OS with kids - please advice

[Pannwitz, Michael M]

In fact, planning meetings are in themselves  just plain interesting
and fun.
Show me a gathering of people from ages 6 to 106 that is dull or not
fun or not simply hilarious!
The feedback to the planning meeting experience is always pretty
similar (I close a planning meeting with a short 3 minute closing
circle): time flew, we got more accomplished than we dreamed of,
things became clear, it was fun.
There is a clear structure (time and roles) and I keep the agreed
upon task front and center.
One thing people know about the system they operate in , like a
school, is when people meet, officially and unofficially.
Where and when do the student body representatives meet? Can that
naturally occuring meeting be used to talk about the open space? Is
it long enough (and we know that can be very short) to have an open
space? If the student body kids go through an os during one of their
regularly scheduled meetings (in German elementary schools this might
be once a week for two hours) the whole school knows about it the
next day. They post their results in one of the corridors, everybody
is involved. So the news spreads and people invariable start thinking
about it and are already part of the planning process.
Even though my grandchildren were not participants in the 2108 people
os we just facilitated in Germany, I had a whole bunch of them
weighing sand at the Baltic and filling little cotton bags to be the
anchors for the ballons we used. They really got into the weighing
and measuering, carrying all the utensils from the vacation house
down to the beach in a waggon....and the next day they created some
very fanciful butterflies and bees that were floated at the os. All
this stuff also happens in schools, or can happen. Others, like
parents, get into planning the catering or what to put onto the gym
floor so that you can actually place chairs there (huge roll out
carpets in one case, in another, a parent brought hundreds of carpet
squares in various colors. The students created a pattern as they
placed them onto the gym floor. Others got flowers, organized a band,
brought in icecream just after the closing circle. Seems there is no
end to having interesting planning and execution of the plans....and
it comes out of the system, I did not think up any of this.
By the way, the idea with the balloons that ho reported on was not
mine, one of the technical staff at the tent suggested it in response
to someone else's suggestion to have signs suspended from wires
strung accross the tent....how much more elegant with the balloons!
All the resources required are nestled in the system ready to go as
long as you have a good part of the system there....and
mixed.....kids, parents, teachers, principal, etc.
peace
mmp


--Original Message Text---
From: Julie Smith
Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 09:48:07 -0800



I'm curious about how you keep planning meetings interesting for
people from ages 6 - 106.   Please enlighten me!






Michael M Pannwitz
boscop
Draisweg 1
12209 Berlin, Germany
FON +49 - 30-772 8000     FAX +49 - 30-773 92 464
www.michaelmpannwitz.de

An der E-Gruppe "openspacedeutsch" für deutschsprechende open space-PraktikerInnen interessiert? Enfach eine mail an mich.


*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20030506/a94077cf/attachment-0016.htm>