Christine is right, some of us are lurking here from that international non-profit she mentions. I am Sue Scott in Oregon and I am a volunteer with that organization which consists mostly *of* volunteers. My take on this idea of starting with smaller OS groups is yes, it can be very effective. Our organization consists of many, many smaller groups that make up progressively larger groups throughout the world. We span cultures, customs, age groups, and socio-economic groups. It would be very hard to get many stakeholders together. Because we are diverse in these ways and because we are so very passionate about our cause, change on an international basis can be perceived as negative and threatening. Besides, we mostly function as smaller groups so it makes sense and feels natural to introduce OS that way.
In our organization, we work for change around our cause by influencing/having conversations and by sharing resources and information through small groups. So it stands to reason that we would accept change (including OS) in our own organization best by influence, sharing, and small groups. We already have this model and understand it. I have also found that it works much better to act a change rather than to announce that there is going to be a change. So as smaller groups experience OS and change their orientation towards working together, it naturally spreads. I am pretty inexperienced at OS. Yet in my heart, I recognize it as something that has already been in my life and in the life of my organization. >From Sue who is no longer just lurking to build capacity by bringing appreciative, self-organized and distributive processes and practices into their organization. Because of the fear that had unfortunately arisen from a recent systemic change process, we have found that initially opening space with smaller groups feels safer and has naturally led to an eagerness to try OS with larger groups, with some especially strong advocates now among those who were originally the most wary. A lovely result of doing smaller to larger OS events is that those who are already experienced in OS have often "talked it up" to their colleagues, further mitigating the fear. The more experienced OS'ers also often jump right in to post topics and model self-organization - this has been especially helpful to me when English is NOT the primary language. This summer, I will be opening space at their international conference, the largest group so far. I hope some of the folks from this organization (who I know are lurking here :-) will jump into this conversation and share their experiences and perspectives! Christine Christine Whitney Sanchez Triune Milagro, LTD 480.759.0262 VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.triunemilagro.com * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
