HI Thomas At my most recent one-day OST we had 80 people creat 22 reports. We used the USB sticks. We did as you said: one USB stick for collating all reports and taking them to the printer station. Each person saved to the desktop of the local computer and then the person responsible for reports captured them. We kept a list of which reports were on what computer (numbered the computers and kept track of who owned which computer number). The list proved invaluable because when the report of proceedings was being collagted, one topic report was missing. We were able to track it down quite easily and only had a short panic. We did have a hard copy though, which was the fall back position. I always make a second copy of the printed copies for myself in case of disaster.
Like you I have found that having the participants enter the reports on computer lends itself to reports that are much clearer and easy to follow. I often find people will take notes on flip chart paper and work as a team to consolidate it. While for some they don't like to miss any time (which measn the lunch breaks are very busy and the end of the last session can be very busy). I often have people comment how much they like to see the product of their discussion all typed up and posted so quickly...and in the multi day, to take away reports with them is an exciting bonus. In a number of cases, people go back to their home offices and get started on the actions in the report the next day!! The optimal computer station is when all computers are networked to the printer. When this is not the case, I "protect" the computer connected to the printer and use it only for printing reports. HOwever, usually this computer/printer is in the "newsroom" area and if the computer monitor is busy helping someone else, someone will start their report. It is challenging near the end of the day when trying to generate reports for posting.....and it usually ends up being the person who wants to write a thesis. Michelle Michelle Cooper RN, MScN President Integral Visions Consulting Inc. 200 Crestview Avenue Ancaster, ON L9G 1E2 (905)648-1220 -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu]On Behalf Of Thomas Herrmann Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 5:41 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: USB-sticks and computer station during OST + some more.. Dear friends I just had a 2-day OS-meeting where we used a computer station. Lately I´ve used flip-charts for quite some time. Before that I used floppys - according to "the book" (Harrisons User´s guide) and it worked great. Using USB-sticks, I think, is a bit more tricky to people than it was to use floppys (and now most computers can´t take floppy discs). There are so many different spaces to save onto nowadays. And USB-sticks are also quite expensive if one would have one for each report as when using floppys. So I think the best way (although it is "one more thing to do") is to have only one USB memory which the person responsible for the computer station has (I don´t ever take full charge of this while facilitating!). We asked the person writing the report to save it onto the desctop, calling for the person in charge of the computer station who checks that it is really saved there. Then saves it onto the USB memory stick and taks it to the administrators computer for the printout... It really takes some work to make 100% sure no report will be lost! And as said I will never do this again as a facilitator - learning from experience some years ago when I got stuck just before closing - not good. Do you have any experiences to share regarding this? How do you organize the computer station nowadays? Another couple of things. 1. I noticed again that the computer station is quite a creative space which sparks lots of creativity and activity. We had it in the hallway which was between the main room and the breakouts. 2. The reports are more worked through which sometimes is quite important. This organization got lots and lots of important ideas and thoughts documented. Flip charts are nice with colours and sometimes drawings but not always easy to understand and not as worked through. What do you guys think about this? A little more sharing about this OS-meeting. This organization is nationwide in Sweden, 120 from the regional and national offices were gathered for two days. We had a full day of sessions and a little more than half day for convergence and actionplanning. 30 reports and 8 actionplans. And lots of energy and learning. I used re-opening which becomes more and more natural for me. Thanks for this contribution to OST, Chris and Michael. Cheers Thomas Thomas Herrmann Phone +46 (0)709-98 97 81 Open Space Consulting Fax +46 (0)300-713 89 Pensévägen 4 434 46 Kungsbacka, Sweden Email: tho...@openspaceconsulting.com www.openspaceconsulting.com ---------------------------------------------------- Vill du skapa en välmående och effektiv organisation och ta tillvara hela dess potential? Open Space Consulting erbjuder dig: * Lärtillfällen kring hälsa och balans i organisationer * Analyser av organisatorisk hälsa och balans * Handledning av effektiva och kreativa möten och konferenser * Utbildning av mötes- och processhandledare * Coaching för organisationer i förändring ---------------------------------------------------- Vårt antivirusskydd scannar alla utgående mail. 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