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<P><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=480091715-13072001>Dear friends and
colleagues in Open Space,</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial>As many of you know, my passion to do with my work in the
world includes a passion for encouraging ongoing organizational life that treats
humans as though they are precious, works with Spirit, and achieves remarkable
results. And this for me means enabling people to make genuine contact which
requires an awakening of the organization as an Open Space Organization, and an
awakening of individuals to higher consciousness of their freedom to make
choices, follow their passion, and take responsibility for their lives and what
they do. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial>Following this passion, I have had many mentors and
wonderful teachers show up in my life, allowing me to learn processes such as
Open Space Technology which fit so completely well with what I believe and what
I hope is possible in the world as an ongoing way of working. As I have written
about before, this journey continued for me in the exploration of the Open Space
Organization and together with my husband Ward, the development of the Genuine
Contact program. The Genuine Contact program (information is available at
</FONT><A href="http://www.openspacetechnology.com/"><FONT
face=Arial>www.openspacetechnology.com</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial>) is the
vehicle we have worked out to working with the Open Space Organization.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial>This communication to the list is to tell you of my
heartfelt gratitude to Spirit and all of my helpers and guides for the following
three items of good news: </FONT></P>
<OL>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>the first "train the trainer" in the Genuine Contact
program that is taking place in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA has over 20
participants. These are people from among hundreds around the world who have
attended the component parts of the Genuine Contact program and are now
readying themselves to teach it. Ward and I had initially thought that for
this first year if we had 6 graduates, it would be a big success. But to have
over 20 taking this program into the world…. WOW. The people who are joining
us are real pioneers, that share our vision of the Open Space Organization as
an important work into the future. And this also means that there will be over
20 people doing training in the world in our session of Working With Open
Space Technology!!!! assisting even more and more people to work with Open
Space Technology and to do it in a way that has common key ingredients both
for the Open Space Technology meeting itself and for information into the
ongoing life of the organization about itself. And we are pleased because
amongst the 22 participants 5 countries will be represented. And the Genuine
Contact workbooks will be translated into Swedish, Russian, and Dutch so that
the programs are available in the language of the people, led by people of the
same language (which we think is important). Several other people have
indicated that they are readying themselves for the program in 2002 and if
they attend, the materials will be translated into yet more languages. It is
our vision to have trainers in all countries from those countries working in
their own language and culture with the workbooks available in the language of
those countries.</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>Phase one of our home and healing center and learning
center is almost complete here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Great care has been
taken to create a center with all the ingredients that we think are important
for this to be a place of healing, retreat, and learning for all who come to
us. Most of the Genuine Contact program trainings in the fall will take place
here. The main room for the training has been designed for 25 persons, with
another larger room to be built when we get to phase two. We wish to offer
people the opportunity to make Genuine Contact with themselves while they are
doing learning with us and we hope that many in the Open Space Community will
find their way here.</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial>Three organizations that are conscious Open Space
Organizations and worked with me in their initial stages of their awakening
and shift to this way of working, five years ago agreed to be interviewed for
a video. We wanted the story of the Open Space Organization to be told in the
words of organizations who are working this way, each differently. We chose to
go with three stories, giving each group interviewed the chance to say what
they wanted. The two women who did the taping were to simply ask the
organizations to tell the story in their own way of their own experience.
Nothing more. This video should be available in September, if not sooner. We
had initially hoped to have it available at OSONOS but don’t know if we’ll
make it in time. All three are smaller organizations which was my choice of
the organizations to work with so that it was easy to see the whole
organization and to see the results of our work together more easily. The
stories will stimulate the vision of what is possible, we believe.</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial><SPAN class=480091715-13072001>The four 2002 workbooks
for the Genuine Contact program a) Session One: Working with Open Space
Technolgy; b) Session Two: Whole Person Process Facilitation, c) Session
Three: Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution and d) the Advanced Program in Open
Space Technology focusing on the Open Space Organization (as one participant
said, smiling, "this session should be called "Going deeply into Open
Space Technology rather than using the word "Advanced" because thankfully
nothing has been added to mess this simple effective technology up" are now
complete (thank you Rachel). The two focusing on OST are about 180 pages each.
Our work is progressing to have each of these on a CD ROM by the end of
September complete with audio and video clips. Unfortunately the language is
only in English. But it is a great beginning. We are using a production house
for the finished product but in keeping true to the concept of "genuine
contact" all taping was done live, genuinely, and with the assistance of a
number of colleagues in Open Space to whom I extend thanks including Thomas
Hermann in Sweden, Gabi Ender in Germany, Judy Robertson and Debbie Sexsmith
in Canada, and Ward Williams accompanying me in my travels. The production
house was not pleased with this way of taping, preferring it to be done in a
studio for best professional sound and video. We could not see doing it that
way and staying true to genuine contact and so the resulting product is
GENUINE and from the heart.</SPAN></FONT></LI></OL>
<P><FONT face=Arial>I wanted to share my gratitude for all of this with each of
you. I thank the many of you who have assisted my journey with this along the
way, who have supported the development of the Genuine Contact program,
journeyed together with us in our first two years of offering this program
around the world, and who have assisted in my own learning, evolution, and
life.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial>Blessings and love,</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial>Birgitt</FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>