a note from the trenches

[Chris Corrigan]

Julie wrote:

>  Earlier that week I had strolled by our School Boardroom and was
amazed
>  to see chairs set up in a circle, tables tilted on end holding flip
>  chart paper...

Now I have to point something out about this.  Michael Herman may not
have been the first to do this, but when we were in Alaska we discovered
that our space did not have a good enough wall to put the agenda on.
Michael, the seasoned pro that he is, just started opening up a bunch of
six foot long folding tables and standing them on end which made a very
serviceable wall.  And as the proceedings grew in number, so grew the
wall such that it covered one end of the meeting space and rounded the
corners and started coming down the side walls.  To my Canadian eye it
really began to resemble the end of an ice hockey rink prompting myself,
Judi Richardson and a player from the Alaskan youth hockey team in the
Arctic Winter Games tournament to start playing an impromptu match with
a black puck-shaped stone I had brought from my island.

Now this may all seem like Greek to some of you (they are rolling their
eyes in Israel and India as we speak) but the fact that an improvised
hockey game broke out at the merest suggestion of an arena prompted
Michael to refer to this particular agenda wall design as "Canadian
Tables."

And that's how it is known today.  "We don't have a good wall?  That's
okay, we can use Canadian tables!"  I'm hoping that it joins the ranks
of "Dead Moose" and "space invader" in the lexicon of the OST
facilitator.

Thanks for the stories Julie.  I can hardly believe it has only been six
months since we proselytized in your neck of the woods!

Chris

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