Saturna Open Space —a report

[Beverley Neff]

Hello everyone,

As I sit on my porch this gentle, misty-grey, morning, listening to the 
new sounds of birds returning to this island after the winter away, I 
am full of such gratitude for the abundance and generosity of life. I 
am particularly grateful for this OS community. Your guidance and 
wisdom has enabled me to open space in my own little conflicted and 
beautiful community, and watch the people take the process to their 
hearts and run with it.

Fifty participants showed up for a day and a half to explore the theme 
of Living together on Saturna Island: Issues and Opportunities. The 
participants were a rich mix of full-timers, newcomers and part-timers 
and it was a wonderful surprise to see equal numbers of men and women. 
For the first time in Saturna’s history, our Coast Salish neighbours 
were acknowledged to be an important part of this community and 
specifically invited to participate. The Tsawout First Nation accepted 
and sent a member of their council and two elders, who were warmly 
received. Our circle opened with a greeting, song and blessing by elder 
Harry Underwood.

Although most people were completely new to OS, in less than an hour 
they had posted 18 topics, which were explored in three breakout times. 
At the end of the day, people left smiling and excited about the work 
they had done together.

The next morning 40 people returned at 9:00 AM to read their book of 
proceedings and move into action planning. To my surprise, after 
presenting the books to each other, they all returned to their seats in 
the big circle and sat there reading for 20 minutes, in complete 
silence and concentration. At exactly the right time, our First Nations 
neighbours dropped in to say heartfelt goodbyes and thankyous as they 
left to the catch the ferry home and suddenly we were all being 
gathered together for a group photo!

Then I reopened the space for Action Planning: Next Steps. (Thank you 
again for your help with this new-to-me part of OS!) Ten invitations to 
action went up on the wall, combined to nine working sessions. At the 
request of the group and with the help of Val Embree (an OS facilitator 
herself, who was there as a participant) they quickly revised the 
suggested plan of one breakout time of 60 minutes and changed it to two 
sessions of 45 minutes each.

In the closing circle everyone was grateful for OST, which resulted in 
new and deeper connections with each other and the optimism, energy and 
enthusiasm to work together to bring their action plans to fruition. 
They were delighted with the process!

Being both sponsor and facilitator of the first real open space event 
in my own small community was very challenging (to say the least!) and 
equally rewarding. I’ll try to share some of that experience in a 
future posting here.

Although my two feet are well practiced in following my heart (I am one 
of those who mostly ‘live in open space’) this was just my fourth time 
opening space and the first time facilitating/sponsoring an OS with all 
the components:  newsroom, book of proceedings and action planning. 
Thanks to my co-sponsor Judith Rees-Thomas and the small but incredibly 
competent support team who handled the logistics, it all went off 
smoothly and simply. Harrison, I just did what your book said to do -- 
what a gift you have given us all! And Chris C., you’ll be glad to know 
that our friends Nancy McPhee and Sandra Kriese held space with me.

Many thanks to everyone. It feels like a door has opened here…

Beverley Neff
Saturna Island BC Canada

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