Some of you may remember a few months back when I asked about doing OST as a track of a more traditional conference. The conference in question happened last week and I'd like to tell you what happened. First, I'll back-track a bit to talk about the planning process.
I work in child welfare and my boss has be very involved with housing for child welfare-involved families for many years. The conference in question happens every year and concerns itself primarily with a particular federally-funded program for housing these families, but it also branches out a bit from there. Participants include people from both child welfare agencies and housing authorities. This past year there has been no new federal money and my supervisor thought it would be an ideal time to make the entire conference OST to look at the future. Conference organizers were leary of this approach and we were well on our way to develop a "track 3" for the conference that would be OST. Then they stopped calling and writing. For a long time. I had already bought my plane ticket so while I knew I was going, I had no idea what the plan was. I assumed they had decided not to do the OST at all. About a week before the conference, they called to ask if I would do an hour and a half OST for everyone on day 3 of the conference, right before the closing plenary. I agreed, figuring if nothing else, we'd leave people with a feeling for OST and perhaps a desire to stay open in the future, either for advisory groups or conferences. So I arrived in Washington DC on Wednesday not knowing exactly how I'd frame the OST on Friday, but figuring I'd know by then just from my experience as a participant in the first day and a half of the conference. During day 2, I took a good look at the Friday schedule and noticed that the breakfast speaker was scheduled to be finished by 9am, but I wasn't scheduled to start until 9:15. I also noticed that I was scheduled to end at 10:45, but the next speaker didn't start until 11:00. I figured I could easily expand my hour and a half into two hours and have people take their breaks OST-style. Given that schedule, I drew up two different plans, one with 2 sessions and one with 3 shorter sessions. I'd forgotten about a closing so when I remembered that, I chose the plan with 2 sessions. Thursday night I made my signs (all in black because the organizers hadn't obtained colored markers yet) and went to bed knowing I'd be speaking about "future" in my opening and I'd leave it at that. Happy sleep. :-) I got up early Friday to get the signs up and everything in place. I had been told that breakfast would also be in that room so didn't think we'd be able to make the actual circle until after breakfast (traditional rectangular tables conference-style for breakfast - see photos for details), but it turned out we were in another room so I quickly set up the circle before I ate. I also spiced up my posters with color since the markers were now present. So far so good. After I ate I noticed it was about 9:00 and I hadn't seen the breakfast speaker yet. Uh oh. I talked with the organizers and they didn't know where she was. I did some breathing to let go of my attachment to time (whenever it starts . . .) and went back for more juice. She showed up a few minutes later and I did some more breathing while she was speaking, thinking all the while about every minute we'd not have for OST, but gently letting those thoughts go. Eventually she did finish and everyone milled around for a bit, getting more coffee and such. I walked around gently chiming my bells to encourage them to move to the other room. Eventually I walked the circle and we were off. I did not look at my watch at any time after the breakfast speaker began, hoping my non-attachment to time (however forced) would rub off on people. I found out later that the first session actually began after the scheduled time of the 2nd session, but I took no notice at the time. Nine topics were posted, scheduled for 8 different time/spaces. I saw 3 of those conversations actually happen, plus two others that weren't posted and seemed butterflyish. Eventually, our time ran short and I rang the bells again. People said they didn't want to listen to the bells and stop and I quipped that that the bells said nothing about stopping. :-) One person remarked that he guessed the second session wasn't going to happen. Aparently the time was just too short. Anyway, I asked for one word or one phrase (optional) as the bells were passed around (learnings, plans going forward, feelings, whatever). It only took about 5 minutes for 30 people or so and was all totally positive. Here's the kicker, The person at the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development responsible for the program (the one we're focusing on for this conference) was the closing speaker and he showed up after my opening, but before people had signed up for their sessions and actually started. He jumped right in and participated in one discussion. When I was finished with the closing, he suggested we all just stay in the circle for his talk and Q&A! Once again, it always works. Please see http://www.globalchicago.net/humanist/wiki/wiki.cgi?FUPConferenceWriteup for this letter and a link to the photos. peace, ted ___ Humanize the Earth! http://www.chicagohumanist.org http://www.tedernst.com * * ========================================================== 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