[OSList] tips for holding OST outside, and other questions

Harrison Owen hhowen at verizon.net
Thu Aug 18 14:03:16 PDT 2011


Birgitt - Wonderful! We now have some new critters. Bumble bees, butterflies
- and MONKEYS!! I am not sure it would work in every situation, but handing
difficult stuff off to Hanuman sounds like a great way to go. Thank you! And
Go Hanuman!!

 

Harrison

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Dr.

Potomac, MD 20854

USA

 

189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer)

Camden, Maine 20854

 

Phone 301-365-2093

(summer)  207-763-3261

 

www.openspaceworld.com

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From: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] On Behalf Of Birgitt
Williams
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 4:44 PM
To: 'Abigail de Vries'; 'World wide Open Space Technology email list'
Subject: Re: [OSList] tips for holding OST outside, and other questions

 

Dear Abigail,

We have held several meetings outside, some in the open, some in a tent with
sides, and one in a tent without sides (not great during the storms that
brought torrential rain as we clustered in the center of the tent but got
wet anyway).  I also have a funny story of an OST meeting in a hill station
in northern India, high up in the mountains. The room was inadequate so we
made good use of outside space. The venue had a lot of mischievous monkeys.
As my husband Ward posted reports outside on the newswall (we used the
outside wall of the building), three of the monkeys were in the space with
him, watching him. When he looked at them, they turned their heads away
pretending they were not watching. As soon as he put his attention to the
wall and posting reports, they moved their heads again to watch closely. I
am sure you can imagine what happened. The monkeys removed reports from the
wall and made off with them. Participants ended up finding their reports
scattered over quite an area. By the last day, all reports had been found
with one exception and the missing report was 'staff retention', a topic
common in most organizations as a big concern. Our group of Indian
colleagues handled this situation in a beautiful and very Indian way. First,
they laughed, then they created stories and shared them.the stories of
course becoming part of the mythology of that organization. One story was
that the monkeys really needed the wisdom of that report as they were also
having similar issues, in which case our participants were happy to share
their wisdom. The second story was in relation to the monkey-god of the
Hindu religion, Hanuman, one of the main gods. As the story developed, the
agreement was that because this was such an important concern that was not
easy to solve, that the monkeys on site had taken this particular report to
Hanuman to work on. Thanks was given then to Hanuman for handling this
subject matter, and the participants moved on to the other topics of
concern, knowing this one was in good hands.and thanked the monkeys for
their part.

 

Now, some tips:

-we use thin ropes and string them between posts of some sort, creating one
or more clotheslines for posting the agenda wall and for posting on the
newswall and for posters etc. Four such lines of good length do just fine.
We supply a lot of clothespins and participants pin their topics etc up on
the clotheslines in much the same way as they would pin up the washing

-have a backup plan for inclement weather. If using a tent with sides, this
is great for rains, and yet it can get very hot so fans would be a good back
up

-test your marking pens on the paper..in humidity, some pens run.so you want
to get a kind that does not run

-microphones and good sound system essential 

-digital audio recorders are very inexpensive these days as are digital
cameras. I encourage use of both, supplying one per breakout area. Audio
recording is most useful if done at the end of the discussion as a summary,
in accordance with your report form headings. In many OST meetings, we do
not use computers, favoring a photo protocol of reports. Participants could
include pictures of their group, they can do drawings or other form of art,
or even using their bodies to form an image that they want to convey.and all
can be photographed for the report.no literacy skills needed. As well, if
there is one person in a group recording the discussion on flip chart, these
would be captured in pictures. Your job with a computer would be to download
and sort into some kind of order. Sharing the digital record of the
proceedings can be done easily using something like dropbox. 

-note, in order to give participants the opportunity to use artistic forms
of expression, bring along a lot of arts & crafts supplies, objects from
nature too if they cannot be found at the venue, plenty of glues, scissors,
colorful paper.

 

Warm wishes for a successful and joyful event,

Birgitt

 

 

Birgitt Williams

President and Senior Consultant, Dalar International Consultancy
<http://www.dalarinternational.com> 
Author, The Genuine Contact Way <http://www.genuinecontactway.com> 

919-522-7750

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From: Abigail de Vries [mailto:adevries1 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 2:40 AM
To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Subject: [OSList] tips for holding OST outside, and other questions

 

hi all, 

am new to this list and to the OS process. am part of  a sponsor group
organising an OST meeting for 150 pax that we want to convene outside in a
field rather than use a rather small and dingy meeting room at the venue. we
would need to put up a tent (in case of rain. this meeting is in Sabah,
Malaysia!) and build our marketplace walls. anyone with experience doing
this outdoors and can offer and tips or things to look out for, would be
much appreciated! 

 

also, does anyone hv suggestions for ways to take convenor notes for
participants who may not be comfortable writing? are specially assigned
note-takers for groups who may need/want one advisable? or hv used other
forms of documentation i.e. audio recordings or whatever? we expect a
diverse group and some may hv disabilities or discomforts in writing. 

 

thanks everyone

abby

 

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