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Ted-- Thanks for sharing your wonderful adventure holding open space. It
sounds like it was exactly right for everyone. As to your question, I have
frequently seen groups decide to all stay together and combine topics or
to make sure all topics were discussed. It's their space, after all. . .<br>
<br>
BJ Peters<br>
<br>
Ted Ernst wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:026d01c21b19$83df7f70$6b283a41@S0026976057">
<pre wrap="">I was indeed sleeping, but here's my story.<br><br>I met Michael Herman last November and was immediately drawn to open space.<br>He helped me draft my invitation (posted her previously) for a one-day, free<br>event entitled "How can I practice peace?" I sent the invitation to my<br>personal email address book (which includes friends of friends from me<br>"replying to all" when I get those chain letters) of over 2,000 as well as<br>spamming dozens of listservs here in Chicago for peace groups, lefty groups,<br>religious groups, ethnic groups, etc.<br><br>I kept it free because I hate to handle money and I hate being expected to<br>provide more than I have to. In spite of this, about 40 people registered<br>(they had to register to get a return email with the address of the event).<br>I published 9am as the start time, and about 9:35 I started to wonder at<br>what time I decide that the right people are in fact assembled and it's time<br>to start. I had a cir
cle of 45 chairs and only about 8 or 9 people in<br>attendance. They seemed to be conversing quite well and enjoying themselves<br>so I didn't feel pressure to get going sooner than I wanted to, but I did<br>wonder about these principles of when it starts is the right time and<br>whoever comes is the right people.<br><br>At about 10 minutes to 10, I started ringing the bells softly and given that<br>there were so few people, they gathered relatively quickly for the opening.<br>As I was walking the circle another man came in and sat down. When I<br>invited people to post their topics, the first person to approach the center<br>took his paper and marker back to his seat, thus setting a precedent that<br>most others followed. I hadn't seen that happen before in the other open<br>spaces I've been in. This time seemed to drag on forever. I wasn't<br>anxious, but was actively patient while I waited for people to stand up to<br>announce their topics and then approach the wall.<
br><br>The first person to approach the wall was the gentleman who came in late and<br>when I asked him to announce his name and topic he said, "It's right there<br>on the paper." "Breathe," I reminded myself, while I let go of controlling<br>anything. Others soon followed putting their topics on the wall and they<br>were more cooperative sharing their names and topics. Two more people<br>entered the room during this topic-posting process and jumped right in after<br>greeting everyone individually.<br><br>One woman asked me if she could arrange the topics by time on the wall. I<br>took this opportunity to share with her two answers to be used for any<br>question. :-) "Great, why don't you take care of that?" and "What would you<br>LIKE to do?" While she started that I offered that while she was doing<br>that, I couldn't guarantee that conveners wouldn't change their times slots<br>as they perused the agenda for the day. Finally this agenda setting seemed<br>finished an
d I opened up the marketplace and left the building (coming<br>around back inside through a different door, staying out of the main room).<br><br>When I finally made it back to the wall, I noticed 4 topics in the first<br>time-slot, two of which had been combined. I looked again and saw all 12<br>people in one smaller circle (no other sessions met). Interesting. I'd<br>never seen that before in the other small open spaces I'd been to. Oh well,<br>"The only thing that could have!" I picked up coffee cups and wandered<br>about a bit, in and out of the main room. I did notice at one point that<br>the man who didn't want to say his name out loud had written "cancelled" on<br>his topic and had decided to leave entirely. Oh well.<br><br>Eventually I felt comfortable enough to sit in on the conversation to<br>listen. Lunch was scheduled for 11:30, immediately after the first session,<br>and people were invited to visit neighborhood establishments (I'd said this<br>in my conf
irmation email, but forgotten to mention it that day). While<br>someone did ask if anyone was hungry shortly after 11:30, the group didn't<br>break up until somewhat closer to 12.<br><br>At lunchtime another participant showed up and I brought him up to speed on<br>what was going on. 3 sessions were scheduled in the afternoon with either 1<br>or 2 topics per session. Again, I stayed out of the way for the start of<br>the first session, but soon felt it was okay for me to sit in (I love to<br>talk and this topic is very dear to me, but somehow I did not feel any need<br>to speak in the session). Curiously, the group decided to stay together for<br>all 3 after-lunch sessions as they had in the morning session. They talked<br>about all the topics, deciding together that they all flowed together and<br>that it was fine to just go from one to another, without regard to time or<br>place. They certainly used the law of two feet to smoke or get coffee or<br>use the restroom or
whatever, even spontaneously taking breaks as necessary,<br>but the main conversation never really stopped all afternoon.<br><br>I didn't have a watch so didn't know when the mythical 4:00 was going to<br>arrive, and we'd have our closing, but at some point, it felt as if I needed<br>to be out of the conversation so I would better know when the "when it's<br>over" time had arrived. It wasn't too much longer when a bunch of people<br>came out of the main room to do whatever they needed to do and one of them<br>told me she saw the "poof" of the group breaking up.<br><br>People had left at various points throughout the day so only 6 were left for<br>the closing. I passed around my bells and asked for learnings or growings<br>or futures or whatever. Everyone had pretty deep things to say, and it<br>seemed that all really enjoyed their time together and hoped to continue<br>being more peaceful every day and sharing that with others.<br><br>I'm curious about this happening of no
break-out sessions. I haven't read<br>too many open space stories, but I don't think I've seen this one mentioned.<br>Have others seen this as well?<br><br>I now hope to engage yesterday's participants in a process of determining if<br>and how a future event could be held. I would like to invite them into the<br>invitation process for next time, hopefully thus crafting an invitation that<br>appeals to more impassioned people.<br><br>It feels good to have experienced this "whatever happens is the only thing<br>that could have" for an event that was driven basically by me. I look<br>forward to bringing together others to drive going forward.<br><br>peace,<br>ted<br><br>___<br>Humanize the Earth! <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.chicagohumanist.org">http://www.chicagohumanist.org</a><br><br>----- Original Message -----<br>From: "Michael Herman" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:mherman@GLOBALCHICAGO.NET"><mherman@GLOBALCHICAGO.NET></a><br>
<br></pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">i do hope this means that there is a story on it's way.<br><br>it's almost one a.m. here in chicago. i hope ted is sleeping.<br></pre>
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