SOS for OS!

[Diane Brandon]

Frank, I'll share a few rambling thoughts.

I had my first experience of OS on April 1. It was a short one - 3 
sessions of 1 hr or 1 hr 15 minutes in one day, 9-4 - but I got the 
feeling for how it works, and I liked it. The thing I was especially 
grateful for was the "law of mobility" (or two feet), when one session 
turned out not to be what I thought. But the other time I loved that 
law was during two sessions of group singing, one at the start of the 
day, and one at the end of the day. I always feel a bit guilty about 
the fact that I don't like group singing unless I'm in the mood for it. 
Being, in a sense, told to "sing now" or "dance now" is antithetical, 
for me, to the spirit of singing or dancing. (I respect that others 
find it fun to sing or dance anytime.)

Since the group singing was not one of the OS posted sessions, but part 
of the opening and closing circles, there wasn't built-in permission to 
leave and do something else, but the spirit of OS was there, so I got 
past my guilt and did other things both times. I watched a dvd in the 
display area (which was great, and I bought a copy, and have found 
several uses for it), I looked at the displays, I browsed through a 
great curriculum, I went outside, etc.

Assuming that the FIC gathering is set up in the usual conference way 
-- lots of listening to others speak -- might you give yourself 
permission to wander?

Maybe you could make an announcement about what you're interested in, 
and post something on a wall suggesting a time/place to get together 
with others about that. (During lunch or a break, for example, so as 
not to challenge the order that has been established, but just to offer 
some in-fill with OS style time.)

And maybe invite some of the FIC leaders to an OS on some topic they 
are likely to be interested in? Once they experience it, perhaps 
they'll use it next time around.

Let us know how it goes,

Diane Brandon
Eliot, Maine
www.keysregion.org



On Apr 8, 2006, at 1:16 AM, Frank Deitle wrote:

> Dear Open Space Friends,
>  
> I just finished my first of three days attendance at a Fellowship for 
> Intentional Community organizational meeting in Madison, 
> WI(www.ic.org). It is not an OS meeting but I was expecting it to be 
> at least engaging enough for me to learn and contribute as these folks 
> in the intentional communities movement have been honing their process 
> and facilitation skills for many years. This evening I am feeling 
> disillusioned and frustrated. And my attempts at having conversations 
> about Open Space have not been very productive. I am not feeling very 
> clear about how and where to focus my energies for the next two days. 
> I'd like to see Open Space be a more integral part of the FIC toolkit 
> and the intentional communities movement in general--a movement I have 
> a lot of passion for. And these are the people I would think would 
> jump for the next best process--if they only knew!
>  
> So I'm seeking advise from the list on two matters. 1) I could use 
> something like a script sheet to talk about OS with these folks--like 
> step by step instructions. Maybe an Introducing OST for dummies. The 
> thing is, I feel like a pretentious bastard when I talk about OS and 
> that's not how I want to come across. To a certain extent I think 
> these folks believe they are getting along just fine doing things as 
> usual (and of course in my opinion (which I haven't stated) they don't 
> really know what they are missing). 2) I could use some list advice on 
> how to funcion as an OS individual in a non-OS meeting while 
> maintaining some sense of integrity and respect.
>  
> I think developing some kind of OST emergency action kit would be a 
> good topic for an OSonOS.
>  
> Love and Thank You,
> Frank Deitle
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