To our good friends-- On April 19, José and I announced the Immigration Conversations to the Hispanic Leadership Coalition for May 5 and 6, about 2 1/2 weeks off. Originally we were going to get equal numbers of people pro and con immigration reform. We discovered at that meeting that it was difficult to define the "against" group of people to be invited. Moreover, we saw many nuances within the Hispanic community, so we decided to broaden the topic and call it "Immigration Reform: Issues and Opportunities In Our Back Yard."
On April 24 and 25, we met with three other people who would make up our inviters group. We chose the local public library for the meetings and developed a list of people to invite. Eventually, 15 people came for the conversations which ran from 3:30 to 5:30 pm on Friday the 5th, and 9:15 am to 4:30 pm on the 6th. There were never more than 8 people in sessions at one time. The group posted the 14 topics listed at the end. What did we learn? A. It is possible to bring a great group of people together in a short time, in this case 2 1/2 weeks. Instant Open Space! B. One major learning is that I will encourage groups to split into two or more whenever they are tempted to meet as one group. For one thing, in Friday's meeting, having two groups enabled one group to contain our space invader from the Ku Klux Klan and neutralize his poison, while in Saturday's meeting where they decided to stay in one group, that setting gave a platform to, and allowed a less hostile but still monopolizing, sense-dulling, time-consuming space invader to take over. More importantly, two or more groups would allow for more subjects to be covered, and, given our desire to hear people out and therefore our tendency to have only one person speaking at a time, more groups would allow more people to be heard. In short, with two groups, two subjects for sure get covered. With one, we have a tendency to get stuck in the first topic. On top of this, multiple groups allows for cross pollination between and among groups, so there is the possibility of more ideas, and more valuable ones, to be engendered. Two or more people talking at once, more people heard, cross pollination, and limiting space invaders: four reasons to share with people tempted to stay in one group. Sure it is logical to stay in one group: we want to miss nothing. The truth of human nature is that we miss at least half when we do this. C. Another learning is this: It takes I think more than a group of 4 or 5 inviters to make instant Open Space happen in larger scales. One person was active, inviting groups, inviting individuals. Another was less active, but still invited many. A third was in the midst of personal difficulties and probably invited only a few. And the last, I, invited several people, but did not have many contacts with people who were really invested in this issue. It is possible that these conversations produced our inviters for larger conversations to follow. D. It is also interesting to carry the idea of smaller groups to its natural limit: groups of two. The previous week a facilitator helped about 45 people rewrite the constitution and bylaws at our church in one day. His favorite tool was to give us about 2 minutes at a time for conversations in dyads about the decisions to be made. Certainly not in-depth, but it did unearth most of the logical, surface issues and some of the spiritual ones underneath. Many subjects were covered in a short time, efficiency was a key word, and most people felt heard. Maximum hearing opportunity, at least on the surface. If the time had been expanded and collateral matters given opportunity, it may have gotten to depth. If immigration reform is an issue in your town, consider doing an OST as a community service. Our invitation can be found at my blog, http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com , just below the calendar on the right side. :-Doug. Germann Seeking people making community change. The posted topics: 1. Since the 1st settlers here crossed the Bering Strait, who is not a or a descendant of an immigrant? Therefore is it fair to discriminate against others who have similar circumstances? Dave 2. How South Bend area is effected by immigration issues today? Jimmy 3. How are legal residents (citizens or not) affected by negative attitudes and actions against "illegals?" Reynaldo 4. Question: Fairness and Practical? Suzanne 5. Is Economic impact of immigrants overall harmful or beneficial to USA? In what Ways? Reynaldo 6. How does immigration affect South Bend's economic development? Hugo 7. How does immigration affect the housing market & housing quality? Reynaldo 8. The rationality & reality of HR 4439 E its impact on the local community via social political areas, pro & con. Larry 9. Opportunity to comply? (Immigration Quotes: Reasonable?) Fred 10. Taxes & Resources: Who pays and who receives? Jos 11. In what ways does U.S. policy drive illegal immigration? Reynaldo 12. What ideas in education (elementary and secondary) do people have for enlightening children of this issue? The longer we don't talk about this issue at all stages of life, the more it remains the "unspeakable" topic. How does not talking about it help anything? Priscilla 13. Are poor immigrants a net drain on the welfare system (public & private)? Reynaldo 14. Are U.S. Government political & economic actions towards Latin American Countries pushing immigration to the U.S.? Hugo ===You are whole * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
