world osonos?

Tue May 18 23:58:54 PDT 2010

all good and true, lisa.  access to international gatherings is important,
for sure.  other kinds of access matter, too.  and i suspect that how we
navigate all of these issues will be important to the future of our story,
and practice, and community.

consider access to information -- and decision-making.  sometimes people say
that in open space all the people are equal, but i usually point out that
this isn't exactly true.  all the people have the same job: learning and
contributing as much as they can.  they also have equal access to
information -- meaning that anyone can take up the talking piece, anyone can
post an issue and take notes, and anyone can read the notes.

a few years ago, there was a group of 16 people who got together on the
phone to discuss (and ultimately make some decisions) about osonos events.
i was asked to make webpages for this group, but when i asked to join the
conversations, i was told that i did not qualify.  this is where this idea
of three-way rotations came up and some other decisions/stories were made
that strengthened and supported the way things are going now.

while it's true that anyone can post an invitation to something they'd call
an osonos, i'm sure that many would not dare because of the mystique that
we've created around this.  just as many people would not dare to ask for
money or other support for traveling to osonos if it were not for lisa's
access queening work.

one way to make it easier to convene osonos gatherings -- or just clearer --
would be to create a single osonos news space for all such events.  of
course anyone in any organization can always try to convene a meeting, but
this gets so much easier when one of us facilitator types waltzes in and
say's "here's the markers and the paper and there's the wall-- go for it!"
and then, when the ceo and the junior associate each post sessions on the
same wall, those issues -- not the people -- are equal.  they get equal
attention and have equal chance to attract the energy they need and deserve.

so this is what i have offered, from time to time, to help create.  the
rules would be simple, a bit like in an os event.  anyone can post an
invitation to an osonos (or stammiche, too, i suppose), and anyone posting
an invitation would be responsible for bringing back the notes.  if it was
all set up as a simple weblog, we could have three categories:  invites,
session notes (for indivicual sessions), and summaries.  any would-be
convener could have access for posting.

i think such a "wall" for the world would make the whole process more
transparent, accessible, and be a better demonstration of our practice than
our current focus on one big event a year.  i'm not saying don't have a big
event, i'm just saying that the few who attend this year's big event or
special conference call shouldn't be the ones who decide where the next "big
event" is, anymore than the ceo or anyone else gets to stand back and
highlight certain breakouts in an os event to say "now that's the most
important, let's all focus on that one."

if the invitation posting process was really as open and clear and simple --
and shared -- as open space meeting agendas are... then we could easily have
many osonos's proposed in any year and the whole of the community could then
be actively deciding for themselves which one would be the big event.

your suggestion that we all not worry about decisions taken by others is
good advice -- and -- the stories we have about osonos and yearlong
planning, local planning teams, and mysterious decision-making about
rotations and such, coupled with stories about the importance of having one
big event -- all gets in the way of a more open and emergent process of
inviting and convening and reporting.

i can offer to make such a world osonos wall space.  indeed i have offered
web support to hosts for many years.  we've done some experimenting and
learned some things.  i could build the new space in relatively short
order.  but of course, it will only really happen when the world community
chooses it -- when the fact *that* these conversations are happening gets to
be more important than *where* these conversations are happening -- and when
the osonos convening process is made as simple and open and clear as posting
a breakout session in an open space meeting.

if anyone out there is thinking of hosting an osonos sort of gathering,
stammiche, or other event, where there could be an invitation, notes, and
summary -- and you think such an online announcing and documenting process
would be helpful or interesting -- please let me know and we'll get it up
and running.  then anyone who wants to take a marker and paper and convene
an osonos needs only to ask for a username and password and away we go.

another option would be to create largely the same blog-posting-type process
within the ning site.  easier in some ways and more difficult in others.  my
bias would be to keep it clean and separate so the overall demonstration is
clearer and more accessible to the general surfing public.

i'm glad to do some of these techie things, as needed, if anyone wants to
play in this way.

michael

--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates

http://www.michaelherman.com
http://www.ronanparktrail.com
http://www.chicagoconservationcorps.org
http://www.openspaceworld.org

312-280-7838 (mobile)

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 10:29 PM, Lisa Heft <lisaheft at openingspace.net>wrote:

> A bit of fact: The Access Queen project is not a money fund. There are some
> dollars, but not a lot, not travel money or anything but instead, lots of
> work person to person, connecting people to resources - and Askers to Givers
> - and dreams to words, intentions and deeds.
>
> It is helping the Host Teams learn from the wisdom and experience of past
> Host Teams, so they can learn and make their own decisions based on what
> others in their situations have found to be useful or challenging.
>
> It is something working the network to find homestays, sometimes placing a
> small but of money in the pocket of someone with very low finances so that
> they too can buy a book or have a meal out with others at a WOSonOS or
> OSonOS.  The Access Queen project is an awareness raising project,
> helping-people-articulate-their-dreams-and-act-on-them project, a connecting
> people together project, a let's do something for those who are not as able
> as we are project, a pay-it-forward project, an I-believe-in-you project.
> This is what I commit to, am passionate about, this is what I do, to put my
> actions behind my wishes to invite diversity and inclusion at these events.
>
>
> It it so rewarding that I say go my friends, go do anything you like that
> you feel has impact and helps people in any way you wish.
>
> I welcome anyone to host any gathering of Open Space facilitators, learners
> and enthusiasts. Anywhere, any time.
> You do not need my welcome to do so, but I welcome you anyway.
>
> I welcome anyone hosting whatever is their passion.
> For some that is a local or regional OSonOS (such as the one we will be
> having every year in San Francisco and the ones they have in Haiti, Swenmark
> and for the Francophone OS community). Call it whatever you wish.
> For some that is an international OSonOS, and whoever has the passion to
> stand up and say 'I invite you' has my support and awe at such passion and
> power of intention.
> Call it what you will.
>
> For some it may be an event that calls facilitators forward to work
> together on an issue.
> That will not drive my passion, because a WOSonOS/OSonOS - a user's
> conference specifically to explore how we can do this method/tool/process
> and the humble ego it takes very very thoughtfully - is the *only* place I
> can gather with my diverse peers *specifically* to talk about this method,
> stretch learning on it, compare what works for some people and cultures that
> does not work for others, try some things out, and see how others use this
> tool / process / method.
>
> To me, making a big something is not my measurement. Like 'creating peace'.
> To me, *being* peace is the answer. For me.
> To me, for me, that serves more than one issue - it serves all the people
> we will ever work with and for - violence survivors, amazing young people,
> visionary corporate leaders who treat the world as mother and employees as
> humans, artists, people emerging out of war, communities sharing land - all
> sorts of people doing incredible work in this world - without it having to
> be my own issue or my own sense of urgency.
>
> I welcome (but again you do not need my welcome) those of you who feel the
> joy at hosting a $25 event in a church hall to feel that amazing experience.
> I have experienced it, and it is marvelous.
> I welcome those of you who feel the joy at working really really hard on
> inclusion and invitation and outreach and access of site and language and
> visas and more to feel that amazing experience if you wish (as my fellow
> WOSonOS Host Team members did when it was our turn).  I have experienced it,
> and it is also marvelous.
> However you wish.
> (it is my experience that when we do less, others with less mobility,
> ability, language and access have higher hurdles to join us in our marvelous
> spaces so for me, it's the joyful burden of pre-work that will be my delight
> and pleasure to do - but that is just speaking for myself. I am passionate
> about matters of access.)
>
> I crave those times - local or in a place far a way from my home - to learn
> from people of cultures and languages and regions not my own. Because I am
> most enriched, and most humbled, by those experiences. So for myself, I
> appreciate the gatherings of internationals and people of all ages - whether
> I can get to or afford them or whether I simply live in delight that someone
> else can and it's not my time or choice or ability to do so.
>
> I welcome anyone to raise funds or awareness or resources or anything.
> To go or not go.
> To sit with elders or dance their own dance without elders.
> To feel like something is a competition or that someone is creating
> barriers or offering approval or validation - or to release any framework of
> scarcity or competition or barriers and to embrace abundance.
>
> We cannot say for others what they feel or what motivates them (for example
> we cannot say that an inviter to a WOSonOS or OSonOS in their home country
> or region is seeking validation from any of us). We can only truly say what
> we ourselves feel.
>
> So mostly, I welcome you to speak for yourselves, to say "I", to stand up
> and say what *you* will do rather than say what *should* happen.
> To simply refrain from doing what you do not want to do.
> To start whatever you wish.
> To help others in the ways that you can.
> To not be burdened by what you think is someone else's decision but to rise
> to your own power.
> As one reporter here (Wes Scoop Nisker) likes to say: "If you don't like
> the news, go out and make some of your own."
>
> And I'll see you in Chile. And I'll see you in London.
> If life happens that way, and I hope it will.
>
> Lisa
>
>
>
> *
>
> *
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