Hi Marty. Thank you for your question. It gives me an
opportunity to trill, to tell you the few things I know about
residential open spaces. I am going to have some fun this morning
and I thank you. I also warn you that my note might be long but I
am a good writer and it will probably be fun to read.<br>
<br>
I belong to Spirited Work, which is a now-eight-year-old experiment in
an ongoing, open space community. I say 'now-eight-year-old' even
though Spirited Work (SW) has not had a meeting in the past year or
so. It is certainly just as fully alive as a community as ever
and, as a matter of fact, perhaps we have all integrated the gift of
OST so deeply that we are all whorling in some kind of alignment,
always and forever in OS, even though we have not gathered, thus far,
this year.<br>
<br>
For seven years, SW met for four, 3.5 day gatherings in open space each
year, meeting once each season. Here is a simple outline of how
we managed the open space.<br>
<br>
On Thursday evening, we had an evening gathering which, in my mind, as
a steward of this community, was when we began to build our collective
intention/theme for the weekend. The form of the evening varied
from season to season but, in my mind's eye, it was always an evening
of storytelling. The stories would depend on the season, the
theme of the season, and, of course, what was 'up' in the field.<br>
<br>
Then, on Friday morning, we had breakfast together and began the morning circle at 9 a.m. <br>
<br>
Evening news was held each day at 4:30. <br>
<br>
On the final day, which would end around noon, we still had morning circle at 9 a.m. and then a closing circle.<br>
<br>
In the beginning of SW, there were session times, as is traditional in
OST. Sessions might be from 10:30 to noon, from one to 2:30 and
from 3:00 to 4:30. We did not formally declare evenings to be
time for OS sessions.<br>
<br>
Gradually, SW dispensed with session times. We opened space and
people were free to hold sessions at any time they chose, for as long
as they wished. People could post sessions over lunch. For
many seasons, we had a great astrologer join us and she would present
the latest astrological readings over lunch, even though 'lunch' was
not a session. Wow. I would so love to have lunch
with Gretchen today and hear her tell me about the stars. <br>
<br>
Sometimes SW had evening events. Sometimes a talent show would
emerge. Sometimes we would turn a regular supper into a banquet.<br>
<br>
Now you have to realize, Marty, that our SW community grew and grew in
its practice of open space. Newcomers would be safely introduced
to 3.5 days of fully open space, with no session times and free, open
evenings by returning community members.<br>
<br>
The event you are talking about will not have a pool of returning
members, people who have enjoyed the fine beauty of being in open space
for three whole days. So you will have to think a little bit
about how to reveal to your event the unlimited possibilities of being
in open space even into the evening, even over breakfast, even, who
knows, by walking under the stars.<br>
<br>
I recommend that you have a morning circle and and evening news and
that you trust your group to figure out how to spend their evenings and
lunchbreaks.<br>
<br>
Now I am thinking about another event I co-convened, a Practice of
Peace here in Seattle area. We had 130 people from 25
countries. Yes, we had lots of OS pracitioners but we were a
'new' group in that as a group, none of us had met before. We had no
collective experience of being in residential open space for 3.5
days. This PoP event was held by the SW community so we naturally
slid into our habits. We had a morning circle each day of this
PoP and we had an evening news around 4:30. Because of the
complex logistics, we did post sessions times. And we did not
indicate, on the agenda wall, that lunch, dinner and the evenings were
open space. But, of course, lunch, dinner and the evenings WERE
open space.<br>
<br>
One evening at this PoP, in this large group of people who did not know
each other before the event began, there was a laughing meditation, a
juggling act, some playback theater and poetry. On my gosh, it
was a wonderful evening.<br>
<br>
At one weekend of SW, Marty, two members of our community hastily
arranged a wedding. They had gotten word from their
immigration attorney that they should be married as quickly as
possible, just a day or two before the SW weekend. So on Friday
morning, they posted a planning session for the wedding. Some people
spend all day Friday and Satuarday planning the wedding while other
members of the community had their regular sessions and had a regular
weekend together. Then on Saturday evening, there was a wedding
in open space. Not everyone attending the weekend attended the
wedding but, I am pretty sure, everyone showed up at the party
afterwards. <br>
<br>
In May of this year, I was one of the convenors for an evolutionary
salon, which was a 4.5 day residential event. We followed a
similar pattern: we began for a brief evening the first
day. We opened space after the first morning circle, we had
evening news around 4:30 each day. Open Space 24 hours a day for
4 whole days. Everyone figures out just what to do. <br>
<br>
I have come to think of the morning circle and the evening news as an
essential way of holding the rhythm of a gathering. I often think
of it, in my mind (I don't think I have ever verbalized this 'out loud'
before) that the morning circle and evening news is similar to rocking
a baby. All of life is held together by a central rhythym
(sp? I can't spell this morning), don't you think? When my
daughter was an infant (she is now full grown and must rock herself
without me!), she really needed to go to bed at the same time each
day. Sometimes she did not fully grasp her own need for rhythm,
sometimes she resisted my wisdom of putting her down at 8:30, every
day, no matter what. Sometimees she fussed. But it was up
to me, as the great maternal hearthkeeper of her infant life to hold
her to the rhythm she needed to face each day. I think of morning
circles and evening news as doing the same kind of thing for groups.
And, if you think about it, holding a group to a commonly-aligned
rhythm, especially a group coming together for a one-time or special
event, really, truly, IS the work of the open space holder. As a
hearthkeeper, open space facilitator, I light the flame to focus the
circle's attention and I work throughout the gathering to keep the
flame lit . . . but once I open the circle, once I light the candle,
well, anything can and should happen and it doesn't matter what time of
day or night it is.<br>
<br>
So, I say, Marty. Have your morning circle, hold your evening
news. Hold your circle in your heart and in your mind. And
then step back and watch your group fly rings around anything you could
have imagined for them.<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 7/11/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Marty Boroson</b> <<a href="mailto:marty@becomingme.com">marty@becomingme.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div>
<div link="blue" vlink="purple" lang="EN-US">
<div>
<p><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;" lang="CY">Hello all</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;" lang="CY"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;" lang="CY">I am planning an OS for a conference that will
involve about 80 people staying a beautiful hotel in the country for 3.5 days. Day
1 will probably be lectures and workshops. Days 2 – 4 will be
an Open Space, and we will probably opt to have one theme or question for this
entire period, leading to some kind of action planing on Day 4. </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;" lang="CY"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;" lang="CY">My question is what to do with the evenings of Day
2 and 3, after supper. Should we have "evening news" before
supper, suggesting that our day's work is over? Should we schedule
social events for these evenings? Or should we keep the space "fully
open" and have breakout slots in the evening? In other words,
in an ongoing Open Space, when participants are residential, when is the day
done?</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;" lang="CY"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;" lang="CY">Many thanks,</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;" lang="CY"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Georgia" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Georgia;" lang="CY">Marty</span></font></p>
</div>
</div>
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</div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Love rays,<br>Tree Fitzpatrick<br>.
. . the great and incalculable grace of love, which says, with
Augustine, "I want you to be," without being able to give any
particular reason for such supreme and unsurpassable
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