Thoughts on a Town Crier

Sun Jan 13 18:37:27 PST 2008

Hi Michael, thank you for the idea,
I love it and will think, how to do it on my  time/place schedule
and wonder, what do you mean by cardboard arrow?
is it magnetic?
as usually I have just space near the blackboard, which I use to be free for 
posters, and it is just for one flip-chart paper and no space for a sort of 
one-arrow watch, which I thought first of... so it could be an arrow just 
over the words : session1, session 2 - which would need a big 
arrow....sorry, and happy, I have fun with thinking about this
take care
and best wishes in a Happy New Year, today in Russia is an OLD (ortodox) 
Happy New Year, so we have 2 of them and very happy to celibrate everything 
twice (our Christas was on January, 7:)
elena marchuk
novosibirsk

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael M Pannwitz" <mmpanne at boscop.org>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 1:14 AM
Subject: Re: Thoughts on a Town Crier

> Dear Peggy,
> I have never seen anybody in these parts do what Jon does.
> That might have different reasons such as the many training events and 
> local OSonOS people have participated in...
> What is done here a lot and I always do it, is to have a detailed schedule 
> posted on a large flipchart complete with a time arrow (a little red 
> cardboard arrow with the word "now" written on it). When introducing the 
> schedule to the group I also point out the function of the arrow...me or 
> another team member and often participants themselves move the arrow as 
> the event progresses. My line is: In case you lose track of time or wonder 
> what is next just walk up to the schedule and have a look at the arrow.
> Of course, sometimes people come up to me and ask about beginning times, 
> my response is to just point to the schedule...I would hate to add a town 
> crier to my repertoire seems it would be one more thing to do and one 
> chance for selforganisation and selfmanagement taken away.
> Here is a few links to show examples of schedules with the time arrow
>> http://www.boscop.org/page/show/102
>> http://www.boscop.org/page/show/99
>> http://www.boscop.org/page/show/100
>> http://www.boscop.org/page/show/101
>
>
> Have a great day in Seattle!
> Greetings from Berlin
> mmp
>
>
>
>
> Peggy Holman wrote:
>> Has anyone noticed more milling about before people move into
>> sessions over the last few years?  I'd been noticing enough of a
>> trend this way that I always intend to explicitly tell people that
>> there won't be anyone telling them when to move, that it is up to
>> them to follow their own rhythms and interests.  I haven't quite
>> internalized this yet, so I usually forget.  Anyway, I think I may
>> have figured out what is going on.
>>
>> I just did an OS for a friend for a group of about 50.  He uses OS a
>> lot but wanted to be able to really participate in this one.   He
>> told me that he was a little surprised when the first round of
>> breakout sessions was starting that I didn't tell people it was time
>> to get started.  He came to me when the first round after lunch were
>> scheduled to start and asked me wasn't I going to ring a bell and let
>> people know?  I basically told him that I never did that.  The
>> participants were adults and could figure it out for themselves.  He
>> was floored and a little upset.  He said he always lets people know.
>> And then it dawned on me:  there are more and more people who have
>> experienced OS.  Perhaps there are many practitioners doing what Jon
>> does - telling people when it is time to start the next session.  I
>> realized that since most of these folks came at Jon's invitation,
>> they were probably enculturated to responding to a bell.
>>
>> So I took what seemed a middle ground to me and rang a bell, saying,
>> "It's 1:30 and all's well."  I figured a town crier was a minimalist
>> thing to do -- providing information without attachment to how people
>> used it.
>>
>> I then spoke more with Jon because I wanted to understand his
>> perspective.  He said that to him, what is posted, like the session
>> start times, are part of the commons and when he is holding the
>> space, that is part of his contract with the group, to give them the
>> information.  He doesn't care what they do once they hear it.  So, it
>> strikes me that Town Crier is a good description of what he does.
>>
>> Given the trend I mentioned, I suspect Jon isn't the only one doing
>> something like this.  I'd love to hear other thoughts on providing
>> information that marks the passage of time.
>>
>> from sunny (for a change) Seattle, Peggy
>>
>> ________________________________ Peggy Holman The Open Circle Company
>>  15347 SE 49th Place Bellevue, WA  98006 (425) 746-6274
>>
>> www.opencirclecompany.com
>>
>>
>> For the new edition of The Change Handbook, go to: 
>> www.bkconnection.com/ChangeHandbook
>>
>> "An angel told me that the only way to step into the fire and not get
>> burnt, is to become the fire". -- Drew Dellinger
>>
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>
>
>
> Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
> ++49-30-772 8000
> www.boscop.org   www.michaelmpannwitz.de
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