Introduction in an OS-meeting - and poem

[Lisa Heft]

Hi, all -

 

I love our mutual learning and Larry, you are so thoughtful - thank you for
your sensitivity to sharing my thoughts written to you and Thomas and you
sensed correctly - you are welcome to share our interchange to invite
richer, deeper learning with all our colleagues.

 

Jean-Pierre, you put it so well:

Somehow I don't think there is one and only one best way to do the
introduction in an OS-meeting..the context will suggest how "long" it can
be.

 

I have found one thing that seems to work very well - even if there are
speeches (you know, sometimes if politicians, for example, want to welcome
the group they can tend to talk about something that is not necessarily what
the group is working on), it helps - even if they speak the night before -
to have the room set up in a circle, to remove the podium (if the speaker is
comfortable with this) and invite them to give their welcome - or their
speech - in the round - inside of the circle.  Seems to help with the
energy, of both the speaker and the participants.

 

I am recalling a time when I knew there were going to be a keynote speaker
and a politician speaking before the Open Space.  Both were dynamic
speakers, but the keynote was speaking for an hour and the politician for "3
minutes" (20 minutes), and then we were to go into Open Space right after
that.  

 

Knowing these two speakers would speak first and for a long time, and
knowing that it was a conference for people to come together to share
resources and impact policy about children and youth, I met with the youth
delegates the day before the conference to help them create a group poem.
In this way, after the speeches, the young people were able to provide a
re-invigoration, re-focusing, call to action to the assembled delegates - to
remind them who the conference was to be serving.   So after the speakers,
the young people ran into the center of the circle and formed their own
circle, facing outward to look at all the delegates.  And they read their
poem.  

 

Here is that group poem.

 

 

The teens are dropping their grades because there is no support.

negligence 

abandonment 

sense of void, of loss 

miseducation 

growing up too fast 

 

or not growing up at all.

neglect

frustration

anti-social

depression.

 

suppression 

oppression

frustration

cut off from communication.

Fear in life, too many suicidal attempts each year.

Role models for young, impressionable youth.

 

Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.

 

 

We need you to listen to us, and take what we are saying to heart.

I need respect and attention.  Make me feel like my opinion matters!

 

support

wisdom

love

parental and adults inspiration towards us.

 

More attention, for trapped youth.  New experiences.

money

time

care

passion

belief.

 

 

Teach us more.  Respect us.

Give us the support we need and help us through our problems by leading us
in the right direction.  Cheer us on.  Spend quality time with us.

 

If you provide us with knowledge and opportunities we will make a
difference.

 

Your gut will take you many places - follow it and you will achieve many
things.

If there's a will, then there's a way.

 

Singing!

 

 

 

Effort gives experience, 

experience gives accomplishments, 

accomplishments gives achievements!

 

Work.  Help.  Encourage.  Do.  Stand up.  Achieve.

 

Young people can pull the world from misery and pain.

With worldwide support, young people can achieve a motivation that will lead
to a realization of tremendous power in the hand of a youth.  Consequently,
curing the incurable.

 

Youth will receive a sense of consciousness and a sense of real justice.
Humanitarianism over capitalism. The wall crumbling down on social
construction.

 

 

With all of the support, young people can achieve anything they set their
minds to!

 

 

 

 

 

.and then we opened the space.

 

 

(this poem was created by the youth delegates to Pilots to Policy 2002,
Oakland, California, April 10, 2002)

 

 

___________________________

L i s a   H e f t

Consultant, Facilitator, Educator

O p e n i n g  S p a c e

 <mailto:lisaheft at openingspace.net> lisaheft at openingspace.net

 <http://www.openingspace.net> www.openingspace.net 

 

 

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