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<FONT FACE="Verdana">Oops, this was Part 1 of the Circles exchange I just posted! Anne<BR>
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<B>From: </B>"Henri Lipmanowicz" <henri.lipmanowicz@verizon.net><BR>
<B>Date: </B>Tue, 13 Jan 2004 23:49:35 -0500<BR>
<B>To: </B>"Anne Stadler" <annestad@nwlink.com>, "Peggy Holman" <peggy@opencirclecompany.com><BR>
<B>Cc: </B>"Alan Stewart" <alan.stewart@senet.com.au><BR>
<B>Subject: </B>FW: [US Plexus] In response to TCP (Jan 8, 2004)<BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT SIZE="4"><FONT FACE="Comic Sans MS">Anne, Read what's below and appreciate the small world we live in. Alan who, I now find out, is a friend of yours is also a member of Plexus. It was fun to read about you in a response to a Plexus Thursday Complexity Post. I thought it would be nice to close the circle.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000080"><FONT SIZE="4"><FONT FACE="Comic Sans MS">How are you Alan; I am a lucky guy who has discovered your friends from Seattle thanks to Peggy and an accidentally well timed Plexus conference in Seattle that gave me the opportunity to accept Peggy's invitation to attend a Spirited Work gathering last summer. Wow! I am out of breath after such a long sentence!<BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#333333"><FONT SIZE="4"><FONT FACE="Comic Sans MS">Henri<BR>
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</FONT><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Tahoma">-----Original Message-----<BR>
<B>From:</B> Listadmin@plexusinstitute.org [mailto:Listadmin@plexusinstitute.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Darren Stanley<BR>
<B>Sent:</B> Monday, January 12, 2004 1:38 PM<BR>
<B>To:</B> usplexus@plexusinstitute.org<BR>
<B>Subject:</B> [US Plexus] In response to TCP (Jan 8, 2004)<BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><FONT FACE="Arial">Hello All,<BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><FONT SIZE="2">This past weekend, Alan Stewart (from Adelaide, Australia) sent us this e-mail in response to last week's TCP on sub/urban living. We thought that we would share a part of it - partially edited for purposes of sharing with others on this listerv. This e-mail comes as part of an exchange with The World Cafe listserv.<BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><FONT SIZE="2">Alan's note is about "What else can a shopping mall be?" and is concerned about changing suburban life for the better. Shopping malls can, evidently, become interesting "watering holes" or "gathering places" for intersting conversation in the suburbs!<BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><FONT SIZE="2">Thanks for sharing this, Alan!<BR>
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<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><FONT SIZE="2">Enjoy.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Tahoma">-----Original Message-----<BR>
</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">From: "Alan Stewart"<BR>
To: "World Cafe" <<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>theworldcafe@communityfrontiers.com</U></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Verdana"> <mailto:theworldcafe@communityfrontiers.com> </FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">><BR>
Subject: Re: Pioneering enterprise for a community meeting place <BR>
Date: Monday, 5 January 2004 10:57 AM<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"> <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">G'day Edna and All<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">The article on 'Coffee Houses: The Internet of the Enlightenment' you referred us to was most enjoyable and enlightening! You have prompted me to relate a story of a remarkable current initiative in a similar vein. <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">World Cafer's world wide may be interested to know of this pioneering venture. It is by private enterprise to create a space which could become a hub of suburban community life. And that it may well have foundered had it not been for strong support and collaboration from the people for whom it was designed. <BR>
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This is Third Place Books and its associated Third Place Commons, in Seattle. These are the brainchild of Ron Sher, who acted on his perceived need for a space in which people could congregate in a relaxed atmosphere, participate in community events - and talk to strangers!<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"> <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">See: <FONT COLOR="#800080"><U>www.thirdplacebooks.com</U></FONT> <http://www.thirdplacebooks.com/> and "Community Builder: In Ron Sher's 'third places,' people come first" <BR>
<FONT COLOR="#800080"><U>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2003/1109/cover.html</U></FONT> <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2003/1109/cover.html> <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">Ron was inspired to do this by the writing of Ray Oldenburg in his seminal book 'The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community.' In this Ray outlined beautifully just what are Third Places and why they are at the core of civic life - and important features of a democratic society. <FONT COLOR="#800080"><U>http://user.gru.net/domz/third.htm</U></FONT> <http://user.gru.net/domz/third.htm> <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">There is also a followup publication entitled: 'Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories about the "Great Good Places" at the Heart of Our Communities.'<BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#085299"><FONT FACE="Arial"><U>http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/items/bookreview/item_3882.html</U> <http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/items/bookreview/item_3882.html> <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">I happened to be present at the opening of Third Place Books and note that it is now a venue for weekly Conversation Cafes, an offshoot of the World Café. <FONT COLOR="#800080"><U>http://www.conversationcafe.org</U></FONT> <http://www.conversationcafe.org/> <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">Some five years ago my wife Carmen and I were in Seattle staying with friends Anne and Dave Stadler. When taking a walk from their home to a nearby shopping center we came across the about-to-be-opened enterprise of Ron and his colleagues, in what had been an underperforming supermarket. (We attended the launch a few days later).<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">Here are a couple of brief excerpts from what Anne has written on the history of 'Friends of Third Place Commons': <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">"In November 1998, Third Place Books opened in the of Lake Forest Park mall. Our friends, Alan and Carmen Stewart, were visiting us from Australia. They came back from a trip to the just-getting-organized place with wildly enthusiastic reports about our wonderful community place in the mall.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">"Oh yeah? No way! That mall has never been a wonderful community place," was our skeptical response.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">"No really! I met the owner and he described his vision for the place. He wants to create a community living room next to the bookstore. There's a stage, and lots of tables and chairs. There's even a big chess board on the floor", Alan assured us..<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">Next day, our Australian friends dragged us down to the mall for coffee. The change was amazing! The whole upper level had been opened up. There was a day-light atrium. And the Honey Bear Bakery--our favorite Seattle bakery-- to which we'd been going for years--was one of the five cafes serving food, along with Kittos--one of our favorite Japanese restaurants on Broadway. We were enchanted by the idea of a "third place". A public gathering place...Intuitively it felt "right". We wondered: could Third Place help create the "community" we were looking for?" ...<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">Anne also wrote, on the birth of 'Friends of Third Place Commons':<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">"One day in February 2000, I was in the Honey Bear line to order my lunch, eavesdropping as usual. Next to me a tall slender man with expressive bright eyes was talking animatedly to our City Manager. They were discussing the fact that business wasn't going well. I listened as they commiserated, then I began to realize they must be talking about Third Place Books. So, I introduced myself.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">"I'm Anne Stadler, a long-time resident of Lake Forest Park. Are you involved in Third Place Books?"<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">"I'm Ron Sher, the owner," said the tall man.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">So I launched into a paen of praise for his vision, and explained how crucial Third Place was to the evolution of community here.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">"Well, I wish it were as financially successful as it is socially! It's a big space and we're not making it financially. I don't know how long I can keep it open" [while continuing to provide free music and other entertainment] he replied.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">We parted to sit down to our separate lunch dates. Part way through my lunch meeting, I had an idea: Why not have the community that love Third Place be involved in supporting and running the Commons? I excused myself for a minute, and went across the Commons to interrupt Ron's meeting with my question. His eyes lit up and he said "Yes! That's an interesting idea. What would that look like?"<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">A few minutes later he came over to my table and asked "What do you have in mind?"<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">(I was later to learn that he greeted almost every idea which was consistent with his vision with the same sort of enthusiasm. That spirit of "yes!" started in our first exchange and has animated Third Place Commons ever since.)<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">At that moment, I had nothing in mind, just the question. But by the end of the meal, we'd had several more exchanges, and we had committed to a date for Ron to meet with a small group of local leaders I'd get together to see if there were any interest in the community for exploring with Ron how we could keep Third Place Commons open for the community." .....<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">This has happened, with a great deal of creativity, enthusiasm and hard work by people around Seattle.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">See: <FONT COLOR="#800080"><U>http://www.thirdplacecommons.org</U></FONT> <http://www.thirdplacecommons.org/> and <FONT COLOR="#800080"><U>http://www.thirdplacecommons.org/about/index.html</U></FONT> <http://www.thirdplacecommons.org/about/index.html> <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">How's that for a story? <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">I wish you well for the New Year - and lots of luck. <BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">Alan<BR>
Adelaide<BR>
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