My first Open Space without coffee breaks and snacks (long)

[Funda Oral]

Dear Sebastian,

Lots of congratulations for your courage. I think ost aways works.
I am sure it has been a good experience for everybody and useful preparation
for next ost.....

and whatever happens.....

I also suggest that fasting hours are not the best times to hold ost 
meetings.
One reason i observe is that people's thinking ability decreases and another
reason is they tend to be more tense.

A better time to hold an ost meeting during Ramadan would be after the 
dinner,
while they are more relaxed while teas and some sweets can be served during
discussions.

Regards,
Funda


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sebastian Umlauft" <s.ummi at web.de>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2006 1:09 PM
Subject: My first Open Space without coffee breaks and snacks (long)


> My first Open Space – without coffee breaks and snacks
>
> Dear Listings,
>
> Let me first express my gratitude for all the
> contributions and suggestions that are made on
> this  this inspiring list. When in the midst
> of preparing and organising my first Open Space
> I thought of the special knowledge and passion
> that was exchanged in this group.  Following the
> tradition  I would like to share the  story about
> my first own open space:
>
> I travelled to Jericho in  Palestine to help
> Susanne Triner from  the  “Together21” Project.
> It was planned to hold an OSonOS  for who would
> then be assisting our planned Open Space activities
> in May 2007. You will find the invitation to the
> events (“What on Earth can we do together
> in 7 days?”) in this listing soon.  Due to Holy Days
> in Israel the border police was nervous and did not
> appreciate Susanne’s many visits to the country.
> She was only allowed to stay one week.
> When I arrived Susanne had left and I had to make
> the decision whether I wanted to held my first
> open space alone or cancel it. I decided to move on
> and do my best in organising my first open space
> workshop (not OSonOS as planned before)
>
> After talking to Muslim friends we decided to offer
> a 3 day work shop. The hours were given due to
> Ramadan which is the holy month in Muslim tradition
> where everybody is fasting from dawn to dusk:
>
> Friday 12 a.m. to 4  p.m. -- set up for open space
> Saturday  9 a.m. to 3 p.m.--  “Education for everyone
>          and every age – how can we do this together?”
> Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. --  Reading circle,
>          Action Planning and Feedback
>
> On Friday, most of the participants showed up more
> than an  hour late.  Then they all worked on the
> OS set up  with the Organising Set from Michael Pannwitz
> (which we was translated from German to English and
> into Arab). After 2,5 hours  the posters were done and
> most of the work was  finished and  Due to Ramadan the
> participants were loosing their energy  and had to leave
> for their family dinner. I would have liked to do a
> closing circle but that had to be cancelled.
>
> On Saturday we could finally start at 10.30h. The
> introduction and the opening went well.  20 participants
> posted 14 topics.  Later we had some discussions because
> of misunderstandings in the translation, but we solved
> that. May be it was the missing buffet and the
> non-available drinks that made people stay in their first
> groups. They did not use the law of two feet. They worked
> hard on 7 topics  and then the energy drained  quickly.
> So we closed the workshop one hour ahead of time.
>
> On Sunday we started  at 10.30h with 15 participants.
> We just did the reading (of the posted topics) and had a
> feedback round. It was agreed that we would want to
> organise a follow-up day after the ending of Ramadan and
> then include an  action planning of this event.
>
> My personal reflections:
> I was not at all prepared to organize, host and facilitate
> a workshop. I made me jump into cold water. I wanted to
> carefully avoid political discussions, so we selected a
> neutral place. Calling for “neutral”
> participants was also not easy.
>
> A few days before the Open Space event I held a class at
> the local university. This is why mainly students from the
> university came. Unfortunately this limited the diversity
> in the groups as they knew one another and influenced the
> passion and creativity in the group.
>
> A teacher from the hosting school volunteered to translate
> the workshop but quite often I felt that important
> information was missing in the translation. It is certainly
> not easy to facilitate a workshop when the facilitator does
> not speak the language and in addition it is challenging
> when the translator fills the missing words with his own
> ideas.  I was also challenged in holding the place when one
> of the participants thought he would support me by
> throwing in jokes.
>
> No Buffet-style OS during Ramadan. What is special about OS
> when there is no great buffet, no coffee break and no snacks?
> The event becomes 1.5 hour shorter when everybody is fasting.
> After a certain time people start searching for a safe place
> to relax or revitalize their body. If they do not succeed in
> finding such an energy place, they may stay but look like
> a cold unmoving stone. Also they influence those who are
> still moving on, including the facilitator who is trying to
> hold the space.
>
> Can you imagine some kind of energy renewal during Ramadan?
> What would be an equivalent to an OS buffet?
> Does anybody have ideas? Experiences?
>
> As Ramadan means also coming together with family and friends
> in the evenings, I would suggest that Ramadan is a NO-OS-Time.
>
> Creating energy and holding space may not last long – without
> coffee breaks and snacks
.Coffee breaks really are the mystics
> of open space.
>
> We will go on in Jericho, and Susanne Triner will offer a real
> OSonOS in January. In May we plan the event with the trained
> OS-facilitator group. Fortunately some of the participants are
> really into it and willing to move on. You will soon hear
> about the Together21 plans in Jericho.
>
> Now I go for a coffee to continue working on my wiki page. HO :)
>
> -- Sebastian Umlauft
> -- Germany
>
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