What to do while the proceedings are being printed?

[Christine Whitney Sanchez]

Hi Greg,

Great to see you on this list!

Your question has me reflecting on the various purposes for the book of
proceedings.  As you suggest, one purpose is to bring the divergent
perspectives represented in the reports to the whole of the group so that
everyone has a voice in deciding priorities for action.  Another functional
purpose for the book is as a reference that participants will refer to after
the OS meeting is over.  Another is to have a list of all the participants
and their contact numbers in one place so that when action items are cooking
up, it's easy to refer back to the book to see who might be a good resource
on those topics.

And then there are the psychological reason that the book is important.
Last year at this time, Claudia Haack and I were at the Edith Macy
Conference Center working with the 100+ Girl Scout volunteers who were
learning OS and World Café in preparation for the 2005 GS National
Convention.  They were there to understand the context for the convention,
learn the methods, and do all the logistics planning for the Strategy Cafes
and Open Space meeting to be held at the convention a month later.  We ended
up opening the space twice with a day of Strategy Cafes and other stuff in
between.  Our intention had been to simply post the reports on the wall for
the first OS and not do a book of proceedings until after the second OS
meeting, at which point prioritizing would be necessary.  But it became
clear that this group could not shift to the second convening question,
which was much more specific and action oriented than the first, until they
had that first book of proceedings in their hands.  I think they needed the
first book as proof that the OS process produces tangible outputs.  And they
needed time to see all the reports in one place.  After they had time to
read book one, they began "trusting the process" and could then begin
planning how they would support the logistics for the 1600+ delegates who
would be gathering in Open Space at the convention.

Because of your limited time, you may not want to distribute the book during
the OS meeting.  Wendy's and Ralph's suggestions about ways to prioritize
without the book are excellent.  AND I think you will want to get the book
to everyone ASAP after the meeting.

I know that the firefighters will have a fabulous experience in open space
with you as their facilitator.  And I suspect you will have a lot of fun!

Namasté,

Christine
 
Christine Whitney Sanchez
KAIROS Alliance Inc.
2717 E. Mountain Sky Avenue
Phoenix, AZ  85048
480.759.0262
www.kairosalliance.com

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Greg
Vaughan
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 4:29 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: What to do while the proceedings are being printed?

Hi All,

New member here, so treat me kindly.  I'll be conducting a one-day open
space for a fire department.  
We are expecting about 100 participants. I need some advice on two issues:  

1)   I'm curious to know what you consider the best approach for getting the
proceedings book 
printed in the shortest time, and what to do with folks while that happens.
I'm a bit worried about 100 task-oriented firefighters hanging out for 30
minutes while Kinko's prints the books.  Do we just consider this a break
and let whatever happens happen?  Or, do we structure an activity?

2)  We'd like to have participants do a high-level ranking of the report
topics and recommendations so the leadership team has some idea about what
the group considerss to be key issues and high priorities.  So, folks have
already been on a 30 minute break waiting for the books, and now need
another block of time to review them.  I'm worried about a substantial drop
in energy level at this point late in the day.  Any suggestions, including
to chill?  

Thanks for your help.

Greg Vaughan

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