Happily and healthily gay

[Catherine Pfaehler]

Dear all

Martin Leith once rather desperately asked in a European OT-conference: “How
can I be myself and make money with it?” This question has been with me ever
since. It has a lot to do with the ongoing strand on authenticity and
self-discovery in Open Space.

In our recent Swiss Open Space event “happily and healthily gay” in April,
we used portrait sheets to facilitate post-conference exchange. They
included address, things I do especially well, things I need support for,
fields I would like to cooperate in with others, important life questions
and your favourite quote or book. I repeated this question in my personal
portrait sheet, under the topic of “important life questions”. I was the
facilitator of the conference, and it was my first OS-conference as a
professional facilitator (even if I have lived with Open Space since 1989,
co-organized several European OT-conferences and participated in more of
them).

By the time the conference was over, I knew the answer: In being a
professional facilitator of Open Space conferences. I truly loved it.
Whoever I may be, I could be me, fully and lovingly! I am very grateful to
Lisa Heft for having asked, on this list, for a bilingual facilitator who
would work in Switzerland, and to Florian Fischer for having passed on that
mail to me and for having prepared the event with me. Unfortunately, due to
illness, he has had to resign two days before the event – we were both very
sad about this (but then, whatever happens
). Fortunately, Wolfgang Fänderl
from Munich jumped in for the German-speaking part – he was on the team of
assistants and has offered to do so. And thank you all who offered advice
for community building on the first evening – playing typical or happy
scenes of one’s life as a gay man in groups of 10 proved to be a great
door-opener to a wide range of topics, also intimate ones (36 issues
addressed by a little over 100 participants, and 12 emerging ongoing
projects).

Lots of learning involved, too:
*         Sleep enough.
*         Ask for enough help.
*         Talk about office work before with the sponsor, especially if the
protocols are written on laptops and need to be perfect for the
documentation (the perfectionism swallowed all the assistant capacities
which I then didn’t have to make changes in the room...), even if he wants
to do the office work in his way and without your help.
*         Coordinate well with the sponsor, also during the event, not only
before, and even if he doesn’t want you in the office!
*         Bilingual events need a translator who is not the responsible
facilitator. To do both is exhausting.
*         Clarify roles before the event: of people who make the transition
from having been members of the preparation group to becoming “normal”
participants (they had expected certain outcomes, but they didn’t put their
related topics up on the wall because they wanted the space to be truly
open – but then, who will see to ith that their burning issues get
addressed?), and of people who make the transition from assistant to
co-facilitator and have not been part of the preparation group.

Yes, to be repeated, definitely. On October 20 – 22, the same sponsor is
having another OS for people living with AIDS to find out about their needs,
and I will facilitate again, this time with a translator. It’s “copy-paste”,
in the same place, partly with the same team. We do welcome assistants who
speak German and/or French!

Thank you all again for being such a wonderful support and community! Love,
Catherine

Catherine Pfaehler Senn
Open Space-Begleitung
Kellersriedweg 8
CH - 2503 Biel
T/F/B ++41 - (0)32 - 365 68 41
c.pfaehler at bluewin.ch


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