What are the benefits of a national OS-Institute?

[Harrison Owen]

The value of an OS Institute is to provide a focal point, online and in
time/space for people who care about Open Space, want to learn more, and to
share what they have learned. I think it is fair to say that over the years,
the  several Institutes (USA, Canada, Oz, Sweden, and any others I may have
forgotten :-() have fulfilled this role with excellence. So why would you
want such a thing? It's productive and fun.  And it doesn't have to be a
whole mess of work - but of course you can work just as hard as you would
like too.

 

The first Institute actually happened in Canada when I was having coffee
with three or four Canadian friends, (Larry Peterson for one) and we were
sort of playing with the idea of "what next?" There was a fair amount of
space being opened and it seemed reasonable to offer a focal point for those
who were doing that. I suggested that they might want to create an
institute. They looked at me in some shock, assuming it would be a
hellacious amount of work. I think Larry asked the pertinent question - How
do we do that?  I said - Just say you've done it! As near as I can figure
out, you can have an Institute any time you say you have one. Of course it
could be officially registered, and have all the bells and whistles - but I
wouldn't do that unless there is some real reason to do it. That reason
might be that you want to have a tax exempt organization to receive funds
and do projects - which is why the US/OSI is a 501-C3. But you don't have
to. 

 

Real point is - if you are not having fun, Don't do it. And if you find that
you are spending a lot of time and effort organizing stuff you are really in
trouble. Self-organization REALLY DOES WORK! So how do you create an
Institute? Simple. Send out an invitation to anybody who might care, sit in
a circle, create a bulletin board, open a market place and Viola! Institute.
Of course if nobody comes - you can have all the cookies and coffee for
yourself. Have fun!

 

Harrison

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive

Potomac, Maryland   20854

Phone 301-365-2093

Skype hhowen

Open Space Training  <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com


Open Space Institute  <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
www.openspaceworld.org

Personal website  <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com 

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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Catherine
Pfaehler
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 5:04 AM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: [OSLIST] What are the benefits of a national OS-Institute?

 

Dear Friends

 

I have been pondering the question of possible benefits of a national
OS-Institute. It's a lot of work to establish one professionally, but also
appealing in order to make OST more visible and prominent as a valuable tool
in our times of ever more complex change.

 

Please tell me about your experiences with your national Institutes.

 

Kind regards, Catherine

 

Catherine Pfaehler Senn

lic.oec.HSG

Open Space Begleitung

St. Alban-Vorstadt 15

CH - 4052 Basel

+41-(0)76 - 488 15 46

c.pfaehler at open-space-begleitung.ch

www.open-space-begleitung.ch <http://www.open-space-begleitung.ch/> 

 

 

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