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

[Stanley Park]

Dear mmp,

I try to respond to this email but it seems to me it didn't go through, so
want to praise this great story that will fast become one of our mythologies. 

Wish we could have an accesws to an internet version of the TV news of this
great event to encourage areas waiting to be born. 

Congratulations!

park


On Thu, 7 Feb 2008 17:36:19 +0100, Michael M Pannwitz <mmpanne at boscop.org>
wrote:

>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
>
>
>Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 475 resident Open
>Space Workers in 76 countries working in a total of 132 countries worldwide
>Have a look:
>www.openspaceworldmap.org
>
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