Wosonos 2012 first open space

Mon Nov 22 17:53:47 PST 2010

Phelim, After I read your long and wonderful email, I wondered how long it
would take before we heard from the man with the hat knowing exactly what he
would say: "don't work so hard"...!!!

We feel your hospitable welcome already and felt it in Berlin with Matilda's
unforgettable invite. The same applies to Juan Luis and the gang in Chile. I
learned a long time ago that if I worked too hard in my hosting job, it made
others feel they had to do as much when they invited me.  So now I try not
to fuss cause I know that it's being in the same space together that means
the most.

Warm regards, Suzanne

On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 4:09 PM, Harrison Owen <hhowen at verizon.net> wrote:

> Phelim -- sounds wonderful and stop working so hard!
>
> Harrison
>
> Harrison Owen
> 7808 River Falls Dr.
> Potomac, MD 20854
> USA
> Phone 301-365-2093
> www.openspaceworld.com
> www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Phelim
> Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 10:44 AM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Wosonos 2012 first open space
>
> Dear OS listers,
>
> As Jon Harvey has already reported on the os list, two weekends ago the
> first open space was held for our Wosonos 2012 event. The Improbable office
> booked the space for us and I opened the space. It was a great turn out
> considering we had limited time to drum up support and interest. Thank you
> for helping make that happen. There was a lot of enthusiasm and lots of
> sessions called and of course the beginnings of the rumblings from the
> field
> that come up when one takes the initiative on starting an event like this.
> I
> got to meet some faces for the first time and also met some people I didn't
> know I knew.
>
>
> So here's my feedback on the whole event. On Sat/Sun we had a day and a
> half
> in open space.
> After the event there are a number of things that are "up" for me. One is
> Improbable's heart responsibility towards creating an event like this and
> ultimately what the nature of their involvement is. Improbable took the
> initiative on making this invitation happen at the 2010 Wosonos, thanks to
> Matilda with support from Jon and Romy, and it was as such that it was
> accepted in Berlin. With this we have been handed an ineffable something,
> we
> have been entrusted with it and we have responsibilities towards it. It is
> like a gentle flame (a metaphor which came up a lot over the weekend) and
> We
> feel a onus to look after this and make sure it doesn't go out. We must
> honour its journey from Berlin and its previous historic invocations it
> will
> be coming to us via Chile and end up in the UK. So we are Honouring the
> past
> whilst looking towards creating a new space for it to burn brightly in the
> future. So at present we are cupping it in our hands trying to shield it
> from our autumn win!
>  ds here.  At the same time we mustn't hold it too tightly so that the
> flame
> gets smothered and loses it's oxygen and spirit.  So can we balance the
> fact
> that we made the invitation and are the trustees of this accepted
> invitation
> without controlling it too much?
>
> All these challenges seem like a perfect opportunity to use what OS is
> designed for. As a company (theatre not business although it of course is
> both) some of the benefits we have are  of being a very small organisation
> who has in the past facilitated some very big events so we have some
> experience here. We also have a pool of people in our own open space
> community (mostly but not wholly from  the artistic world) who have a
> passion for and interest in open space and it's divergent possibilities and
> uses.
>
> My personal interest is in finding out if we can use open space itself to
> unfold an emergent organisation/community/team who will help make all this
> happen. Can we learn how an organisation might create itself out of open
> space principles? At the crux of the process we hope to use this
> opportunity
> to hold a space where open space practitioners feel welcomed, where we are
> welcoming amongst ourselves and consequently in a good place to turn
> outwards to the world to invite people to the UK. We are creating a
> community that welcomes a wider worldwide community.
>
> In this first OS we did the minimum of  "organisation" hoping that the
> people who turn up will take responsibility for doing/changing things they
> want to make happen.
>
> So the tension we find ourselves holding in is looking after the trust that
> has been placed in us to host this event with the desire to not "control"
> or
> dictate how it happens. This is also important to us as we genuinely cannot
> do this alone and need the support of others in order to manifest this
> event.
> At the moment we are still negotiating the fact that some people are
> turning
> up and ask: "How are you going to be doing this?" Well ultimately it will
> of
> course be how are we going to do this?
>
>
> The idea for what the event should be included some of these criteria:
>
> It should be: An exciting party; Open to all; Have many by-products that
> are
> beneficial to the UK open space community & worldwide communities; Help
> build and coalesce the latent UK community which is "out there";  Ensure
> all
> the people who want to be a part of it are given the opportunity to do so.
> Welcoming people from the wider world to our Open shores. Transparency is
> an
> essential ingredient for the central host team.
>
>
> I also saw lots of the prime ingredients for the fertile compost open Space
> thrives on. This is a list of the criteria for OS to operate at a high
> performance level.
>
>
> #1: A real business issue:
> Yes we have it. A commitment to make this event happen in 2012 in the UK
> for
> the UK OS community and the world.
> #2: Voluntary self selection: so our invite has gone out and already a
> group
> of interested people have shown up. There is a commitment to do a number of
> open spaces which invite the UK OS community to take part. This has been
> flagged as hopefully not just being London centric so our reach has to go
> further but I imagine those who can and are interested in working with us
> will come to the next open spaces or stay in touch with us. We are aiming
> to
> do open spaces outside London to pick up other memebers of the community
> and
> widen the net. This continued activity of opening space in different spaces
> will unfold its own self selection process. Anyone who is interested in
> other parts of the UK who wants to host an invite in your area of the UK
> please let us know!
>
> #3: High levels of complexity: Already the challenges we face are I feel
> beyond the ability of one single "old style" directive organisation of
> encompassing or holding. The challenges we face in looking after the UK and
> world communities their demands,dreams and hopes for the event are
> incredibly complex.
>
> #4:High levels of diversity:
> This is an interesting one. I actually feel there was a good level of
> practitioner diversity at the event but feel the call to do further events
> really wants to engage with this. Ambassadors will be essential in
> fulfilling this criteria on all the potential colours and possibilities.
>
> #5:Presence of passion and conflict: Yes present and correct I feel: in the
> feedback on how we did the event, gossip and certainly present in some of
> the sessions and interactions I had. Hurrah!
>
> #6:Decision time of yesterday:
> People keep asking us when its going to happen on the OS list and also
> who's
> doing it so I guess we are already late by some peoples clocks!
>
>
> The reports from the first OS have already gone online as a blog for the
> people who were there to contribute to and comment on.
>
> Overall
> Speaking for Improbable I'd like to say what is important for us is our aim
> to ensure all the people who want to be a part of Wosonos 2012 are given an
> authentic opportunity to do so. At the moment I feel that as a core
> organisation unfolds or emerges we will be part of that or have a strong
> relationship to it. We aim to maintain the links with the world community
> and the world institutes. As this story tells itself Improbable must make a
> decision as to what level of responsibility we take in it. As this happens
> we will make an informed decision as to how central we are to that
> organisation either as a company or as individuals. It is all unfolding.
>
> In terms of actions, what needs to be decided and actioned on is: Where and
> when the next open space to continue creating this team happens? Who hosts
> it? We already have one offer which we need to say yes or no to soon. I'd
> like to know if there are more out there? Either from the people who came
> to
> the event or others who didn't come. So that would also include all kinds
> of
> offers from suggesting a good space, a good place in the rest of the
> country
> to go to or include, offers to host with or without our support etc..
> Etc..All variations considered!  Please put the word out and get in touch
> with us as soon as possible!
>
> Best wishes to you all out there in the world
>
> Phelim x
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
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-- 
Suzanne Daigle
NuFocus Strategic Group
7159 Victoria Circle
University Park, FL 34201
FL 941-359-8877;
CT 203-722-2009
www.nufocusgroup.com
s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
twitter @suzannedaigle

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