OS for Russian Rotarians in Sacramento

[Lisa Heft]

[This post is from our Siberian colleague, Elena Marchuk, who is
visiting the west coast of the USA - I posted a note about this
Sacramento, California Open Space under the title of "Brief Stories." -
here is the real story, from Ms. Elena  -- Lisa Heft]
- - -
Hi dear OSers
Thank you, Lisa, for your posting a topic. I hope you enjoy staying with
Russians on OS.
It is interesting of course if you notice anything special in the way we
do things. Usual unusual was that there was no understanding for all
participants that we need to gather and to talk about our needs of
Russian Rotary coming from Russia on the US territory.
some people from Siberia said: OS again? we did it already!
the people from other places - European part - who are new for the
conference and are very little connected with Siberian clubs stood for a
while and as we wait for some time - just walked out (they were unused
to the nobody-pushing-leading process) but we did not know how many
people are arrived and if they are coming and I saw mostly the people
who were from Siberia...
well, probably it was not the best decision, but we wait a little and by
waiting ... I decided to let people to get acquainted and when the
circle of brief presentation was over we started OS.
half of the people know the introduction and the new people were very
much 'alive' in listening the principles and law, and the process was a
little bit slow to start, though there were like 10 topics were posted,
then it was somehow moving and the new people come and even a couple of
new topics were posted. at the end of the second session the topic "How
to make the Rotary club strong and joyous" collect nearly all the
participants and it was like a 'normal' chairman-auditorium format,
which was not very much convenient for discussion, but... Lisa and me,
we just observed the process.
then some efforts were needed to start the closing sessions and as usual
at the end people wanted to talk more and some of them did not know the
'whole story' - the timing and rules... but we did the circle and the
there were all the enthusiastic words said about the process and the
content...
and after the meeting Lisa asked me - what did they say? she couldn't
get if it was positive or not.. I guess faces were too serious for her,
Russian don't smile much even if they say good words. IS IT SO, Lisa?
well, as we recorded the words (hope everything worked ok) I would be
happy to share them with you, but for everybody who facilitates the OS
it is not a surprise, that people, even if they 'already participate' in
OS usually are inspired by their own questions and can not be neutral or
sad or dull in discussing them...
after the conference one of the participants said that we should do some
more discussions at the end of the conference as well, as we get
acquainted and have a lot of things to discuss...
well, I do think that the OS is the most productive way of doing things,
but probably we need to do some other format, though, you know, the
'organizing' of the process brings some 'losses' of the initiative and
thinking.
so, thank you Lisa again, and your drawings were marvelous as usual, I
will keep them for another year (the previous were from Minneapolis
1-day OS on the IAF(International Association of Facilitators in May
2001 - was it 2001?)
and it will be very interesting for me if you can give me some
observation on differences - just for fun!
elena marchuk from Mountain View - heading to Seattle through Eureka at
the end of this week

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