Fw: OST as a conference track

[Peggy Holman]

Brian,

You said:
> I don't know if others might be
> interested in it, and would be happy for you to add it to the LIST if
> you think so.

This is such a WONDERFUL story!  I have no doubt others will benefit from
it, as I have.

Thank you,
Peggy


----- Original Message -----
From: "Fr Brian S Bainbridge" <briansb at mira.net>
To: "Holman Peggy" <peggy at opencirclecompany.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 6:24 PM
Subject: Re: OST as a conference track


> Dear Peggy
> Have read all the inputs since your note.  And I can perhaps add a bit.
> Did an Open Space parallel track within a 3-day Conference on the
> environment in Adelaide, preparing the Australian input for the
> Johannesburg Environment Conference later this year.
> All of the no-no comments made in other people's comments probably
> applied.
> BUT
> we set up the Open Space in a separate area to which "whoever came were
> the right people".  And they came and set up sessions and stayed for the
> sessions they wanted to be at and they went off to other traditional
> conference sessions when it suited them and added new topics as seemed
> appropriate - shades of the Law of Two Feet, obviously.
> And all sessions were reported on and included in the final document
> from the Open Space.
> The announced theme was "GEARING UP DOWN UNDER FOR LA21 - THE ISSUES AND
> OPPORTUNITIES", and there were 14 sessions, some of which were very well
> attended and very electric.
> The conference sponsors were delighted with the input that was generated
> for the "Final Declaration" of the conference, though they would love
> more people to have been involved.
> The Open Space sort of concluded before the final session of the total
> conference - which they asked me to make happen.  And since I really
> only know and use Open Space, that's what happened.
> Some 300 people, in a theatre setting with a small stage area raised
> above the floor by about 18 inches.  And a local rule that nothing can
> be pinned or taped to walls (under pain of death!), and the need to get
> "The Declaration" signed by the appropriate heavies.  Very boring and
> meaningless.  Certainly not any sign of spirit or energy or anything
> useful.
> BUT, as it happened, a miracle escaped and they accepted my suggestion
> that the declaration should be signed and gotten out of the way and
> then.....
> There was a "Counter-declaration" emerge, and the organizers were
> terrified that this might be suggested as the substitute for their
> prepared and pre-written declaration.  They were right, of course.  And
> I said "Whatever happens...."
> So I arranged for the dais to be cleared of everything.  There was a
> youth rap-group to do a rap on "do-do-do, not talk-talk-talk" which was
> wonderful.  Funnily enough, all the people who left (bored) during the
> formal signing found their way back into the space by this time.
> I though it might be good to draw a big globe/circle on the black floor
> of the dais and asked for volunteers to do this.  I had some wide orange
> tape marked with the word "FRAGILE" (packing tape) and thought that
> would be good for such an event.  The globe/circle was drawn.  Lights
> dimmed throughout the room except on the globe/circle area.
> Asked the rap-people to hand out to everyone a felt pen and a half-sheet
> of paper about 12 x 4 inches.
> Invited anyone who cared enough to write on the paper "After the
> conference, I am going to.............." and sign it.  And then come to
> the two mikes at the front of the dais, make their personal declaration,
> and then use some ordinary masking tape to stick it to the floor inside
> the globe/circle (sticking so that air conditioning would not blow them
> away).
> There was no way that was not going to work - and it worked
> wonderfully.  Even the "counter-declaration" leaders were encouraged
> (and did it) to put their paper on the globe/circle, right in the
> middle.  About five people in the whole crowd didn't put a paper up.
> And the lady in the wheelchair at the front did.
> And I asked those who had done so to form a bank of people at the back
> of the globe, and they thought their job was to clap each of the inputs,
> which they did endlessly and with increasing volume (obviously) and
> enthusiasm.
> Asked for quiet, told them the Charles Handy story about the traveller
> who waited for the mountain to move and suggested they might be people
> to actually move mountains by doing what they had promised. A huge
> "YES>>>>" to that.
> Invited them in silence to catch the eyes of each other person in the
> group and say with their eyes what they would like to share.  Fabulous.
> Then announced that the last rule of Open Space is "WHEN IT'S OVER, IT'S
> OVER" and that it was my honour and privilege to announce that this
> conference was now over.  Huge cheers and huggings and emotion and
> spirit release.
> It was marvellous.
> One seasoned organizer, two weeks later - said he had been at hundreds
> of environment conferences and never had they ever ended on a high -
> it's all so serious.  Thought this was wonderful.
> The chief financier/organizer of the conference - a public servant - sat
> next to me later that evening at recovery/drinks/nibbles and said that
> she wanted to seriously congratulate me for the way I had done the
> closing, that she never believed it could happen, that she had no
> alternative and so allowed it to happen, and was stunned and hugely
> excited at the way it had all come together so marvellously.
> I figure that if we hold to our 4 Principles and One Law, as I did again
> on this occasion, miracles can emerge.  And they did this time, too.
> Peggy, I'll send this direct to you.  I don't know if others might be
> interested in it, and would be happy for you to add it to the LIST if
> you think so.  It was a great occasion and a very deep expression of
> spirit for those people.  That's special.
> Cheers and blessings,   BRIAN.
>
>

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