Phelim, After I read your long and wonderful email, I wondered how long it would take before we heard from the man with the hat knowing exactly what he would say: "don't work so hard"...!!!<br><br>We feel your hospitable welcome already and felt it in Berlin with Matilda's unforgettable invite. The same applies to Juan Luis and the gang in Chile. I learned a long time ago that if I worked too hard in my hosting job, it made others feel they had to do as much when they invited me. So now I try not to fuss cause I know that it's being in the same space together that means the most. <br>
<br>Warm regards, Suzanne<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 4:09 PM, Harrison Owen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:hhowen@verizon.net">hhowen@verizon.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;">
Phelim -- sounds wonderful and stop working so hard!<br>
<br>
Harrison<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Harrison Owen<br>
7808 River Falls Dr.<br>
Potomac, MD 20854<br>
USA<br>
Phone 301-365-2093<br>
<a href="http://www.openspaceworld.com" target="_blank">www.openspaceworld.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.ho-image.com" target="_blank">www.ho-image.com</a> (Personal Website)<br>
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</div><div><div></div><div class="h5">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: OSLIST [mailto:<a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a>] On Behalf Of Phelim<br>
Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 10:44 AM<br>
To: <a href="mailto:OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU">OSLIST@LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU</a><br>
Subject: Wosonos 2012 first open space<br>
<br>
Dear OS listers,<br>
<br>
As Jon Harvey has already reported on the os list, two weekends ago the<br>
first open space was held for our Wosonos 2012 event. The Improbable office<br>
booked the space for us and I opened the space. It was a great turn out<br>
considering we had limited time to drum up support and interest. Thank you<br>
for helping make that happen. There was a lot of enthusiasm and lots of<br>
sessions called and of course the beginnings of the rumblings from the field<br>
that come up when one takes the initiative on starting an event like this. I<br>
got to meet some faces for the first time and also met some people I didn't<br>
know I knew.<br>
<br>
<br>
So here's my feedback on the whole event. On Sat/Sun we had a day and a half<br>
in open space.<br>
After the event there are a number of things that are "up" for me. One is<br>
Improbable's heart responsibility towards creating an event like this and<br>
ultimately what the nature of their involvement is. Improbable took the<br>
initiative on making this invitation happen at the 2010 Wosonos, thanks to<br>
Matilda with support from Jon and Romy, and it was as such that it was<br>
accepted in Berlin. With this we have been handed an ineffable something, we<br>
have been entrusted with it and we have responsibilities towards it. It is<br>
like a gentle flame (a metaphor which came up a lot over the weekend) and We<br>
feel a onus to look after this and make sure it doesn't go out. We must<br>
honour its journey from Berlin and its previous historic invocations it will<br>
be coming to us via Chile and end up in the UK. So we are Honouring the past<br>
whilst looking towards creating a new space for it to burn brightly in the<br>
future. So at present we are cupping it in our hands trying to shield it<br>
from our autumn win!<br>
ds here. At the same time we mustn't hold it too tightly so that the flame<br>
gets smothered and loses it's oxygen and spirit. So can we balance the fact<br>
that we made the invitation and are the trustees of this accepted invitation<br>
without controlling it too much?<br>
<br>
All these challenges seem like a perfect opportunity to use what OS is<br>
designed for. As a company (theatre not business although it of course is<br>
both) some of the benefits we have are of being a very small organisation<br>
who has in the past facilitated some very big events so we have some<br>
experience here. We also have a pool of people in our own open space<br>
community (mostly but not wholly from the artistic world) who have a<br>
passion for and interest in open space and it's divergent possibilities and<br>
uses.<br>
<br>
My personal interest is in finding out if we can use open space itself to<br>
unfold an emergent organisation/community/team who will help make all this<br>
happen. Can we learn how an organisation might create itself out of open<br>
space principles? At the crux of the process we hope to use this opportunity<br>
to hold a space where open space practitioners feel welcomed, where we are<br>
welcoming amongst ourselves and consequently in a good place to turn<br>
outwards to the world to invite people to the UK. We are creating a<br>
community that welcomes a wider worldwide community.<br>
<br>
In this first OS we did the minimum of "organisation" hoping that the<br>
people who turn up will take responsibility for doing/changing things they<br>
want to make happen.<br>
<br>
So the tension we find ourselves holding in is looking after the trust that<br>
has been placed in us to host this event with the desire to not "control" or<br>
dictate how it happens. This is also important to us as we genuinely cannot<br>
do this alone and need the support of others in order to manifest this<br>
event.<br>
At the moment we are still negotiating the fact that some people are turning<br>
up and ask: "How are you going to be doing this?" Well ultimately it will of<br>
course be how are we going to do this?<br>
<br>
<br>
The idea for what the event should be included some of these criteria:<br>
<br>
It should be: An exciting party; Open to all; Have many by-products that are<br>
beneficial to the UK open space community & worldwide communities; Help<br>
build and coalesce the latent UK community which is "out there"; Ensure all<br>
the people who want to be a part of it are given the opportunity to do so.<br>
Welcoming people from the wider world to our Open shores. Transparency is an<br>
essential ingredient for the central host team.<br>
<br>
<br>
I also saw lots of the prime ingredients for the fertile compost open Space<br>
thrives on. This is a list of the criteria for OS to operate at a high<br>
performance level.<br>
<br>
<br>
#1: A real business issue:<br>
Yes we have it. A commitment to make this event happen in 2012 in the UK for<br>
the UK OS community and the world.<br>
#2: Voluntary self selection: so our invite has gone out and already a group<br>
of interested people have shown up. There is a commitment to do a number of<br>
open spaces which invite the UK OS community to take part. This has been<br>
flagged as hopefully not just being London centric so our reach has to go<br>
further but I imagine those who can and are interested in working with us<br>
will come to the next open spaces or stay in touch with us. We are aiming to<br>
do open spaces outside London to pick up other memebers of the community and<br>
widen the net. This continued activity of opening space in different spaces<br>
will unfold its own self selection process. Anyone who is interested in<br>
other parts of the UK who wants to host an invite in your area of the UK<br>
please let us know!<br>
<br>
#3: High levels of complexity: Already the challenges we face are I feel<br>
beyond the ability of one single "old style" directive organisation of<br>
encompassing or holding. The challenges we face in looking after the UK and<br>
world communities their demands,dreams and hopes for the event are<br>
incredibly complex.<br>
<br>
#4:High levels of diversity:<br>
This is an interesting one. I actually feel there was a good level of<br>
practitioner diversity at the event but feel the call to do further events<br>
really wants to engage with this. Ambassadors will be essential in<br>
fulfilling this criteria on all the potential colours and possibilities.<br>
<br>
#5:Presence of passion and conflict: Yes present and correct I feel: in the<br>
feedback on how we did the event, gossip and certainly present in some of<br>
the sessions and interactions I had. Hurrah!<br>
<br>
#6:Decision time of yesterday:<br>
People keep asking us when its going to happen on the OS list and also who's<br>
doing it so I guess we are already late by some peoples clocks!<br>
<br>
<br>
The reports from the first OS have already gone online as a blog for the<br>
people who were there to contribute to and comment on.<br>
<br>
Overall<br>
Speaking for Improbable I'd like to say what is important for us is our aim<br>
to ensure all the people who want to be a part of Wosonos 2012 are given an<br>
authentic opportunity to do so. At the moment I feel that as a core<br>
organisation unfolds or emerges we will be part of that or have a strong<br>
relationship to it. We aim to maintain the links with the world community<br>
and the world institutes. As this story tells itself Improbable must make a<br>
decision as to what level of responsibility we take in it. As this happens<br>
we will make an informed decision as to how central we are to that<br>
organisation either as a company or as individuals. It is all unfolding.<br>
<br>
In terms of actions, what needs to be decided and actioned on is: Where and<br>
when the next open space to continue creating this team happens? Who hosts<br>
it? We already have one offer which we need to say yes or no to soon. I'd<br>
like to know if there are more out there? Either from the people who came to<br>
the event or others who didn't come. So that would also include all kinds of<br>
offers from suggesting a good space, a good place in the rest of the country<br>
to go to or include, offers to host with or without our support etc..<br>
Etc..All variations considered! Please put the word out and get in touch<br>
with us as soon as possible!<br>
<br>
Best wishes to you all out there in the world<br>
<br>
Phelim x<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Sent from my iPad<br>
<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Suzanne Daigle<br>NuFocus Strategic Group<br>7159 Victoria Circle<br>University Park, FL 34201<br>FL 941-359-8877; <br>CT 203-722-2009<br><a href="http://www.nufocusgroup.com" target="_blank">www.nufocusgroup.com</a><br>
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