New Learning Exchange and new Stammtisch of openspaceniks in Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear colleagues,
the first Learning Exchange (regional OSonOS) for Southern Germany, 
Austria and Switzerland was convened July 16 through 19 in Bernried,  in 
a monastery on the shore of the Starnberger See about an hour by train 
from Munich.
Bernried is one of the historic open space locations having seen at 
least six Open Space Trainings with Harrison Owen organized by Katherina 
Petri in the 1990s. She and a bunch of other "elder rabbits" (in German 
"Alte Hasen") took part in a story telling session on the second evening 
of the gathering (a barrel of Bavarian Beer at hand). It seems that ho 
did impress the village folks with his hat and that he seemed to get 
along on nothing but beer and Schnitzel just fine.
It was a rich tale unfolding with many of us contributing and sharing 
personal stories and involvement and excitement with Open Space 
(Technology)...that has created a regional "community" of more than 230 
in the german language listserve and about 120 open space workers in the 
worldmap (Austria, Germany and Switzerland)that have collectively 
facilitated hundreds if not thousands of os-events in this region of the 
world.
The Bernried Learning Exchange might well become a tradition...there was 
interest in organizing another one a year from now with a corresponding 
action plan in place. This would mean two regional gatherings in the 
german speaking realm per year. One in the "north" (that one has been 
going for 5 years, the 6th in that strand taking place in January 2007, 
in Berlin) in the winter and one in Bernried or thereabouts in the summer.
Some 30 of us gathered, about half the group not ever having experienced 
an Open Space Technology event with the expected interest in the 
"method" which - as one would expect - gave way to a different interest 
on the second and third day around the background, philosophy, stance of 
facilitator, peace, selforganisation, etc.
Twentyone sessions were documented and eight concrete steps for further 
work and projects designed in the action planning part on day 3.
One of the projects is to establish a new Stammtisch for the "South" in 
Munich (this means actually that the southern Stammtisch in Augsburg 
will move to Munich)which is more readily accessible for people from the 
entire south and colleagues in the bordering countries of Austria and 
Switzerland.
Pictures from this event will appear soon on the website of Peter 
Glanzmann in Switzerland
www.peterglanzmann.ch
For me one of the really memorable discussions in a breakout session was 
on the topic "(Mein) Leben als openspace-nik" which translates something 
like "(My)Life as an openspacenik" convened by none other than Erich 
Kolenaty from Austria. We had a deep exchange on open space in everyday 
life, open space in the tension between freedom, passion and 
responsibility, peacemaking, selforganisation...and felt that
openspacenik (scientifically referred to as homo openspaciensis)pretty 
perfectly describes the members of our tribe.
Greetings from Berlin, sweltering,
getting geared up for the trip to Moscow in 10 days
mmp
--




Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
www.boscop.de   www.michaelmpannwitz.de


Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 406 resident Open 
Space Workers in 67 countries (working in a total of 122 countries 
worldwide)
www.openspaceworldmap.org

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