Dear OS folks- Both my husband Todd and I have studied and used Open Space in our work, but he is usually the one posting to the listserve. Your willingness to provide helpful advice has been very appreciated. Now I'd like to take the opportunity to tap into this base of wisdom.
I am the only paid staff of a local currency system here in Ithaca NY. That's right, we mint our own money here in Ithaca. It's negotiable within a 20 mile radius of Ithaca and is accepted by 1500 individuals and businesses in full or partial payment for goods and services. The whole point of the system is to encourage people to support the local economy, which builds community and creates jobs. It's a really neat system and has been around for 10 years. It was begun by a visionary, radical local icon who worked very hard and scraped together a bit of funding to live on. He remains very active and central to the running of the system, but two years ago turned the operation over to a board of directors. They're all good folks, although with quite different styles and career/educational backgrounds. They are also all extremely busy and harried. So what was once the responsibility of one fellow working all the time as his personal mission is now the responsibility of a group with many other activities, like jobs and families, more central to their lives. I was hired as coordinator of volunteers, but soon realized that before I can recruit volunteers the board has to do some prioritizing and planning. I suggested OS as a way to energize folks and focus them for the future. Some board members have been concentrating on making the organization more structurally sound, while others are impatient to get on with actually doing the work of promoting the local currency. There is definite tension on this point. The board has allotted me three hours for an evening OS next month. I know this is far too little time to do the method justice, but it's what they are willing to spend. Despite the time constraints, I still would like to try OS with them, because they really need to be energized and shaken out of their standard ways of dealing with organizational issues and each other. We hope to invite the board and a few other key supporters of the currency system who are willing to take on some tasks, not just give advice. So there should be around 15-20 people in attendance. Now to my questions: 1) Can we with some opening remarks, creating the agenda, just one break-out session time slot, and a closing circle accomplish any kind of satisfactory planning? Is there anything I could do with this schedule to make the meeting more fruitful? Or is it a mistake to even try OS during a 3 hour gathering? 2) How can I formulate a theme? The big question I'd like to see answered is "What can we realistically do this year and who is going to do it?" Is that too broad? Is it too specific? We have a list of tasks, huge and little, that board members have signed on to for the year, but not much prioritization or many specifics on the big tasks. Plus there's the issue of recruiting volunteers, who are greatly needed, although it seems that many of the "volunteer" jobs really ought to be done by well-trained staff, so it's hard to know how they'll get plugged in. Thanks for your patience with my explanation and for your willingness to share your knowledge with me. All the best, Laurie Konwinski * * ========================================================== 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