Cooperative Effort???

[Harrison Owen]

Funny how things work along. Just as we have been having this conversation
about OD, why and why not - I received a most interesting note from Sharon
Joy Kleitsch <kleitsch at verizon.net>, which you will find below. She makes
some specific suggestions that I am sure a number of you might have some
good ideas about. If I am right, let her know, talk about it here on the
list, or both. I have suggested that Sharon join OSLIST.

Harrison

*******************************

  I started the IONS group here in Tampa Bay in 1994 to bring people
together and to watch what happens. A recent outcome was a regional
IONS conference in July - Seeding Spirit in Action at Eckerd College.
In the meantime, the Florida IONS Learning Community has come to
life to foster a wisdom society in Florida, based on IONS' vision of
a global wisdom society.

We set up the weekend to expand the field of consciousness from
our learning community to create a "village" and a larger field. Reports
from presenters, participants and organizers tell us we went over
the top of our expectations. Edgar Mitchell, Wink Franklin, Chris
Bache and four staff joined Barbara Marx Hubbard, Ocean Robbins,
Aqeela Sherrils and Nadja Halilbegovich of YES! and Justine Toms.
They agreed to be part of the community throughout, with many
dialogue opportunities. We broke through the we and they to be a
big us.

We had World Cafes, Circles and Passion Cafes (based on OST),
which I believe helped to create these fields of engagement, power
and action. We've had a couple of follow ups and I want you to
know the excitement about the Passion Cafes. We cannot
get people to LEAVE!

This was also what happened in Mendicino, where the Sacramento
IONS Community group held a retreat the following weekend.
We have another Passion Cafe planned for Sunday, following
the workshop topics of the Earth Charter Community Summits
on Saturday. www.earthchartersummits.org

IONS had a retreat in Petaluma in March with almost 100 members
and community group representatives. Meg Wheatley and Juanita
Brown worked with IONS' Nancy Young and Gregg Ganschaw to offer
various kinds of dialogue experiences. Passion Cafes were a big hit.
See details at www.ions.org

CUT TO THE CHASE:
Now to the present.. Monday synchronicity brought your book -
OST: A User's Guide into my hands, which I've loved galloping through.
There is so much resonance there for me, the FL-IONS Learning
Community and for the international IONS networks.
On page 157 you start in about learning organizations, where you
write that universities focus on the past, corporationsand governments
on the present. You suggest LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS as custodians
of the future. Do you know that catalyzing learning communities is among the
goals of IONS? In Florida was are deep into it - doing the inner and
outer work for over a year now.

HERE'S MY IDEA:
How can the Florida IONS Learning Community work with OST
to further your research and our actions to creating a world that
works? While our focus in Florida, a view from space will show
that there are no lines anywhere....
I've been involved with IONS HQ in various ways over the years,
as well as Meg Wheatley, Juanita Brown, Sharif Abdullah, David
Cooperrider and others. Regionally, there are all kinds of actions
I've been a part of to build living communities.

There is a growing interest to explore more ways to bring folks
together and to watch what happens. I would like to see Open Space
more involved with IONS internationally.

How might we all work together? Suggestions?

Sharon Joy Kleitsch
The Connection Partners, Inc.
- linking people, resources and ideas
1100 North Shore Dr. NE #302
St. Petersburg FL 33701
727-550-9660


Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-365-2093
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.mindspring.com\~owenhh

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