<html><div>At 12:27 AM 1/27/00 -0800, you wrote:</div>
<div>>Harrison wrote:</div>
<br>
<div>>"Chris -- I suggest being a little careful here. If it was
true that all</div>
<div>>the issues were posted by the Planning Committee members</div>
<div>>(could have happened) there is no issue. But since that was
probably not</div>
<div>>the case (never has been, in my experience) you are</div>
<div>>running the distinct possibility that the actual conveners will
feel</div>
<div>>disempowered. That would be a major loss. If there is still
time,</div>
<div>>I would suggest that (at the very least you invite all the
conveners of</div>
<div>>the several issues to join the committee. That is where
your</div>
<div>>energy is -- with the conveners. Use it!"</div>
<br>
<div>Chris Replied:</div>
<br>
<div>. This exercise is primarily for the government folks to
develop some</div>
<div>>personal committment around the issues the community
elucidated. They</div>
<div>>have a deep well to drink from (45 sessions and a lot of
concrete</div>
<div>>action) and my intention is to set them loose on the work and
figure out</div>
<div>>what role they can play to be supportive.</div>
<div>****************************************</div>
<div>Further Thoughts from Harrison:</div>
<br>
<div>Chris -- Not to add to your workload, but it occurs to me that you
actually have TWO very important groups that need to get together. One,
of course is the Government Folks who need to get their stuff together. I
guess they are called The Planning Committee, and you probably can't
change that now. But it seems to me that they are no longer the Planning
Committee (It has all been planned and happened) -- They are in fact just
one other sub-group from the meeting who now have to get their stuff
together in response to what happened. That sounds like a good and
necessary undertaking. BUT there is at least one other group (The
conveners) who are in a siimilar situation. I understand your hesitance
to invite them to come together because of all the other things that are
happening. But maybe it would be wise to let them make the choice? It
could be they don't want to come -- in which case they won't. Or they
might...</div>
<br>
<div>I guess the center of my point is that there are two different needs
and functions here (at least). The Government folks have to get their
heads screwed on right. And -- ALL the people involved (or certainly the
conveners) should be given the opportunity to take responsibility for
their thoughts leading to action.</div>
<br>
<div>At the end of the day what I would be most concerned about is that a
very, very, very old paradigm is re-enforced. BIG BROTHER KNOWS BEST AND
ALTHOUGH HE WILL TAKE YOUR THOUGHTS INTO CONSIDERTATION (MAYBE), IN THE
FINAL ANALYSIS, HE WILL DO WHAT (HE PERCIEVES) IS BEST FOR YOU.</div>
<br>
<div>I am sure that is not your intention, and I believe you that the
excitement generated by the Open Space is such that much good has and
will occur. Never-the less I would be doing my damnedest to make sure
that there is at least the opportunity for all the folks to own their
creation and take responsibilty for its realization. It seems to me from
what you have said that even though the Government folks may have
initiated the whole effort, they are now off center stage. They have
their own issues to deal with and they should so that -- but everybody
(as represented by the conveners and anybody else who cares to show up)
should be involved in the "What-Next. I think.</div>
<br>
Harrison
<br>
<div align="center">
Harrison Owen<br>
7808 River Falls Drive<br>
Potomac, MD 20854<br>
USA<br>
phone 301-469-9269<br>
fax 301-983-9314<br>
website <br>
<a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~owenhh" eudora="autourl">www.mindspring.com/~owenhh</a><br>
Open Space Institute websites<br>
<a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.org</a><br>
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