Hi everyone! We held another Open Space event here in Ithaca Saturday. The theme was more narrowly focused than the last one : "Can we create a cooperative venture in Ithaca that provides a range of goods and services for sustainable planning, building and remodeling?" We met all day, 9 to 5. There were only 4 of us to start with, and 4 others came and went, and three others would have come but couldn't so asked for the notes.
After discussing the 4 principles and one law, we decided to make the time slots more flexible. Each person noted how many minutes they thought it would take to discuss their topic - there were about 8 or 10. When we added them up, we had enough time to do all of them as a single group, so we decided to do it that way. So it wasn't exactly OST, but it worked quite well. We got tons of work done and have the beginnings of a strategic plan and action plans. We decided that the first thing we would do is start a buying club for goods that we and other local sustainable living types are interested in now, but can't find locally. The thing that struck me is, that two of the people who attended could be considered moderately difficult people. In another meeting format, they might not have been invited, or could have appeared to be disruptive. But something about the Open Space approach, even in this modified form, made it possible for them to make great contributions to the meeting without being very disruptive. It seems that daring and creative people often end up being loners because they don't like to be controlled or controlling, and Open Space gives them opportunities to work with a group that responds to their nature. Lots of opportunities and activities have emerged from the last OSE on "Building for Sustainable Living," too many to describe here. I am just about to begin planning a larger OSE on Green Building for later this summer. So I guess the upshot of all this is what you already know, that Open Space works, its exciting. Enjoy it! Todd Saddler * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html