have the potential
to do this but they need training, It is so different from what they're used
to that they will be very stressed, They won't choose to challenge
themselves, They'll only choose to be with their friends, They don't have
any meaningful activities to lead themselves, etc etc etc.

But with more than 2,500 kids this summer, ages 6 to 16, the process worked
beyond our wildest dreams.  Yes, it required a carefully-developed
infrastructure and a lot of trust.  But far and wide, skeptical adults
contacted us afterward with unsolicited words like these from 8th grade
teacher S.H. from Asheville Middle School:  Today I brought you my students,
possibly more jaded than even their teachers.  I thought they would eat you
alive.  It actually turned out to be one of the most wonderful and touching
experiences of my life.  You and your staff worked miracles with these
students.  I can't thank you enough.

I am not writing to toot my own horn.  (This teacher would agree with me
that we did not work miracles; we held the space, and the students worked
the miracles.)  My purpose in telling this story is to describe my own
understanding of the deep nature of the EarthSpirit Rising opportunity, so
that you know where I'm coming from.

Let me suggest that there are 700 Elders out there who are already on a
journey of Eldering beyond what anyone could ever imagine.  Let me suggest
that some of them are you.  They are already in love with nature, within and
without.  They don't need anyone to tell them how to be Elders.  Their
requirements are simple and few:  Freedom to seek and create the experiences
they need, a community of wise and caring mentors/guides, and deep access to
nature.

EarthSpirit Rising III can be the space where these 700 Elders enjoy all
three of these in an abundance that will astonish everybody.  To me, the
deep nature of the opportunity is that the participants will leave not
impressed with the program, but impressed with themselves; not saying,
"Let's sign up again for next year," but passionate about what they will do
next week.  Not thinking, "I can imagine a council of Elders in our
culture," but knowing, "WE ARE A COUNCIL OF ELDERS IN OUR CULTURE."

To me Open Space Technology does require a leap of faith, but it truly is
faith in the passion, responsibility, and creative capacity of each and
every participant.  Faith in this is faith well-invested.

R and P wrote,
> The B's suggested, and there was general concensus in our initial
> group,  that in the Conference, we needed some sort of "focused" track that
> would allow individuals who have been to several of this sort of conferences,
> to focus on a specific topic, in a fairly fixed group, throughout the
> conference, to wrestle with many aspects of the topic and deepen their
> experience.

I am interested in unpacking this a bit, in order to understand it.  What is
the source of the desire for a "fairly fixed track throughout"?  Is it to
build community with a small group of people?  Is it a desire for
specialization - As, for example, a student at Penland would prefer to do a
week of metalworking with the same group instead of dabbling in a different
media every day?  Is it something else?  Thank you for letting me know.

B wrote,
> I feel very strongly that there need to be TRACKS. At the meeting, we boiled
this
> down to (1) planned workshops and (2) spontaneous workshops. I think the
> planned workshops need to include both (a)  didactic experiences and (b) art
> and activities experiences. Your suggestion means that they would also
> include (c) some "advanced"(?) and extended,  but also pre-planned
> activities. I have no problem with that.

I am in agreement about the value and importance of all of these types of
options - planned and spontaneous workshops, didactic and art/activities
experiences, extended-focused offerings; and I would add encounters with the
natural world.  But none of my past history with organizing educational
experiences suggests that this variety of choices requires TRACKS.  All of
these types of activities can be offered in an Open Space conference.  Each
person then is invited to create his/her unique "track," and to refine it as
they go, as the moving spirit moves each of them.

It would not be difficult to plan and establish an extended focus group
within this process.  For example, a person could say at the opening circle,
"Some others and I have a great deal of passion right now around the topic
of thriving in the Ecozoic Era.  So we have decided to convene a workshop
that will run for three sessions today and one tomorrow.  We have prepared a
learning circle format with some supporting materials.  We request that
people who come commit to staying with the group for all the sessions so
that we can achieve more depth together."

B continues,
I would have a problem if we had no
> "unfocused track," i.e., little or nothing for those who are recent
> initiates to these issues.

I have a different view.  First, I think you would agree B that Open Space
would provide a "self-focused" or "individually-focused" rather than an
"unfocused" track.  But more important, I feel that your words express a
particular danger inherent in creating a structure with tracks.  I believe
that if we hold an expectation that fixed and focused extended workshops are
advanced, for the experienced, and that another type of experience is
appropriate for the "recent initiates," we are shooting ourselves in the
foot.  Or maybe the heart.  Such tracks make sense, in accordance with how
higher education and most other education is tiered and gated.  Such tracks
make sense for a typical conference.

Are we to have a conference, or are we to have a council of Elders?

This may be only my conception of the deep nature of our opportunity; but I
say:  A council of Elders must not do violence to inherent and emergent
wisdom, even in a society that does so in all its educational institutions.

Inherent and emergent wisdom will save us.

Respectfully Submitted,
Chris Weaver
Swannanoa, NC

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