Advice needed

[Wendy Johnston]

Hi Folks,

We have “lurked” on this list for sometime and have benefited greatly from
your experiences and reflections. Thank you all.

“We” are Homegrown Wisdom. We are a partnership of Fredr’c Morgan and Wendy
Johnston. We have been doing some work in the non-profit sector using
Appreciative Inquiry for the past couple of years, but we are increasingly
leaning towards Open Space Technology, especially in our community building
work.

In our work with grassroots community builders we have hosted two Open
Spaces on Community Building that were facilitated (graciously) by Michael
Spencer, who trained in OST with Birgit.
Our third Open Space is coming up and Michael is busy, so Fredr’c (my
partner) will be opening the space. Fredr’c did this once before and feels
pretty comfortable with it.

Here is the draft invitation:

“The theme for our Third Open Space on Community is:

“ISSUES & OPPORTUNITIES RELATED TO COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS”.

A discussion has been percolating among the Open Space group for some time.
Initially there was a discussion about the idea of setting up a “community
foundation” that would be a community-based organization that would share
resources (including money and in-kind contributions) in a given
neighbourhood. Some people think that this would be a more sensitive
mechanism for sharing resources. A community foundation might identify new
resources (outside the current charitable framework) because people would
see that their energy and money go directly toward building community in
their own neighbourhoods. It would make the connection between resources
and community building work more direct.

Then the discussion broadened to include the idea of the community
foundation being an “Association of Associations” (like the one promoted by
the Asset-Based Community Development Institute), where local associations
and organizations could share resources, experience and knowledge that
would support community building in a specific community.

There was further discussion about how resources would be shared among
these local organizations and associations. One person pointed out that
developing a shared community vision would provide a framework for such a
community foundation to make these decisions.

So, as you can see, this is an evolving discussion. We would like you to be
part of this evolution.”

This is the most specific the theme has ever been. Previous themes were:
“Community Building from the Inside Out” and just “Community”.

I had suggested to the host that perhaps our theme might be broader like
“Community & Money”, but he says that he wants to discuss community
foundations. I’m not sure why I’m nervous about this... I guess it’s
because this discussion is about a theme that is new to people and that
we’re in a brainstorming mode.

Do you have any advice and words of comfort for my nervous stomache?

Wendy & Fredr’c
Homegrown Wisdom
Seaforth, Nova Scotia
CANADA

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