juicy convening questions - compilation (long)

Christine Whitney Sanchez milagro27 at cox.net
Mon May 29 10:34:52 PDT 2006


Thank you Zelle Nelson, Gayatri Erlandson, Chris Corrigan, Doug Germann and
Chris Weaver for responding to my question about juicy convening questions
with wonderful examples of projects that light up the world!  The Kindness
Campaign, saving a local 4-H camp, immigration issues in South Bend, Doers'
Conference and the ongoing opening of space everywhere. 
 
Through your generous sharing, we're all reminded that:
~ Sometimes a speaker can create a common, compelling story from which to
move into Open Space 
~ In Open Space, we never know who might be in our breakout group who "just
happens" to have grounded experience to share on a topic that was some
else's passion.
~ As the planning group taps into their own passion and connects with their
individual purpose to the event, a good convening question will arise.  
~ Getting to action doesn't just happen - it needs an infrastructure of
care.
~ Whenever possible, open some more space.  That is the most natural way for
initiatives to thrive.
 
I so appreciate your reflections and sharing of resources.  Here is the
thread...
 
Namasté,
 
Christine
 
Christine Whitney Sanchez
KAIROS Alliance Inc.
2717 E. Mountain Sky Avenue
Phoenix, AZ  85048
480.759.0262
www.kairosalliance.com <http://www.kairosalliance.com/> 
 
  _____  


  _____  


Hi Dear OS Friends,

 

I'm in conversation with a potential sponsor for a large 1.5 day OS event
next October, the purpose of which is to connect people for self-organized
community action (non-specific at this point).  The crowd is expected to be
folks who live and work in a metro area and who may have a tenuous
connection through one of several sponsoring organizations - but who have
not had such a large scale experience with other members of their community.

 

The planning team is meeting in a week or so where the sponsor will pitch
the idea.  She's pretty convinced that OST is the way to go but has the
familiar concern that people who don't work together or are not part of an
intact group can often come up with fabulous ideas that peter out quickly or
never go anywhere at all.  

 

Among other things, I would like to offer the planning team a collection of
especially generative convening questions from similar events that resulted
in new action groups forming and concrete contributions to a community.  Any
links to similar OS events would also be very helpful. 

 

I'll compile the responses and feed them back by the end of next week.
Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Warmly from sunny, sweaty Phoenix,   

 

Christine

 

Christine Whitney Sanchez

KAIROS Alliance Inc.

2717 E. Mountain Sky Avenue

Phoenix, AZ  85048

480.759.0262

 <http://www.kairosalliance.com/> www.kairosalliance.com

  _____  

Hi Christine, 

 

Out of an short (3 hour) OS following a?speech given by presidential hopeful
Col. Robert Bowman in the summer of 2004, the Kindness Campaign -
www.thekindnesscampaign.org <http://www.thekindnesscampaign.org/>  was
created and has been sustained to the present in Asheville, NC. I don't have
the actual invitation - Gayatri Erlandson (Lee) created the actual
invitation, but I will include a summary of topics created from this OS if
that helps.

 

Gayatri - do you still have the invitation?

 

Sounds like a great project!

 

Zelle Nelson

  _____  

Hi Christine,


You asked: Do you think the speech by Col Bowman was part of what catalyzed
the Kindness Campaign?

What I saw that night was a group coming together because they cared deeply
about the upcoming election and they were looking for answers to what was
happening in Iraq, they were looking for something that they could do and
get behind, they also wanted to connect with others that had similar
thoughts and feelings about politics and the direction of the US, and to
share what they were doing to change the situation. I believe Col. Bowman
was a catalyst. I believe he created a common story from which to move into
Open Space. I believe Col. Bowman helped to create a focus point to create a
deeper community than the loose community that was coming together around
the election and a desire for change.


If I remember correctly Barry Weinhold, the originator of the idea of a
Kindness Campaign, was sitting in on the topic:
Bringing Heart, Soul, Creativity, and Bliss to Politics
and he was simply sharing something he had come up with and had started in
Colorado at one point. From there the conversation just soared - people were
excited about the story and thought how could we do this here (Asheville)?
The Kindness Campaign was again talked about in the closing circle. When we
opened the space for the Action round, the Kindness Campaign was reborn.


It's fascinating to see OS at work... It's amazing every time!


I've asked Gayatri for the original invitation.


Below are all the topics that were generated after Col. Bowman spoke:




Summary of Topics - 6/16/04 after Col. Bowman speech

Topic 1:            Electing Progressive Representatives
Convener:            Clyde Michael Morgan
 
Topic 2:            The Current Extinction Crisis
Convener:            Greg Wilcox 

Topic 3:            The People of the World are with Us – We are the
Majority – How do we Spread the Word?

Convener:            Robin
 

Topic 4:            How can we help the under 30 crowd and other citizens
feel empowered enough to get involved in the political process?

Convener:            Cathy S.
 
Topic 5:            Local Power Over Economy
Convener:            Kevin  
 
Topic 5:            Peace Dividend
Convener:            Brad Dienst
 

Topic 6:            Explore ways to identify and speak about the fundamental
truths about which our government is doing.            


Convener:            Hugh Huntington

 
Topic 7:            Patriot Act – How to get our freedom back
Convener:            Pamela
 
Topic 8:            Unifying Global Resistance
Convener:            Mark
 
Topic 9:            Bringing Heart, Soul, Creativity, and Bliss to Politics
Convener:            Daniel
 
Topic 10:            Leadership Training
Convener:            Rich Livernois
 


Action Notes:

 

Topic A:            Who wants to be in a network of people accepting REAL
money, not Federal Reserve Notes

Convener:            Kevin
 
Topic B:            How to start a kindness campaign in Asheville
Convener:             Barry Weinhold
 

Topic C:            Let’s Stay in touch with a Yahoo group or something
similar. Let’s work together

Convener:            Clyde Michale Morsan
 

Topic D:            Institutionalizing Change: Department of Peace;
Ombudsman, Reform

Convener:            Grant Miller
 
Topic E:            Finding ways to speak the truth about our government
Convener:             Hue

 

with grace and love,

Zelle

  _____  


Hi Zelle,

I am glad to see OST spreading, as I've experienced it as the most
productive way to bring people together and to generate innovative,
long-term results. Thank you so much for your part in this - particularly
your part in supporting my learning how to facilitate OS gatherings.

As it turns out, the Asheville Kindness Campaign (AKC) is closing it's
office this month - but a LOT was accomplished over the last two years and
some of that will continue on. Dr. Barry Weinhold who founded it - first in
Colorado in 1993 and then here after that OS gathering, has some serious
health issues which require him to re-prioritize his life. Also, the funding
wasn't adequate. Had it been more, he could have hired someone else to be
the AKC director - something he said he wanted to do last fall - so he's
wanted to step down (to just an advisory capacity) for a while. Had he been
truly passionate about directing the project, I think it might have turned
out differently because a number of people put in a lot of loving effort, in
addition to his amazing efforts - in schools, churches, the business sector,
city council, police-community relations, offering classes, retreats,
working with kids, etc. etc.. I would say that the AKC was quite a success
particularly because much more continues to unfold from these efforts, as
you can see in the attached article. 

Here's his (unedited) article to be in the June issue of our magazine, so
you can see some of what was accomplished (actually there was much more, but
too much to mention in one article) - it's actually quite impressive. I hope
this is helpful.

Blessings,
Gayatri

PS I also am sending this to Chris Weaver who did an OST gathering that
saved a local 4-H camp from closing its doors for a number of years, and is
significant in expanding OST to nationwide efforts at sustainability - via
the US Partnership for the Decate of Education for Sustainable Development (
<http://www.uspartnership.org/> www.uspartnership.org).

  _____  

 

Hi there Christine:

To my mind, it needs a bit more passion to come to a convening question.  If
I was working with the sponsoring group I might convene a smaller meeting of
a few key community people and ask something like "What could this group of
people offer to our community that isn't being offered?"  In other words,
with a precious opportunity in front of you, what is the highest good we
could do together?  That might even be the question for the OST, but a
little deeper invitation development and support will go a long way to
attracting a crowd big enough and motivated enough to catalyze action. 

Cheers,

Chris  Corrigan

  _____  

 

Christine--

 

Not sure if this is the kind of thing your people have in mind. A year ago
or so in South Bend, Indiana, we had The Doers Conference. The invitation
and the proceedings can be found on this site:

 

http://www.footprintsinthewind.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=
<http://www.footprintsinthewind.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Do&Number=
> &Board=Do&Number=

473 1&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

 

I see it ran to two lines. Let me shorten that for you. This should take you
to the same place:

 

http://tinyurl.com/gk3bk

 

--it did for me.

 

Oh! Then there was Immigration Reform: Issues and Opportunities For Our Back
Yard. The invitation is here:

 

http://www.footprintsinthewind.com/?page_id=703

 

Hope those help, Christine.

 

                              :-Doug. Germann

                              Seeking people making community change.

 

  _____  

 

Hey Christine,

 

I'm a week late on the draw in responding to your inquiry, but perhaps it's
still relevant.

 

You wrote that the sponsor has the familiar concern that people who don't
work together or are not part of an intact group can often come up with
fabulous ideas that peter out quickly or never go anywhere at all.  

 

In my experience, the sponsor's concern is well-founded.  I've participated
in (and facilitated) a number of  community OST events in which the
participants don't have prior connections.  In my observation it is often
the case that most people go back to their lives & business as usual and
don't follow up/follow through on many of the collaborative ideas that
emerge in the OST event.

 

I believe that the sponsor and planning team can take some steps to maximize
the opportunity for ongoing impact from the event.  These include:  

*	Taking the time as a planning team to connect with their individual
purpose  in opening space for the event, and sharing this with one another
so that a deeper group purpose emerges. 
*	Including in the OST event a solid action-planning component, in
which the space is re-opened for specific new initiatives, and participants
are invited to step into leadership for these new initiatives (I use the
title "champions" for these emergent leaders). 
*	Posting the action planning "Initiative Reports" to the web asap,
and providing options for initiative groups to collaborate online (this is
especially important when the participants do not have regular established
contact with one another). 
*	Committing to opening space for a follow-up OST event a few weeks or
months down the road (the same theme usually works great).  When
participants know at the first event that there's going to be another one,
this generates a field of positive accountability.  Participants feel a
stronger motivation to move the work forward so that they can share it with
the community at the next OST.

A commmitted ongoing sponsoring team can also take other steps, such as
sending out simple email "newsletters" to the participant list (this works
great when any participant is invited to submit a story about their ongoing
work to be included in the newsletter).

 

All of these steps are frequently part of the supporting infrastructure for
highly successful OST work within a single organization, because the
communication networks are already in place.  With a community event, the
extra time and effort to create this infrastructure makes a big difference
in the outcomes.  Working with a planning or sponsoring team in this way is
an act of inviting them into deeper more conscious leadership.

 

Chris Weaver


 


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