sponsor/facilitator (was the circle, luminaries, personal growing edges)

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear Diane,
for sponsors, members of the planning committee and others involved in 
the issue at hand its wonderful to be fully in the participant mode and 
not to also be involved in other tasks infringing on their passion.
In other words, its great to have a facilitator that can fully attend to 
holding time and space.
When Harrison and I worked with Immams and Rabbis from around the globe 
in Sevilla last year it was important for them to have the facilitation 
done by people "outside" of those religions, Christian seemed to be fine.
I experienced the same thing with Israelis and Palestinians last year in 
Switzerland, they insisted on having someone from another place...being 
a German born naturalized US citizen appeared to be ok.
Basically, I think, facilitators clear about their role regardless of 
what nationality, culture, etc. can do a splendid job...the sponsor may 
have some idea on what the group will "accept".
Have a great time at your event
greetings from Berlin
mmp

Diane Brandon wrote:
> Brendan, your reference to "both sponsor and facilitator" reminds me 
> that I want to explore that topic, here on the list and/or perhaps by 
> posting a session at the OSonOS that's coming up in Camden.
> 
> Space will be opened on 9/22 in Eliot, Maine, for at least that one 
> afternoon, and hopefully to continue Sunday morning, for an interfaith 
> "education for sustainable development" (ESD) conference. (If you want 
> to see some good interfaith materials, check out this Canadian website:  
> http://www.faith-commongood.net/ )
> 
> Saturday morning 9/22 will open with a keynote about the national and 
> international ESD faith sector work, then a short fishbowl dialogue on 
> same, followed by a cafe time. After lunch, open space.
> 
> We had an afternoon of OS last year at the conference, and it went very 
> well. Peter Adriance, the keynoter (known to Chris C) opened the space 
> last year, but we both agreed that I should take the leap and do it this 
> year.... and now I'm having second thoughts.
> 
> What are the implications of both being on the planning committee for 
> the conference, being a member of the primary "host" faith, and opening 
> the space in the afternoon? Peter wore all of those hats last year, and 
> it didn't seem to create any problems, but last year it was a primarily 
> Baha'i weekend conference, and this year it's interfaith, but hosted at 
> a Baha'i facility. So..... perhaps it would be better to have a person 
> of a different faith open the space, to prevent us Baha'i hosts from 
> being too dominant in owning the processes?
> 
> The planning team includes people of several different faiths -- Quaker, 
> UU, UCC, Catholic -- and others (including a Rabbi) are on the email 
> list for the planning process, and have been involved in 1:1 planning 
> meetings. One person on the planning team, from the local UU church, has 
> opened space before in his professional work for U. Maine Extension... 
> would it be better if he does it for the conference this year? Or should 
> we have a complete "outsider" (not involved in planning, co-sponsoring, 
> hosting, etc.) open the space?
> 
> I'm  happy to hear any thoughts,
> 
> Diane Brandon (with my conference planner hat on)
> Eliot, Maine
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Aug 21, 2007, at 9:08 PM, Brendan McKeague wrote:
> 
>> Kaliya - it sounds as though you have been both sponsor and 
>> facilitator of growing an 'open space culture' in your community over 
>> time...
>> and you have been successful in achieving what you set out to do.....
>> The journey from semi-circle to circle worked!
>> Cheers
>> Brendan
>>
>> At 06:10 AM 22/08/2007, you wrote:
>>> What I put forward to you has worked really well for me in the Tech 
>>> communities I have grown and cultivated.
>>>
>>>  I have an very high level of credibility and trust among very very 
>>> senior people in the industry (to people in BIG corporations) in part 
>>> because I built trust with them and the community I helped to build 
>>> "OVER TIME" (we are having our 5th event in the fall (we do them 
>>> every 6 months).  This last OST we closed with a group poem. My goal 
>>> with each event is to expand their process horizons every time.
>>>
>>>  These people now tell me they have a much lower tolerance for 
>>> 'talking heads' conferences and events with 5 papers....they are in 
>>> love with open space.
>>>
>>>   Part of the reason for this I believe was my choice - my perception 
>>> of where they were at culturally as a group and what i could do - 
>>> interms  of pushing their boundaries - (having NO agenda was already 
>>> pushing it at the beginning) an not going 'over board' in the 
>>> pushing. It is not like I had a client or committee I was pleasing by 
>>> not doing a circle- I was it - the designer/facilitator (I always run 
>>> my event designs by my co-producer and a process ally in my tech 
>>> community)..
>>
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