report on less-than-ideal-conditions OST application

[Ted Ernst]

Some of you may remember a few months back when I asked about doing OST as a
track of a more traditional conference.  The conference in question happened
last week and I'd like to tell you what happened.  First, I'll back-track a
bit to talk about the planning process.

I work in child welfare and my boss has be very involved with housing for
child welfare-involved families for many years.  The conference in question
happens every year and concerns itself primarily with a particular
federally-funded program for housing these families, but it also branches
out a bit from there.  Participants include people from both child welfare
agencies and housing authorities.  This past year there has been no new
federal money and my supervisor thought it would be an ideal time to make
the entire conference OST to look at the future.  Conference organizers were
leary of this approach and we were well on our way to develop a "track 3"
for the conference that would be OST.  Then they stopped calling and
writing.  For a long time.  I had already bought my plane ticket so while I
knew I was going, I had no idea what the plan was.  I assumed they had
decided not to do the OST at all.  About a week before the conference, they
called to ask if I would do an hour and a half OST for everyone on day 3 of
the conference, right before the closing plenary.  I agreed, figuring if
nothing else, we'd leave people with a feeling for OST and perhaps a desire
to stay open in the future, either for advisory groups or conferences.

So I arrived in Washington DC on Wednesday not knowing exactly how I'd frame
the OST on Friday, but figuring I'd know by then just from my experience as
a participant in the first day and a half of the conference.  During day 2,
I took a good look at the Friday schedule and noticed that the breakfast
speaker was scheduled to be finished by 9am, but I wasn't scheduled to start
until 9:15.  I also noticed that I was scheduled to end at 10:45, but the
next speaker didn't start until 11:00.  I figured I could easily expand my
hour and a half into two hours and have people take their breaks OST-style.
Given that schedule, I drew up two different plans, one with 2 sessions and
one with 3 shorter sessions.  I'd forgotten about a closing so when I
remembered that, I chose the plan with 2 sessions.  Thursday night I made my
signs (all in black because the organizers hadn't obtained colored markers
yet) and went to bed knowing I'd be speaking about "future" in my opening
and I'd leave it at that.  Happy sleep. :-)

I got up early Friday to get the signs up and everything in place.  I had
been told that breakfast would also be in that room so didn't think we'd be
able to make the actual circle until after breakfast (traditional
rectangular tables conference-style for breakfast - see photos for details),
but it turned out we were in another room so I quickly set up the circle
before I ate.  I also spiced up my posters with color since the markers were
now present.  So far so good.

After I ate I noticed it was about 9:00 and I hadn't seen the breakfast
speaker yet.  Uh oh.  I talked with the organizers and they didn't know
where she was.  I did some breathing to let go of my attachment to time
(whenever it starts . . .) and went back for more juice.  She showed up a
few minutes later and I did some more breathing while she was speaking,
thinking all the while about every minute we'd not have for OST, but gently
letting those thoughts go.

Eventually she did finish and everyone milled around for a bit, getting more
coffee and such.  I walked around gently chiming my bells to encourage them
to move to the other room.  Eventually I walked the circle and we were off.
I did not look at my watch at any time after the breakfast speaker began,
hoping my non-attachment to time (however forced) would rub off on people.
I found out later that the first session actually began after the scheduled
time of the 2nd session, but I took no notice at the time.  Nine topics were
posted, scheduled for 8 different time/spaces.  I saw 3 of those
conversations actually happen, plus two others that weren't posted and
seemed butterflyish.  Eventually, our time ran short and I rang the bells
again.  People said they didn't want to listen to the bells and stop and I
quipped that that the bells said nothing about stopping. :-)  One person
remarked that he guessed the second session wasn't going to happen.
Aparently the time was just too short.  Anyway, I asked for one word or one
phrase (optional) as the bells were passed around (learnings, plans going
forward, feelings, whatever).  It only took about 5 minutes for 30 people or
so and was all totally positive.

Here's the kicker,  The person at the US Dept of Housing and Urban
Development responsible for the program (the one we're focusing on for this
conference) was the closing speaker and he showed up after my opening, but
before people had signed up for their sessions and actually started.  He
jumped right in and participated in one discussion.  When I was finished
with the closing, he suggested we all just stay in the circle for his talk
and Q&A!

Once again, it always works.  Please see
http://www.globalchicago.net/humanist/wiki/wiki.cgi?FUPConferenceWriteup for
this letter and a link to the photos.

peace,
ted
___
Humanize the Earth! http://www.chicagohumanist.org http://www.tedernst.com

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