Hello, all - John, you wrote of those people who may not (my words) be able to choose to get into the room for an Open Space.
Thank you so much for your gentle presence as you once again share your voice for others whose voices we cannot hear. I feel that the pre-work is such a huge part of an Open Space, or any other such process / invitation / consideration. And that the pre-work includes working with a client / host / sponsor to see who needs to be invited, and to help with ideas on how to make it possible for people of lesser means or minority culture to get there IF invited. (It is one thing to invite someone and say 'we welcome you and want you to be with us' - another thing to make it as easy for them to get there as any other person. Ah...now THAT is a true and welcome invitation, in my eyes). So I work with a client / host / sponsor to help them identify who needs to be in the room to create the most sparkling diversity of thinking, experience, viewpoint, life knowledge, and so on. And I let them know this when we decide to work together - that the 'burden' of invitation is on them to invite, and keep inviting and keep inviting, and look at who's coming, and to keep 'slicing the cake' in another direction each time to see who's missing and how to get them there. So for people who are at a disadvantage of power or resources or majority numbers or other such things, I feel it is essential that extra assistance is given to them to be able to accept an invitation. I feel the host has to 'bend over backwards' to provide whatever it takes to make it easy for those individuals to come. Be that child care, nutrition, 'buddies', assuring physical access for people who may have unapparent disabilities, giving pocket money to some individuals so they can socialize with folks in the evening like everyone else gets to, preparing a few materials in their language (be that regional language or for example youth language), having some folks get to arrive earlier to interact and feel as if they 'own the space' more, setting the OS in a location that brings people with resources TO people without resources...whatever it takes that is possible. And please note that these things do not require a sponsor having access to money - many of these offerings are created by just a little extra work. And having said that, there will always be people who are not in the room, and I always try to hold them in my heart and hear those voices so they can inform our work, to try to be better next time, to pledge to continue to generate creative solutions towards getting whomever has the passion and sense of responsibility towards the issue into the room. A promise to myself to not just talk about being connected, but to act on it. For things like our own OSonOS, we may not all have such things as money to offer to each other. But a little here and a little there, a sharing of a room, paying for a dinner out for someone else, helping someone with a travel visa letter, picking someone up at the airport when they are in a new culture and country, offering to be a buddy should they need one...it all helps. As a friend of mine says (and this is I think a great measurement system): Everything you do is more. Thanks to you all, Lisa ___________________________ L i s a H e f t Consultant, Facilitator, Educator O p e n i n g S p a c e 2325 Oregon Berkeley, California 94705-1106 USA +01 510 548-8449 lisah...@openingspace.net www.openingspace.net * * ========================================================== 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