short meeting in Kazan, Russia OST on Development of Student Work Brigades

Fri Dec 16 12:11:13 PST 2005

thanks, raffi!

i see that you've already posted your pictures and tagged them with
'openspacetech' so you can see that they are already showing up all
around the website, including on teh homepage, drawn randomly from the
entire collection of public photos tagged with openspacetech at
flickr.com.

i see that others are starting to post and tag pictures, too.  if you
want to add some of your own favorites, just open a free flickr
account, upload them, and use the 'tag' box when uploading to mark
them with 'openspacetech' (no quotes).  then your pics will
automatically and immediately be incorporated into the pot from which
the site draws randomly to show openspaceworld.org visitors what ost
really looks like.

also, if you just go to the homepage and click the reload button, you
get one random set of four after another.  it's really pretty cool to
watch the combinations of views and how they randomly fit together
with each other, offering a rich view of what we're out there doing. 
http://www.openspaceworld.org

michael

On 12/16/05, Raffi Aftandelian <raffi at bk.ru> wrote:
> Greeting colleagues,
>
> Galina Tsarkova and Mikhail Pronin shared this week the story of a
> short 5 hours OST meeting that took place in oil-rich Kazan, Tatarstan, about 12 hours by
> train from Moscow.
>
> The OST meeting was sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Education and
> the Tatarstan Ministry for Youth Affairs. For us it is significant
> that a federal-level ministry sponsored an OST meeting.
>
> As many know, in many ways the political climate here is deteriorating, especially in the
> run-up to the presidential (s)elections in 2008. And, some say that
> the Kremlin is getting more and more heavy-handed in its dealings with
> NGO's because it doesn't want a  "colored" revolution
> (Ukraine had its Orange Revolution; Georgia - a rose one.) in Russia.
>
> So, the more we can refer to a (positive) body of experience in working with
> government in using OST, the better.
>
> The OST meeting was on the topic of:
>
> the Development of Student Work Brigades: Issues and Opportunities.
>
> Student Work Brigades ("stroitelnye otryady") are something like a paid summer (or year-round)
> internship. Students studying at the Railroad Workers Institute could
> get paid practical experience working on trains. Other students worked
> on major civil engineering projects building oil pipelines in the
> Soviet period. Or, they worked in hospitals. And the money they
> earned/earn now can be quite a bit of pocket change.
>
> There were 385 participants from 69 regions (!) of Russia (Russia has
> some 88 or 89 provinces). The participants included regional directors
> of Student Work Brigade organizations, university level directors, and
> students themselves, and others.
>
> Galina and Mikhail arranged to have one of technical assistants greet
> participants by blowing soap bubbles and saying "welcome to OS", much
> like when they ran a strategic planning OST meeting for a large
> Russian financial company recently.
>
> And as with the financial OST meeting, the participants began blowing
> bubbles during the meeting themselves and also shook the
> (Indonesian) thunder-callers (I bought 5 of these musical instruments at a head
> shop at the OSonOS in Halifax on a whim once Eva Svensson showed the
> one she bought; they make great gifts for OST facilitators). Since then, these thunder-callers have started to be
> used alongside or in the place of temple bells in opening space.
>
> Among some of the topics:
> Young women in Student Construction Brigades
> Creating a Common Information/Communication Space
> Getting Concrete Assistance from the Authorities
>
> We all know that 5 hours is much too little for such an OST meeting,
> but that's all they could get.
>
> I hope that Galina and Mikhail will add to the story.
> Photos from the OST meeting have been added to the flickr.com
> photo-hosting service and tagged with "openspacetech" They should
> eventually show up on the reworked OSW.org site (I absolutely love
> that feature, Michael (Herman), and have added it to my blogs.
>
> Below are a few photos from the OST meeting:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/81882819@N00/74114364/
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/81882819@N00/74114404/
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/81882819@N00/74114236/
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/81882819@N00/74121869/
>
> Of course, there is much more to the story.
> Participants, I recall Galina and Mikhail telling me, said "Don't
> think this OST meeting is over now that you have closed the space!"
>
> Warmly,
> from (an unseasonably warm and slushy) Moscow,
> raffi
>
> ---------------------------------------
> Raffi Aftandelian
> consultant
> essenceworks consulting group
> organizational health and balance
> Moscow
>
>
>
>
>
>
>                           mailto:raffi at bk.ru
>
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--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
300 West North Ave #1105
Chicago IL 60610 USA
Phone: 312-280-7838
http://www.michaelherman.com
mherman at globalchicago.net

Executive Facilitation ...getting
the most important things done in
the easiest possible ways.

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