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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman" DEFAULT="FACE"><FONT SIZE="3" POINTSIZE="12" DEFAULT="SIZE">Dear Avner,<BR>
(all this is in the context of my work in Germany, which is a "given", and maybe I am completely off with my hunch that some of this might also apply to your situation)<BR>
in my experience with urban development projects (in the city of Oranienburg as part of a European/German federal government program called "Future of city neighborhoods", and in one of the Districts of Berlin in connection with yet another program called "Neighborhood Management") there are factors that facilitators always confront but need even more attention than lets say in a business, a school, a hospital.<BR>
One is the question: "Who is the sponsor?" This can be complex especially when the "agent" that you think is the sponsor (like the city government, the local mayor, the city council, etc.) has the tendency to delegate things to other "agents" in his hierarchy (like the city planning department) who in turn delegate most of the activity to someone who has been hired to do the "professional planning" (as a commercial enterprise) for the entire city who then delegates most of the activity, including the writing of the letter of invitation for an open space (the inviter is in fact the mayor) to subcontractors.<BR>
Here, I have learned to insist that the mayor or someone very close to him needs to be in the planning group preparing the open space...in fact, the better you get the "whole system into the room" idea into the planning group in a sort of miniature "whole system", the better.This might also include some of the city planning people and the professionals mentioned above but certainly some "ordinary" citizens, including youths and kids.<BR>
The other thing I have learned (in extension of Birgitt Williams approach) in this particular context is to assist on clarification of the givens. It seems quite ok for citizens to involve themselves in planning processes pretty regardless of what the "givens" are...they just have to really know about them. If they know that they can make suggestions but that someone else eventually decides about these suggestions, thats fine. If they know that none of the suggestions they make are going to turn into projects unless they themselves play an active role in it, thats fine, too. (Mind you, in the long run, people will still do the things that they have a passion for and are willing to take responsibility for).<BR>
One thing that surprised me, is that the "givens" in urban planning projects I just talked about are often "clear as mud" or at least perceived pretty differently at differnt levels or in different departments of the city, so that the planning group trying to figure out what they are, provides a valuable service.<BR>
Once the planning group is clear on who the sponsor is (and hopefully the sponsor realizes what that means) and what the givens are, the question of what that means and how it is communicated comes up.<BR>
In my experience, it is important for the sponsor to actually face up to being it. Sounds normal, but in these urban development processes where the players are under all kinds of demands, it is unusual for the sponsor to actually take part in the planning process, design and sign the invitation, go out and publicize the event, show up at the event and actually stay and work with the citizens and all the others that show up and participate in the follow up events.<BR>
Communicating the givens can be done by providing them to everyone before the event (simple things like a map of the territory in question, the number of years expected for the planning, the amount of funds available, things that are immutable, things that are up for changes, quality of the participation by people attending the open space, etc.). This relieves you from having a bunch of inputs at the event itself...but the people providing the givens need to be at the event, including material that is perhaps shown on information walls, pictures, plans, etc.and an identification of the "experts" at the event that have more detailed information).<BR>
Elections, hmmm. In my naive way I thought the political officers would just love the exposure to a large crowd of citizens especially when thinking of the next elections. What I found, though, is that they would much rather talk to a couple of business people or other "influential" people at another meeting that might take place parallel to the open space and then excuse themselves with the remark that they have this or that important meeting to go to. This must certainly not be true for all elected officials...but you might want to really explore in depth on how to get those "influential" people that the mayor would rather see than the single mom concerned about a deteriorating playground in her neighborhood to come and participate in the open space. The planning groups I worked with had just limited success in this effort but I would prod them to be much more thorough the next time.<BR>
Love to hear more of your project. This might also be a topic of concern in Denmark: os in urban developement projects.<BR>
See you,<BR>
mmp<BR>
<BR>
PS: in one of the recent issues of FutureSearching I wrote a piece about the difficulty in finding a "sponsor" for a future search in a neighborhood...pretty much applies to open space, too.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
And the question:<BR>
We (with Tova) are in a process of using OS in the context of =<BR>
inhabitants participation in building a "Master- Plan" for a small city. =<BR>
We would be very thankful to hear and learn about your experience in =<BR>
this kind of work, especially on the allignment with the city planners =<BR>
and the planning stages, and how coming elections effects it?<BR>
<BR>
Thank you<BR>
<BR>
Avner Haramati<BR>
Jerusalem<BR>
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<br>
Michael M Pannwitz<br>
boscop<br>
Draisweg 1<br>
12209 Berlin, Germany<br>
FON +49 - 30-772 8000 FAX +49 - 30-773 92 464<br>
www.michaelmpannwitz.de<br>
<br>
An der E-Gruppe "openspacedeutsch" für deutschsprechende open space-PraktikerInnen interessiert? Enfach eine mail an mich.</HTML>
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