a note from the trenches

Pannwitz, Michael M mmpanne at snafu.de
Fri Oct 25 09:48:17 PDT 2002


Now I have to point out something else about this:
We have been using what is now know (and should always be known by
that name) "Canadian Tables" since 1975, long before open space was
rediscovered by the man with the hat.
My colleague and I were invited to go from Westberlin (now part of
Berlin, Germany, then a demilitarized occupied zone under allied
command) to East Germany (then known as the German Democratic
Republic) to do some group work and training in community organising
(I know, this is hard to believe and opened some really unusual
spaces in that communist environment).
Well, all we carried were a couple of felt tipped pens and some
adhesive tape.
Arriving at the training site we stood tables on end on top of
tables, so that we even had a neat ledge in front of the vertically
arranged tables to place pens and stuff.
I dont remember that we gave this arrangement a name but I am pretty
sure that those colleagues in Eastgermany would have been very
impressed had they known that they were facing Canadian Tables.
Since then I have used this arrangement in loads of places and, of
course, in open space.
Next weekend there will be the third annual 2,5 day gathering of the
student body council of a local highschool in a primitive camp at the
Wannsee (an inner-city lake) with 40 students aged 13 through 20
where we have the same arrangement...and they have introduced it in
their school where they have been holding their regular student body
council meetings in the open space mode for years now (here is
another one for synchronicity when I look at the stories of Chris and
Julie).
(By the way, in the German school system the student body
representatives have a say in school affairs and they are represented
in all the groups governing the school, they are also connected at
state and federal level)
The neat thing with Canadian Tables is that it is a wonderful
demonstration that you can do open space anywhere with the resources
available locally and that anybody has access to them.
I like to hear more stuff like this from the trenches.
Greetings from Berlin
michael

On Wed, 23 Oct 2002 22:51:43 -0700, Chris Corrigan wrote:

>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.





Michael M Pannwitz
boscop
Draisweg 1
12209 Berlin, Germany
FON +49 - 30-772 8000     FAX +49 - 30-773 92 464
www.michaelmpannwitz.de

An der E-Gruppe "openspacedeutsch" für deutschsprechende open space-PraktikerInnen interessiert? Enfach eine mail an mich.

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