The magic that happens...

[Elena A. Marchuk]

Hi Julie,

Thank you very much for your detailed answer,

I'm just thinking of how I'm going to do my special course for last year
students of the University, and I called as I've alredy mentioned (I think)
as the "Democratic ways of management" which is a not very simple question
in our country, and as I know a little bit of US - not a simple way of doing
things in US.

I'm just in traslating the probably old book for you, but too fresh for me
"The Quickenning of America. Rebuilding our nation. Remaking our lives" by
Frances Moore Lappe' and Paul Martin Du Bois. Jossey-Basss, Inc. Publishers,
San Fransisco, 1994. - and am thinking about that some people and
organizations in US manage to change the way of doing things and even
laws.... in our country it will take for ever... though I don't loose hope
and am working now on Civil Forum in Novosibirks region.

Tomorrow we will make the 'repetition' of OS as the method I proposed for
REAL Civil Forum, though, I propose to use another topic... not to loose
energy... as some people want to know before the real Civil Forum - what it
is, OS. And as usual - for free. but what to do?

Our local regional administration like to use the situation. And people are
organized, though in 3 attempts to find the facility and to gather by
calling each other...

No, your letter was not very long for me, as you answered on the interesting
for me question.

Though I don't read all the letters on OSLIST up to the end... it is time
and some efforts, more then in Russian.

I do have some practice in reading and even translation from English to
Russian, but that is my hobby. I'm economist. Specialist in Regional
Development (analyses and planning). I worked (will be 30 years soon) as the
researcher and took part in creating a lot of regional programs, which are
laying safely on their shelves if not... somewhere, but from 1995 I work
also as a trainer after training in Johns Hopkins University (1,5 month) and
being in a TOT (Training of Trainers) program and providing 4 days training
every month during 2 years.

after that, I started to think about effectiveness of 'free' trainings for
NGOs. Ofcourse there is a nessassity to provide training and it could be all
your life... but our people are too smart and too quick, so I and my
collegue were looking for methods with 'doing' and learning by doing...

so we did find two - quite opposite - a very structured Future Search
Conference (but we can use OS on the 3rd day) and OS itself... which is not
easy to promote... so I did decide to propose a special course (for choise
of the students) on Democratic Ways of doing things. whether it is possible
and whether it is effective - that will be the questions, which I will try
students to answer.

So your ideas help me to think of possibilities. I'm in concern whether to
start with open space, but then I should define a topic, or ask them very
quickly - they do know each other, but ... the beginning of the year... and
not yet started thinking (the course will start in October)

Thank you very much again

Best wishes

Elena

----- Original Message -----
From: "Julie Smith" <jsmith at MOSQUITONET.COM>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 12:20 AM
Subject: Re: The magic that happens...


> Dear Elena,
>
> When I met with high school students last week, my goal was to introduce
> them to the idea of OST, and to invite them to think about how they
> might use the OST process in their classroom and in their school.  When
> one of the students asked if we could just do it (using Harrison's own
> words), I knew our fate was sealed.  I told the students we needed a
> theme, and the theme needed to be something important to them.  A number
> of ideas were suggested, but not everyone was interested in the same
> theme.  When we looked at the suggestions more carefully, we saw that
> the underlying issue was often respect.  Since we didn't have much time
> (the class meets for 80 minutes each day), we decided to use "Respect"
> as our one-word theme.
>
> I should also tell you that this was not the first time this class had
> met together.  They had met together 5 or 6 times previously, and I had
> met with them one of those times.  The students didn't know each other
> well, but they weren't strangers to each other.
>
> I'm thinking of the students as being in the position of the sponsor of
> the OST events we create. (Michael Pannwitz helped me understand this
> more clearly.)  That way, they are responsible for defining the theme,
> creating the invitation, and deciding who to invite.  That creates a
> very comfortable role for me, as I can simply support them in doing what
> they feel called to do.
>
> The teachers I'm working with are very excited about this process.  My
> hope is that both classes sponsor an OST event for their schools in
> September, and that they also use OST as a tool for learning in their
> mediation classes.  I'm now thinking I might provide students with a
> very brief overview of what the mediation process looks like, and invite
> them to give it a try in a practice role-play.  As they play with the
> process, questions will arise.  Those questions can be raised and
> discussed using the OST process.  As students continue doing practice
> role-plays, begin doing actual mediations, and then struggle with
> developing the mediation program in the school, questions will continue
> to arise.  My hope is that the students will begin to use OST when they
> need to talk things through with each other, and spend the rest of their
> time doing what they've decided they want to do.
>
> We're also moving very quickly into student-facilitated OST.  I expect
> to spend some time talking with students about the role of the
> facilitator, and then let go and watch them do it.  The students I
> talked with last week were very eager to take responsibility for this
> part of the process.
>
> Elena, I would be very happy if you shared my address with others who
> would like to have it.  I wonder sometimes if my messages are too long
> for people who are translating into another language.  Since I speak
> only one language, I'm not sure how to be helpful to those who are
> translating.  If you or others have any thoughts about this, please let
> me know!
>
> Julie
>
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