[OSList] An invitation for future invitations to WOSONOS

JL Walker via OSList oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
Fri Oct 2 14:08:01 PDT 2015


Hi friends!

 

All of this issue make to remember me this wonderful and fun moment (Thanks Christine Koehler by immortalize this, although we must move our head slightly to the left.):

 

https://vimeo.com/11757978 

 

And now the song is something like this, I think: https://youtu.be/U89hYR8cc5c 

 

Laughter and hugs,

 

Juan Luis

 

De: OSList [mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] En nombre de Suzanne Daigle via OSList
Enviado el: viernes, 02 de octubre de 2015 16:16
Para: Eleder_BuM; World wide Open Space Technology email list
Asunto: Re: [OSList] An invitation for future invitations to WOSONOS

 

Dearest Eleder,

 

How I love all that you've captured in your note most especially the spirit of invitation and the joy of attending. The fact that there are more and more international gatherings, big and small, training and reunions, is so wonderful. 

 

Having co-hosted a WOSonOS in Florida with a wonderful gang of University of South Florida students and others, I know the love that went into the welcome and the planning. I felt the same from other host countries where I attended getting a chance to experience their culture through their preparation, feeling the anticipatory joy they had in receiving us.  It was in those little touches that I felt it most, local foods, the Open Space posters in their language, their help as to where to stay (so appreciated when I was going to a foreign country) and their recommendations on restaurants or perhaps a few places to visit.  No one could argue that some of these things have nothing to do with Open Space, nor are they required but I would never want to deprive the hosts of making us feel special and welcome through those littles touches. At the same time, it can be just as simple as the way Harrison describes it. I totally love those too. 

 

In our case, the preparations included a few training events and a community Open Space a few months before WOSonOS. All of this seeded an open space way of doing and being that continues to sprout in so many surprising ways years later in the Tampa Bay region and beyond. Most important of all are the spaces that were opened inside each of us. 

 

That said, I have always felt that those preparations should never distract or predetermine what happens in Open Space nor should they be a burden or put pressure on people to do the same. 

 

Life is a mix and in the spirit of self-organizing, I think there's room for less is more and sometimes a bit more than less. Up to the hosts to decide, there is no right or wrong, better or less.  Reminds me of the Law of 2 Feet.

 

I sure hope my two feet take me to Manilla cause I want to walk those hundred miles so that we can "hold the whole wide world in our hands", "whistling all the while". In case you missed it, I fell in love with this video by Sharon Joy Chao. Keep humming it all the time. Whether there in spirit or in person, we feel your welcome and spirit of invitation!  

 

https://animoto.com/play/XvXVDcOKXjGo0jb1SkwqGQ

 

Suzanne




Suzanne Daigle
Open Space Facilitator
NuFocus Strategic Group

FL 941-359-8877
Cell: 203-722-2009
 <http://www.nufocusgroup.com> www.nufocusgroup.com
 <mailto:s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com> s.daigle at nufocusgroup.com
Twitter @Daiglesuz

 

 

On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 7:52 AM, Eleder_BuM via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

Hello family!

 

I find having a local  (yearly or every 2 years) osonos very stimulating. 

In the Basque Country we started in 2013 (bOSonOS; I knew in Krakow, that Berliners had done quite many bOSonOS, too) and we are having quite much fun. The invitation is always open to everyone. Probably we´ll  keep doing bOSONOS for some years, the local community will grow and, little by little people from far away will like coming.

 

Maybe one day we´ll invite for wosonos. If a good bunch of fellows are eager to share the task so as everyone can enjoy it. If we one day decide to invite, I suppose it will be quite simple. Then, if people decide to come wosonosing, great. If not, very fine too (one less thing to take care of :).

 

I love attending the international ones from time to time. Enriching, as it makes possible meeting many new practitioners, and OS is people, as life is, too, people -for me, mainly <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ1J9d27aA0> -. Krakow was fantastic, as ever.

 

I find myself very comfortable when attending an osonos where 30-70 people attend. Enough variety and not too overwhelming. More manageable.

 

I love knowing that the OS community grows on and on, and we are getting to have several osonos yearly around the world. This way, when one is really eager to attend one, the "difficulty" would be on oneself, deciding "which great party will I attend now"? It seems that something like this is already happening, great!

 

I suppose we take on too much responsibility and work because we assume that the more people come, the better (And, what about "Whoever comes...?").

 

I find, too, that, specially when international, we tend to take on too much burden as invitors. For example,...

*	Does the fact that many people will be coming by plane make it more difficult for the invitors to manage it? Why?
*	The payment issue, ... does it involve too much work? What would be the cons of just allowing paying cash on the site?
*	Is a fancy website really required? Or could we even registrate with an email an d having attendees fill in a 3 minutes form?
*	Does the food standard of the meeting tend to be too "smart", "high quality",... making it more difficult for the sponsors to hold? Why?
*	Is organizing a parallel online wosonos really required? Knowing that the permanent Wosonos is happening all the time on the OSLIST and other places online?
*	Maybe some of us feel the burden of showing the world "what our nation is like?..."

*	Which other details are the ones that make it specially hard convening wosonos, (apart from taking or assuming the decisions on how to manage language diversity)?

Having had so many wars all around the world for centuries,...Maybe it puts an extra psychological burden on the invitors, wherever they live? Maybe we tend to make a special effort to make it clear all over the world that "we are lovely people":)?

 

Regarding the decision on how to decide "where next wosonos"? What 

are the special features of wosonos? Maybe that you´ll usually meet there more os-nicks than in a regular osonos (= that it´s bigger)? maybe that you´ll meet with people of a wider part of the planet (= that it feels more diverse)? Perhaps knowing that there are many people that repeat the experience during years and special bonds appear, and you can get to know/become more part of this big family?

 

I like the original spirit and I find that we could make it that simple now too,...

"Some nice soul just said, “Come See us.” If two people had similar inclinations, but different places in mind, who ever spoke second covered the following year. No fuss, no bother and in 10 minutes time the essential arrangements were made."

 

I assume that whoever invites is full of passion and able to host us in OS. And that OS, it´ll always be the same and it´ll be also very different each time. 

 

In fact it´s the people coming, the participants, who make the OS experience.

 

In an osonos, a specially high percentage of participants know it, we are the ones that know it best :)! So why do we care so much (I feel) about who the invitors+facilitators are and sometimes seem to evaluate if they are really prepared to hold the event?

 

I hope this chaotic and disperse ideas add something to the conversation.

 

Enjoy life!

 

Eleder

 

 

2015-09-30 22:42 GMT+02:00 Michael Herman via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org>:

thanks for raising these questions, pernilla.  what you're proposing in terms of people (rather than countries!) coming forward at the beginning of the gathering makes great sense to me.  these invitations can be offered at any time, of course, including a week or a month before the wosonos gathering time.  if our tradition were to evolve in that direction, there could be some commenting on that in advance of the gathering.  

 

at the same time, the thing that makes for the pressure and scarcity and overall un-OS feeling of this situation isn't really a question of when the invites are offered, but that we have developed this habit of having only one of these gatherings at once, or one per year, or more specifically that we designate just one as *the* world osonos, even though nordic and haitian and camden and oz folks and some other have had significant series of osonos gatherings.  

 

i really like the idea that these things could happen on several continents at once, so the wosonos had multiple sites.  progress of tools like qiqochat offer interesting possibilities of being able to easily bumblebee across oceans.  we've also been growing a tradition of spinning these things up into major productions, perhaps drifting some from the simple power of our core practice.  if we met in more places at once and traveled shorter distances, maybe the hosts would feel less pressure to "work too hard" an planning and organizing these things?

 

what if the wosonos could evolve in the direction of a kind of world-around OS carnival/retreat/learning exchange week?  many invites, many parties, i mean working sessions?

 

michael

 

 




 
--

Michael Herman
Michael Herman Associates
http://MichaelHerman.com
http://OpenSpaceWorld.org

Pernilla – It always amazes me how simple things complexify and happenstantial acts suddenly become “intricate tradition.”

 

Back in the day, long ages ago, having an Open Space on Open Space (OSONOS) seemed like a  fun thing to do. I think it took me all of 4-5 hours (total) to organize it, and the “fee” for attendance was $25. Actually, truth to tell, I did charge something like $200 for the first one on the grounds that there was some value added on my part. But after  the first one, when it became quite clear that I really didn’t do a thing... we got back to something reasonable. That was $25 to cover Post-its, magic markers, News Print, etc.  And when it came to figuring out where it was going to “happen” next – the process was indeed elaborate. Some nice soul just said, “Come See us.” If two people had similar inclinations, but different places in mind, who ever spoke second covered the following year. No fuss, no bother and in 10 minutes time the essential arrangements were made.

 

I don’t know when or how,  but things started to drag on. I am sure a lot of folks didn’t see it the same way I did, but I have to confess that I found my two feet working if the discussion of “next place” lasted more than about 10 minutes... being a person of very short attention span. I have been to most OSONOS’s and loved every one. But a few years ago it did seem to me that we were working much too hard. It also seemed that having THE (W)OSONOS was somehow a strangely competitive situation. Definitely working too hard!

 

As far as I was concerned anyone, anywhere should invite whomsoever to wherever. OSONOS all over! And just to make the point I tried two such things in Camden Maine. OSONOS-by-the-Sea, I called it. I think I broke my record when it came to organizing time. If I said 3 hours, that would be stretching it. We were filled out in about 48 hours and the fee was $25, most of which I gave to Lisa for her good work. When it came to accommodations, I just provided the website of the Chamber of Commerce, and suggested that anybody who was coming might check it out and find a nice bed/meal/front porch. A local parish let us have the use of their Hall (for a small fee) – and we were in business. Actually the fee that they proposed was so ridiculously low that I doubled it – and we still gave most of the money to Lisa! Go figure.

 

Maybe it is catching? I notice that Andrew Rixon is welcoming folks to Melbourne and I am looking forward to joining Mrs. Song and friends in Beijing shortly. And then of course Manila is upcoming. And what’s happening in Sweden?

 

This seems to have gone on for a bit. And I do have a bottom line: If it ain’t fun, don’t do it. And if you are working too hard, that definitely begins to cut into the fun. So Pernilla, in an odd sort of way, I just want to get back to basics – Would that be tradition? Make it fun. Make it simple. Open Space wherever you can, and amazing things always happen. The more the merrier!!!!

 

Harrison

  

 

On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 2:22 PM, Lisa Heft - via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

How wonderful, your invitation, in all its richness, Pernilla. 

 

Another two things I would like to add: 

 

1) As always, for any team interested in hosting a WOSonOS for a future year, I have a growing living letter of lessons-learned - gathered wisdom from past host teams, that has been growing since 2001 and that I happily offer to whoever wishes to contact me. My request is that if you, dear reader, are thinking “oh that is something I / we will ask Lisa for” then please wait until a few weeks from now, as I will in a few weeks update it with the latest Host Team’s lessons-learned. 

 

And 2) As has happened at several years in the past, including at our recent WOSonOS  - you as a Host Team / Host Team representative do not have to be physically present at a WOSonOS in order to invite. Several of us have over the years acted as representatives for teams wishing to invite who were not able to physically make it. And you can make us do whatever you like, to represent you !

 

Looking forward to the conversation,

Lisa

 

 

On Sep 30, 2015, at 12:03 PM, Pernilla Luttropp via OSList <oslist at lists.openspacetech.org> wrote:

 

Hi all!
At the inspiring WOSONOS in Kraków there were some learning conversations on how this community  goes about when expressing and accepting invitations from countries/places to host the upcoming WOSONOSes.
 
In the big circle there were voices that expressed some confusion and discomfort with the process. Others said that whatever happened, they would trust the process. There was also the mentioning of ‘traditions’ and the ways things are usually done at a WOSONOS. And the reminder that traditions are made in every single now and ‘Whatever happens is the only thing that could have’.
 
If you are new to WOSONOS
This is how it’s usually done (I think): the countries that wish to host the next WOSONOS makes an invitation at the closing circle of the WOSONOS and the participants are free to accept any of the invitations. The process of accepting the invitation is sometimes done by some kind of ‘voting’ procedure in order to agree on one place. There is often someone who reminds everybody that the only way to ‘vote’ in Open Space is by applying ‘The law of mobility’. There is no need to only have one WOSONOS, there could be multiple since ‘Wherever it happens is the right place’.
 
My view
I am personally very uncomfortable to use the words ‘voting’ or to ‘make a collective decision’ within an Open Space. One of the beauties with Open Space is taking responsibility for your own engagement. If we all share the same engagement we will walk in the same direction, eventually. But sometimes it takes time for things to emerge.
If a group decides on voting there are many good methods and it’s of outmost importance for those present to understand what they are about to do, in order to make an informed decision. Is it a majority decision? How many is the majority? What happens if some vote no? Is it possible to have a ballot vote? Is it the role of the facilitator to sum it up and make the final decision? In my view, we can only express our appreciation for the invitation at the Open Space, offer help if needed and make use of the law of mobility. 
 
An invitation
This is an invitation to try something else and maybe to let go of a ‘tradition’. What if we opened up at the beginning of the process in order to see how it self organizes at the end? 
There seems to be something unclear about the ‘tradition’ on how to get information about who is inviting and why. If that information were transparent from the very start of the WOSONOS, it might enable more dialogue with the inviting hosts and between the hosts.
 
The countries/places that wish to host a future WOSONOS could post this on the OSLIST and Facebook and send a gentle reminder a few weeks before the upcoming WOSONOS. The inviting hosts would then be posted on a flip chart at the WOSONOS and announced as a session when creating the bulletin board or at the evening news. As always there is the opportunity to add places, sessions and news announcements up until the closing circle, both on the spot and via other ways of communicating. This would make it easier for everyone to approach the hosts, express their delight or ask clarifying questions. It would also enable the hosts (or their representatives) to come together in a session and find out how they would like to do the invitations in the closing circle. Maybe some will wait until next year? Maybe multiple WOSONOSes in one year? Maybe in different continents at the same time? Maybe with different themes/urgent questions? Let’s embrace chaos and see what emerges! Or ‘Whatever happens is the only thing that could have’.
 
Since the closing circle have a more definite dead line than ‘When it is over it is over’, due to flights and other time restrictions, this prolonged invitation process will open up time for more dialogues and invitations. 
But then again, as said in the closing circle in Kraków, there is nothing like a good mess in order to learn something new J

Maybe it has been tried before and in that case I’m interested to know how it worked or didn’t work.

Greetings from Sweden!
Pernilla

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