Out of the shadow into the light, report from the field

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear os-colleagues,
Evren Kildirli from Turkey (recently joined the world map)asked me for 
information on an os event I had the privilege to facilitate January 18 
through 20 in Berlin.
Below you find the not-so-short account that I sent to her.
For me, it was pretty special because it is one the rather rare 3 day 
events complete with all the other trappings that usually spell high 
performance (planning meeting, active planning group. enthusiastic 
sponsor, great venue, great catering, team of 5, urgent issue, plenty of 
conflict, highly diverse group of participants, open question, action 
planning and next meeting planned, well, the whole show).
Since I wrote the piece below there also was an evaluation meeting for 
the planning group, the sponsor and the os-team. We dug up the mind map 
that always is created in the first planning session on "the day after 
the event" and found that 20 of the 25 items listed actually 
materialized, also looked at photos, listened to the soundtrack of the 
closing session...and, most important, stories were exchanged on what 
all happened since December 2006 (13 months before the event) when the 
planning group gathered for the first time...seems these stories will be 
retold carrying the spirit which has spread throughout the evolving network.
The sponsor reports that there are calls and emails every day from 
people that happened to see the prime time television newscast on the 
major German network , that downloaded the book of proceedings and want 
to start a movement in their area, that are inquiring whether it is 
possible to come to the "Next Meeting" (this is what I call the follow 
up meeting) even though they had not been at the event itself....and 
people who want to find out how NACOA Germany managed to create such an 
event, what on earth open space is and where the money came from...
Exactly what the sponsor had hoped for would happen and a great tribute 
to the participants from all over the country that went to their "own" 
event not a conference organized by a powerful agency parading experts...
Greetings from Berlin
mmp



The event "Out of the shadow into the light" focused on how to reach
children of alcoholics.
It was very carefully planned, the initial planning meeting was in
December of 2006 followed by 8 organisational meetings. These meetings
were used to plan and evaluate recruitment of participants, get support
and funds from various foundations and government agencies, find a
venue, organize a caterer, plan the documentations, establish a
faciliation team (a facilitator, an assistant, three helpers, technical
assistant) and to coordinate our work with the facility staff (sound,
technical support...).
130 participants gathered in three concentric circles last Friday
afternoon. The gathering was opened by the sponsor. A well known German
actress (famous for her role in the film "Goodbye, Lenin") herself a
child of alocoholics and the president of a large welfare organisation
spoke briefly (3 minutes each)before I introduced ost.
41 issues were posted and worked on Friday (3 sessions) and Saturday (4
sessions) augmented in a separate reading and augmentation hour Friday
afternoon.
The book of proceedings complete with the augmentations and the contact
list was produced during the night and ready for everyone Sunday morning.
There was action planning on Sunday morning with 22 projects planned.
There will be a Next Meeting to look at the projects and plan further
steps on April 12th in Berlin.
The closing circle revealed that everyone (all spoke)was impressed,
moved, happy, exhausted, thrilled...at the effective gathering, the
outcome and the establishment of a network from the bottom up.
In a few days the book of proceedings and all action plans will be
online, a seperate Forum will be installed for each of the 22 projects.
One of the largest German Newspapers reported in their Saturday edition
on the conference, the German TV (ARD) reported on the event Saturday
night in their major newscast.
Since I am not an expert on the content of the gathering (I rarely am)I
cant really say much about it. Here are some samples of the projects
planned:
Publishing a handbook for practitioners in the field
Expanding group work with children
Writing a press release on the issue of Children of Alcoholics
Publishing a childrens book on the topic
Founding a NACOA Austria (so far there are NACOAS in the US, UK and Germany)
Organizing a permanent exchange between self-help groups
Creating a regional network in Hamburg and in Berlin
Working on establishing a nework especially in the "new" German states
Creating a Task Force that will specialize in working with schools and
teachers
Setting up work groups at the grassroots level to create advice for and
have influence on political decisions in this field
Setting up a repository for unusual, creative and fun projects
Setting up chat rooms for children of alcoholics

I hope this is the kind of information you are looking for.
Have a great day
mmp

-- 




Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
mmpanne at boscop.org
www.boscop.org


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