all good and true, lisa. access to international gatherings is important, for sure. other kinds of access matter, too. and i suspect that how we navigate all of these issues will be important to the future of our story, and practice, and community.<br>
<br>consider access to information -- and decision-making. sometimes people say that in open space all the people are equal, but i usually point out that this isn't exactly true. all the people have the same job: learning and contributing as much as they can. they also have equal access to information -- meaning that anyone can take up the talking piece, anyone can post an issue and take notes, and anyone can read the notes. <br>
<br>a few years ago, there was a group of 16 people who got together on the phone to discuss (and ultimately make some decisions) about osonos events. i was asked to make webpages for this group, but when i asked to join the conversations, i was told that i did not qualify. this is where this idea of three-way rotations came up and some other decisions/stories were made that strengthened and supported the way things are going now.<br>
<br>while it's true that anyone can post an invitation to something they'd call an osonos, i'm sure that many would not dare because of the mystique that we've created around this. just as many people would not dare to ask for money or other support for traveling to osonos if it were not for lisa's access queening work. <br>
<br>one way to make it easier to convene osonos gatherings -- or just clearer -- would be to create a single osonos news space for all such events. of course anyone in any organization can always try to convene a meeting, but this gets so much easier when one of us facilitator types waltzes in and say's "here's the markers and the paper and there's the wall-- go for it!" and then, when the ceo and the junior associate each post sessions on the same wall, those issues -- not the people -- are equal. they get equal attention and have equal chance to attract the energy they need and deserve. <br>
<br>so this is what i have offered, from time to time, to help create. the rules would be simple, a bit like in an os event. anyone can post an invitation to an osonos (or stammiche, too, i suppose), and anyone posting an invitation would be responsible for bringing back the notes. if it was all set up as a simple weblog, we could have three categories: invites, session notes (for indivicual sessions), and summaries. any would-be convener could have access for posting.<br>
<br>i think such a "wall" for the world would make the whole process more transparent, accessible, and be a better demonstration of our practice than our current focus on one big event a year. i'm not saying don't have a big event, i'm just saying that the few who attend this year's big event or special conference call shouldn't be the ones who decide where the next "big event" is, anymore than the ceo or anyone else gets to stand back and highlight certain breakouts in an os event to say "now that's the most important, let's all focus on that one." <br>
<br>if the invitation posting process was really as open and clear and simple -- and shared -- as open space meeting agendas are... then we could easily have many osonos's proposed in any year and the whole of the community could then be actively deciding for themselves which one would be the big event. <br>
<br>your suggestion that we all not worry about decisions taken by others is good advice -- and -- the stories we have about osonos and yearlong planning, local planning teams, and mysterious decision-making about rotations and such, coupled with stories about the importance of having one big event -- all gets in the way of a more open and emergent process of inviting and convening and reporting. <br>
<br>i can offer to make such a world osonos wall space. indeed i have offered web support to hosts for many years. we've done some experimenting and learned some things. i could build the new space in relatively short order. but of course, it will only really happen when the world community chooses it -- when the fact *that* these conversations are happening gets to be more important than *where* these conversations are happening -- and when the osonos convening process is made as simple and open and clear as posting a breakout session in an open space meeting.<br>
<br>if anyone out there is thinking of hosting an osonos sort of gathering, stammiche, or other event, where there could be an invitation, notes, and summary -- and you think such an online announcing and documenting process would be helpful or interesting -- please let me know and we'll get it up and running. then anyone who wants to take a marker and paper and convene an osonos needs only to ask for a username and password and away we go.<br>
<br>another option would be to create largely the same blog-posting-type process within the ning site. easier in some ways and more difficult in others. my bias would be to keep it clean and separate so the overall demonstration is clearer and more accessible to the general surfing public. <br>
<br>i'm glad to do some of these techie things, as needed, if anyone wants to play in this way.<br><br>michael<br> <br><br><br><br><br clear="all"> <br>--<br><br>Michael Herman<br>Michael Herman Associates<br><br><a href="http://www.michaelherman.com">http://www.michaelherman.com</a><br>
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<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 10:29 PM, Lisa Heft <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lisaheft@openingspace.net">lisaheft@openingspace.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word;">A bit of fact: The Access Queen project is not a money fund. There are some dollars, but not a lot, not travel money or anything but instead, lots of work person to person, connecting people to resources - and Askers to Givers - and dreams to words, intentions and deeds.<div>
<br></div><div>It is helping the Host Teams learn from the wisdom and experience of past Host Teams, so they can learn and make their own decisions based on what others in their situations have found to be useful or challenging.</div>
<div><br></div><div>It is something working the network to find homestays, sometimes placing a small but of money in the pocket of someone with very low finances so that they too can buy a book or have a meal out with others at a WOSonOS or OSonOS. The Access Queen project is an awareness raising project, helping-people-articulate-their-dreams-and-act-on-them project, a connecting people together project, a let's do something for those who are not as able as we are project, a pay-it-forward project, an I-believe-in-you project.<div>
This is what I commit to, am passionate about, this is what I do, to put my actions behind my wishes to invite diversity and inclusion at these events. </div><div><br></div><div>It it so rewarding that I say go my friends, go do anything you like that you feel has impact and helps people in any way you wish.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I welcome anyone to host any gathering of Open Space facilitators, learners and enthusiasts. Anywhere, any time.</div><div><div>You do not need my welcome to do so, but I welcome you anyway.</div><div>
<br></div><div>I welcome anyone hosting whatever is their passion.</div><div>For some that is a local or regional OSonOS (such as the one we will be having every year in San Francisco and the ones they have in Haiti, Swenmark and for the Francophone OS community). Call it whatever you wish.</div>
<div>For some that is an international OSonOS, and whoever has the passion to stand up and say 'I invite you' has my support and awe at such passion and power of intention.</div><div>Call it what you will.</div><div>
<br></div><div>For some it may be an event that calls facilitators forward to work together on an issue.</div><div>That will not drive my passion, because a WOSonOS/OSonOS - a user's conference specifically to explore how we can do this method/tool/process and the humble ego it takes very very thoughtfully - is the *only* place I can gather with my diverse peers *specifically* to talk about this method, stretch learning on it, compare what works for some people and cultures that does not work for others, try some things out, and see how others use this tool / process / method.</div>
<div><br></div><div>To me, making a big something is not my measurement. Like 'creating peace'. To me, *being* peace is the answer. For me.</div><div>To me, for me, that serves more than one issue - it serves all the people we will ever work with and for - violence survivors, amazing young people, visionary corporate leaders who treat the world as mother and employees as humans, artists, people emerging out of war, communities sharing land - all sorts of people doing incredible work in this world - without it having to be my own issue or my own sense of urgency.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I welcome (but again you do not need my welcome) those of you who feel the joy at hosting a $25 event in a church hall to feel that amazing experience.</div><div>I have experienced it, and it is marvelous.</div>
<div>I welcome those of you who feel the joy at working really really hard on inclusion and invitation and outreach and access of site and language and visas and more to feel that amazing experience if you wish (as my fellow WOSonOS Host Team members did when it was our turn). I have experienced it, and it is also marvelous.</div>
<div>However you wish.</div><div>(it is my experience that when we do less, others with less mobility, ability, language and access have higher hurdles to join us in our marvelous spaces so for me, it's the joyful burden of pre-work that will be my delight and pleasure to do - but that is just speaking for myself. I am passionate about matters of access.)</div>
<div><br></div><div>I crave those times - local or in a place far a way from my home - to learn from people of cultures and languages and regions not my own. Because I am most enriched, and most humbled, by those experiences. So for myself, I appreciate the gatherings of internationals and people of all ages - whether I can get to or afford them or whether I simply live in delight that someone else can and it's not my time or choice or ability to do so. </div>
<div><br></div><div>I welcome anyone to raise funds or awareness or resources or anything.</div><div>To go or not go.</div><div>To sit with elders or dance their own dance without elders.</div><div>To feel like something is a competition or that someone is creating barriers or offering approval or validation - or to release any framework of scarcity or competition or barriers and to embrace abundance.</div>
<div><br></div><div>We cannot say for others what they feel or what motivates them (for example we cannot say that an inviter to a WOSonOS or OSonOS in their home country or region is seeking validation from any of us). We can only truly say what we ourselves feel.</div>
<div><br></div><div>So mostly, I welcome you to speak for yourselves, to say "I", to stand up and say what *you* will do rather than say what *should* happen.</div><div>To simply refrain from doing what you do not want to do. </div>
<div>To start whatever you wish.</div><div>To help others in the ways that you can.</div><div>To not be burdened by what you think is someone else's decision but to rise to your own power. </div><div>As one reporter here (Wes Scoop Nisker) likes to say: "If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own."</div>
<div><br></div><div>And I'll see you in Chile. And I'll see you in London.</div><div>If life happens that way, and I hope it will.</div><div><br></div><div>Lisa</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>
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