A strange open space...

Glory Ressler on.the.edge at sympatico.ca
Sat Sep 28 15:42:35 PDT 2002


Hi everyone!
I have been following the messages but haven't 'spoken' for awhile.... a
'strange' OS experience has pulled me out of my silence. I am hoping to
learn from our collective wisdom.

On this past Thurs. pm,  I opened a 2nd space for a local town who is
currently conducting community planning and who wanted (were also
required) to factor in community input. This 'town' is the oldest in
Canada and includes 4 other small and historic communities rich in
history.  A bit of background - they had their first OS in July which I
facilitated - the theme being 'Our Town, 2022'. It was well attended (65
out of approx. 500 residents). 9 topics were generated and the energy
flowed well. The closing circle comments and written evaluation
indicated that many there wanted a 2nd meeting.... and I was contracted
for another OS meeting on Sept. 26th.

Two days before the meeting was to be held, a resident of the Town
called my office and asked whether he could post a topic (Heritage) and
offer a slide show. It was clear that he had made arrangements with the
Town as well. I went over the principles and the law, etc... and he
decided to go ahead. Also present at the meeting were 6 students from a
course I teach called 'Smart Thinking', wherein we study and operate
(partially) in Open Space. Several of these people also happended to be
residents of the Town - which was a an additional benefit to them. 1
student joined in the community planning discussion and the other 5 held
an informal discussion on OST, smart thinking and community planning.

Here's the strange part - only about 30 people attended (the sponsor
expected more, not less, people) and they generated only 3 topics. Many
were busily going over the Book of Proceedings from Meeting 1. As they
broke for their discussion, I invited them to post other topics
throughout the course of the meeting. The Heritage slide 'presentation'
took over - with the sponsor pushing for open discussion, which did
eventually take place. It was everything I could do not to get in
there... The report generated was quite specific with regard to
community plans. The closing circle comments were of the same sort along
with some 'we didn't need another OS meeting' and some 'I'm glad we had
another OS meeting'. The energy was very muted.

Here's my question - what are your thoughts on my 'allowing' the
'presentation' and the presence of my students? I have been pondering
whether these factors somehow inhibited the space... What might you have
done differently?

Thanks and best wishes,
glory

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