Harold Shinsato, Doug Germann, and Phelim McDermott present.

Checkins

Harold - WOSonOS, Agile NYC, and OD Network

Doug - Moving conversations about end-of-life towards OST

Phelim - Roadshow of Open Space in England. Important work, proud of it. Reorg in his company going on a long time. Not easy. And there's WOSonOS, exciting thing that's moving nearer. Combination of excitement of people coming and people saying they're coming. At the moment we're going to lose a fair bit of money because of the amount to hire the space and catering. Some of the budgeting and planning has slipped under the net because of problems in own company. Overestimation - pay what we can - overestimation of what people will stump up. 1-2 people, generous. The time of course, people have been paying at the lower end of the spectrum. Get a cheap conference. I'm just sitting of the unknown if it's all going to come together in the last minute. That will probably mean doubling the numbers if we're going to cover costs. It's probably something can handle and deal with in the company and absorb in some way. That combines with sadness that he has, at the moment most of the folks coming from abroad. The actual UK presence is quite small. Felt a real frustration how to reach out to those people. Feeling strongly. Invitation and how that happens in the U.K. around Open Space.

WOSonOS in London

They are currently 10-12K behind the budget. Set up a UK Open Space Institute - would have gotten a 4K discount on the space. At the moment they need another 10K pounds. They have 89-90 people signed up. It's good, but they need to double that to cover the amount. People are paying the minimum. Don't know if people will come out of the woodwork. Lisa is always of the positive attitude that it will come together in the last few weeks. We are 3 weeks out. In the process of getting the whole thing up and running. Hard engaging with the U.K. community. As we get nearer more people coming in to support, the opposite is happening that people who said they would help have disappeared. We have to get going with this thing and make it happen. That may have driven people away. Frustrating. There are a few people in there and supporting us. Really plug away to get people to send invites out. The community we have are used to coming to our open spaces they only have to pay 15-20. Paying 200 is not really there territory. The local facilitator community is not really appearing. It's strange.

Have not received any sponsorship. In San Francisco they had companies that gave markers and flipcharts. Don't know how much they did.

Changing the budget is not an option. Can reduce the catering. Nick and Phelim, will come a point when they'll look at the budget again and see if they can cut it back. At the moment, energy to get more people to come.

Open Space Institute – US (OSI-US)

Meeting June 18, 2012 – 5:30 to 6:45 EST

Attending:  Peggy Holman, Christine Whitney Sanchez, Harold Shinsato, Douglas Germann, Karen Davis, Ed Laboy, Suzanne Daigle, Chuni Li and Sharon Joy Chao

OSI - Special invitation had been extended to our Emeritus Board members Peggy, Christine and Lisa with a message that they would always have a standing invitation to attend our regular meeting and retreats.
We also wished a warm welcome to our new Board members Chuni Li of New Jersey and Sharon Joy Chao of Manila in the Philippines.

The meeting then began with a moment of silence and our habitual check-ins.

The group then took the opportunity to share on the following question as a way of getting to know each other through this transition on the board and to capture a bit of the history:

“How did open space come into your lives?”

Doug - I ran into it when I was program chair for a statewide organization.  The speakers for the upcoming month had to cancel because of a family emergency.  I had heard from someone that there was a weird way to have a meeting with no agenda.  Thought it would be a good thing and found it was called Open Space Technology.  I was given several documents via email about it and got him in touch with Michael Hermann and there was a guy named Albert in Indianapolis where his meeting was going to be held. When I read the Users’ Guide, why wouldn't it work? Why would anyone see it otherwise?  I had done circle work in different organizations and found it to be quite effective. And found it to be a natural thing. I did my first city-wide thing on the anniversary of 9/11.  That would have been 2001-2002 when I really found it and attended a whole bunch of different places and thought it was the way we should organize everything from cities and towns.  It turned my  life inside out.  I really enjoyed it. Doug then asks a question of Peggy:  “When you started this thing (Open Space Institute), where did you think you would be in 2012 with this organization?”

Peggy – Regarding the formation of the OSI:  I ran into open space in 1993/94 doing some work with USWest around the question:  “What does it mean to be a learning organization?”  Peter Senge's book had just come out a year or two before. I was an internal consultant tasked with finding what was the leading edge of learning organizations and bring these insights into the company.  Until then I had been involved in the area of quality. I talked to a friend of mine in Denver about the Organization Systems Program in Antioch in Seattle. She said “You might be interested in this thing that we just did in school.” She referred me to a three-page article in the Training magazine.  I picked up the phone and called Harrison.  I talked to him about doing an Open Space Meeting on the subject of learning - one of the first Open Space meetings was done in Goa India around the topic of business learning.  So we started talking about the possibility of doing Open Space at US West. In the meantime, one of the business units had a flood in Arizona. Someone at US West who was Union and doing OD kinds of stuff and working with management in AZ on major outages had convinced the company to use Open Space.  I went to a workshop in New York and experienced my first Open Space. I ran a 2.5 Open Space with 200 network technicians. I saw that the needs of individuals and the organization could both be met. I had to learn more. It profoundly changed what I did. I realized I didn't have to take responsibility for others experience.  It changed the way I worked. That was about 1994.  Somewhere in the summer of 1996, Harrison was on one of his world tours as a book came out and he came to Seattle. There were about 10 of us in a meeting. Harrison had stopped in Toronto on his way and Seattle was his next stop. He proposed the Open Space Institute as a research institute to help clarify the efficacy of OST, this “strange thing”.  In essence, he wanted to make the research case, to make the case to tell its story. He had done the same thing in Toronto so these two different groups (Canada and US) declared the Open Space Institute alive and well.  We decided to create a 501(c)(3). The cost was about $700.  We each put in $70 and that was the seed money to start the Institute. It took a different direction than what Harrison had envisioned it being a research organization. The last OSonOS that Harrison hosted, the 3rd being in Washington D.C.  There was also Australia with Brian Bainbridge. We had 3 Institutes (Canada, US and Australia). And we did an Open Space on what we wanted from an Open Space Institute. Three things emerged: People said they wanted mentoring and being mentored. It would also be a place for learning and researching and offering mutual support and connectedness.  I wanted a place to send my friends to –a hearth fire. As the idea of an Institute, I always thought of it as having potential energy with the capacity as a tiny placeholder that could involve thousands of people around the world. There was a need to unleash all that potential energy. Back in the beginnings when we were forming, I didn't think that far out (in answer to Doug’s question) , but I  did imagine that we would have members actively engaged and this being a place for sharing stories, for spreading the understanding about Open Space, and frankly doing research - which was something we never managed to get launched.

Christine - I discovered open space through girls’ clubs many years before I discovered the actual form of Open Space. I was trying Open Structure and in grad schools had lots of things to choose from. As I was mulling around trying things, I did not know self-organization back then, saw a pilot program called self-structure. We created a few givens for the kids and they structured their own program. I was in a group counseling class. I got my husband involved.  It was some time after that I discovered the form of Open Space. At an OD meeting, I heard people making comments about an Open Space type thing. I was curious, got the book and two weeks later, I facilitated my first open space. It was 1997.

Harold – My first open space like experience was the rainbow gathering in 1996, and I go regularly. The Rainbow Gathering started in 1972 as a peace gathering after Woodstock for folks who wanted to be for peace rather than against war. It was a music festival with 25 to 30,000 people. It's self-organizing with no formal leadership, and the event just comes together with many diverse elements to pray for peace. I then heard about something inspired by Harrison Owen. I had been interested in meetings not constrained by hierarchy (Bar Camp and UnConference). I first was exposed to the ideas of Harrison Owen indirectly through the technology world when I heard about FooCamp and then BarCamp. At the 2006 JavaOne conference in San Francisco, there was an unconference track that Kaliya Hamlin was hired to lead, and Kaliya told me the real thing was Open Space Technology. She invited me to her Internet Identity Workshop, where she introduced me to Lisa Heft who dazzled me with her slides and stories of open space around the world, including Israelis and Palestinians. It blew me away! That led me to take her workshop a few months later, and then to hold my first open space for my work colleagues in San Jose at Business Objects in 2007, and then five annual Missoula BarCamp's since then. I have since attended many OS meetings in the technology world. Also participated in Peggy’s “Journalism Matters”; I saw how the format can be spiced up with a bit more structure. I keep falling in love with Open Space more and more.  I met Harrison in Seattle at the Leadership in a Self-Organizing World event. It’s where I first met Peggy and Suzanne and other world class facilitators. There is something ancient, organic about Open Space. It works well for emergence. I saw that with high tech. It has been wonderful watching the leadership evolved in the high tech world. Later I was invited to join the board. I found the group to be so human, to see that something so amazing is being held by mortals, to see people doing this work and seeing how beautiful it is much like poetry, science and spirit. It's been a life changing experience and I hope to live more and more in Open Space.

Karen –For me, it’s as if I was in Open Space from the time I came out of the womb. It was some point in the early 80's that I invited Harrison to present at an OD network regional event.  I don't remember the topic.  It was when he was thinking about other ways of organizing conferences and doing things. He was planning to do something in Tarrytown  around organizational transformational. I knew that is where I was supposed to be. There was something about martinis and coffee breaks. 

In the 90's with Harrison and Devorah Gilbert we hosted our first Open Space four day program for facilitating OS.  One of my colleagues commented then that there was some theory behind the way that I functioned. There was some rationale now, a model. (in others words meaning that Karen has been living Open Space throughout her life).Anyway she's been involved forever and always will be. For her it was a gradual and progressive thing. I became more and more convinced about Open Space even if it's not called OST, convinced about leaders/non-leadersholding space for people, with people taking responsibility and acting on what they care about. That’s what Open Space is about

Suzanne - I was introduced at an Art of Hosting event in Florida. It was just a little sampling. It’s what triggered me to know more and to get to understand this. I attended  Open Space training in Ottawa with Diane Gibeault.  I invited two colleagues from our company NuFocus to come with me.  I immediately saw how powerful the process was. It brought everything that I had been about all my life together.  I could trace it back to my corporate life wanting all the voices in an organization to be heard, to bring the human side to work, to bring a quality vulnerability to leadership. Suddenly there was a structure and a container for this way of engaging – that was permeable with the right principles. I cannot ever get enough; it has introduced lifelong learning and I feel as if a beginning painter with a craft of which I will never tire. It took me along all kinds of trails. I went to a WOSonOS  in Taiwan and  from there, I threw caution to the wind. I had never been that impulsive in the past. It began my journey in Open Space. I see such potential in so many areas. It is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Ed – I was introduced to Open Space through a business partner who attended an open space meeting that Karen and Harrison had back in early 2000. His partner kept talking about it. At the time, they were working with a department in the government around homeless services.  There were major issues and they decided to use Open Space.  At the time, Ed was thinking: “Let’s see what will happen here”.   The commissioner, who was part of this meeting along with 200 other people from 9 different government agencies, wanted to control everything.  The goal was to come up with a way to best economically handle and assist the homeless. I was amazed and surprised. This was in 2002 or 2003 and each person came up with 2 to 3 basic solutions, many of which are still working today. It was so amazing to have so many different stakeholders, each with their own agenda, come up with a working solution that they developed it in just 2 days, all saying that they can do this. I realized then that this was something I wanted to be involved in. A few years later Doug called me and invited me to be on the board. I have been on the board ever since. It’s still like magic to me now. “How can you get so many different people in a room with different perspectives who are able to quickly work out something for the future of their organization. Open Space is the only thing that happens that way. I am an Open Space person the rest of my life.

Sharon - I have appreciative inquiry to thank for it. I found my way to OST through Appreciative Inquiry. I was doing research work, evaluating projects in 2009 in the Philippines. I thought then that there has to be other things that I could use in the Public Schools to evaluate performance. Did some research work and that's when I found Open Space. As I went through some of the materials, I thought that’s weird and it can't be real. It is beyond me. They self-organize.  There is no agenda. Then there was this opportunity in 2009: a WOSonOS in Taiwan just a couple hours from Manila. I felt called to attend. I got to meet Gail West. She has been my mentor in Open Space and a dear friend ever since. After WOSonOS, I tried on a number of OST gatherings in the company, with some religious groups, with people who have disabilities and also organizing communities who were displaced by typhoons. Then in 2010, my office got approval to do an international conference. We made use of OST and it was incredible. Harrison Owen attended. This international organization had been very stiff in the way it managed meetings before. Then here comes Open Space, which asks them to loosen up a bit and just be themselves. Before the conference, one person came up with a 15-page critique of Open Space and somehow Harrison got a hold of that paper. He felt that this guy must have his reasons for writing this 15 page paper. That started the conversation which happened late last year. Somehow we were able to get him to come to Manila for this conference about Learning for the Future.  It helped take the issue to the next level around the question of: “How do we move forward, tackling the issue of Learning for the Future. Harrison said this should become an annual gathering. I don't know. I hope with God's grace we will be able to do it again next year. In the future, we could also include other from outside the Philippines to get a sense of what is the future of learning and also to get more young people involved in the conversation. Sharon shares that the spiritual quest in her life is a practice of emptiness which is in alignment with that practice that we do in Open Space. Letting things be so that possibilities can unfold in our lives. I agree that Open Space is magic.

Chuni - I think I learned about it initially on a Maestro call that Christine was hosting. Harrison was a guest speaker. I was fascinated by the way they interviewed him. He was iconic. I then became fascinated by everything that he wrote about. I thought to myself: “This guy is interesting.  It’s very relevant to what we're doing here” A couple of days later, I came up to OST in NYC. We are a non-profit have no money. Karen said whatever you can pay you can come. I came and it’s where I met Harrison and Suzanne. At that meeting, I was totally shocked that for 20 years as a facilitator I had been leading the wrong way.  As I read Harrison’s book and saw what had been done at ATT, I was amazed that I had never heard of Open Space. I kept thinking why I had not heard about it while I was at ATT. I was in a different department. We had never talked about it. At the session in New York with Karen and Harrison, I walked up to Harrison and said: “Everything you are teaching here is telling me that everything I have done in my career was all wrong.” That triggered Harrison and we talked about this. Later I was introduced to Suzanne, which led to a partnership in New Jersey on revitalizing the economy. I had wanted to do more community-based work. Open Space became a natural vehicle to meaningfully engage with my community. It brings people together. I came to OD from back door. I have a degree in Education, but my work has always been as an OD person. No I know I will be an Open Space person for the rest of my life too.

The bin -
Annual filing - requires a Washington state address for registrar and corporate address. Suzanne will complete the form and Peggy will remain at the main contact.

The next meeting is scheduled for July 16 - third Monday of the month (starting at 5:30 pm EST)

• Present: Doug, Karen, Harold, Suzanne, Peggy

• Silence

• Checkins held

• Harold will be bin gardener:

  • Haiti partners is done; Suzanne will send another email for completion
  • Meet logo designer is done; Harold might add something to Website from the logo
  • Spiritual evolution is done

• Annual membership drive:

  • Suzanne drafted one
  • Harold is reworking it today
  • want to have something by the end of the call
  • move the appeal up to first paragraph
  • $20 to 1500—don't set the bar too low.

• Wikipedia entry:

  • Not much energy to eliminate the banners
  • resistance to cleaning it up—might offend people if clean it up
  • Leave it in the bin, but bring in items around it, e.g., what we are doing as an institute in a very non-institutional world. Contextualizing.
  • Whom do we serve and how best do we serve them?
    • Difference between leadership in a hub and leadership in a hierarchy
    • about invitation, attraction, questions that matter
  • Need a layered approach, so people can find themselves in there.
  • This conversation needs to go to the OSlist
  • Maybe host a separate conversation about this.
  • There is a stewardship issue here: lightly stewarding the community.
  • Question needs to be larger than just cleaning up the Wikipedia entry
  • Recommend to Phelim to do something separate from Wikipedia

• March 19 next meeting

• Checkouts held

Present: Karen, Ed, Harold, Peggy, Christine, Doug, Suzanne

• Meeting lasted 45 minutes
• Moment of silence + check-ins
• Decided to limit topic to the Annual Open Space Institute Meeting
• Date of the meeting: Friday December 20th (90 minutes) - Noon EST
• Group defined the agenda with the focus on 2 topics:

1) The Evolution of Consciousness & Open Space Technology
2) The future of Open Space Technology Institutes Worldwide

• Lisa to moderate the meeting or if unavailable Christine will facilitate;
• Harold to prepare annual financial summary with activities and post on OSI US Institute website; Harold also offered to send a general invitation to the community
• Suzanne offers to use her Maestro Conference account and set up the meeting
• Meeting adjourns with holiday greetings to all

Present
Harold, Barry, Christine, Suzanne, Ed, Doug

Moment of Silence followed by a brief update from each attendee

Bin Clean-up
Recommended that if an item in the bin has not been addressed for discussion/action, it will be removed after 3 months.

Downloadable audio
Harold will not be pursuing getting an iTunes or other online location to sell Harrison Owen's "Understanding Open Space" audio further. If someone else wants to pick this up, we can add it back to the bin.

Haiti Open Space Training
Mark this item as complete (donation for their training program); follow-up with a letter by no later than November (Suzanne to do) advising that it will not be possible to sustain the level of funding of past few years. Our budget will not permit the past level of contribution in the future.

Open Space Manifesting Document
This idea of creating such a document was in response to the fact that some people facilitating Open Space events do not fully understand what’s behind the process, intent and principles outlined in Open Space Technology.  Hence the comments we hear that an OS event was not really done in Open Space. It was felt that a declaration document of some sort that facilitators in our OS Community could read and sign might bring attention to what Open Space represents in its simplicity of application and the depth that it invites.  A manifesto document could raise awareness and create more clarity among facilitators about what constitutes Open Space which  transcends methodology leading to a powerful approach that invites deep transformation. Harold Shinsato, who posted this topic at the Annual Institute Board Retreat this summer, had initially intended to work with a team. Now in the interest of greater clarity, he felt it would be better if he put his thoughts on paper by himself first.   The group then had a long discussion on this topic that went from “How would we know if the Open Space was not being done right?”  to sharing how very impactful this process is for these times. It was an inspiring and invigorating exchange.

Financials
Harold reported that we had $4491.60 remaining in our account.

Present: Peggy, Harold, Ed, Barry, Doug, Lisa, Suzanne, Karen, Christine, Phelim, Lisa

Absent: all were present

Notes-taker: Lisa Heft

Moment of silence, then individual check-ins.

Annual Report Filing - Suzanne

Thanks to Suzanne who has filed the report. She made copies of everything and also changed the address to her address. This can be changed if there is some other way it should read. Peggy’s instructions were very helpful.  

Action: Harold will create a space for these items on the OSI-US website.  

Discussion about the filing deadline - which is every year at the end of July - versus the officers’ election, which we did last in January. Because we did this, we do have a current group of officers. Doug recommended electing officers each January as a way to have time enough to do it - even giving us a few meetings if we need them to assemble a quorum for this task.

Agreement: Elections will be each January or as soon thereafter as it is possible to meet as a full group.

Logo - Peggy

Everyone received the revised designs.  Some colors having been changed and ‘US’ has been added. If we are happy with the general look we can pick the color that works for us and the designer will give us a version that can be used for letterhead, website and other uses. Some discussion exploring how it looks for / is received by business and government folks - one of our interests in thinking about logos overall - as we share more about Open Space across different disciplines and an audience broader than people who already are familiar with Open Space. Some discussion about the color gradation working well, also the crispness that is probable in the completed version (versus the copies we are sharing for our mutual review). Discovery that there are not the same number of toes on each feet in the logo.

Agreement to go with #8, thank and pay the designer, and live with it a little over time to see how it feels and settles in. 

Agreement to have a smaller group work on this if further work is to be done.

Action: Peggy will follow up with the designer. 

Inviting Kai Degner to the Board - Lisa, Peggy

Agreement: Kai would be a wonderful addition and that this is an exciting idea.

Action: Peggy will contact him and will copy us on that.  be happy to do that and will copy everybody in the process of doing that. 

OSI UK & WOSonOS 2012 - Phelim

Phelim is trying to schedule getting out of rehearsals in New York to attend a few days of WOSonOS Chile in October - to make the invitation to the UK in 2012. Some discussion of Host Teams past present and future, the nature and tasks of their work, and their dynamics as teams.

Using Skype for our monthly calls

This call was a test of using Skype (plus conference call telephone line as needed) for our  monthly meeting. Much appreciation for Harold and Suzanne for setting up and helping us work with this technology before and during our meeting. This call had an additional challenge in that some were able to access Skype (from their desks, from being on the road) and some not - creating a need for use of dual technology (phone for most of us with the addition of Skype / screen for most of us - at the same time), which was a bit difficult with delay and sound factors. Bravo/a to all of us for 'hanging in there' during this good experiment.

Closing word shower

Gratitude    Perseverance    Excellence    Simplicity    Electricity    Birth    Trusting    Moving

Next meeting time and date:

Agreement: Next meeting Aug 15 same time of day / night.

____

[Note from Lisa: remember our recommendation to ourselves during our April 2011 Board retreat to drop anything from the Bin that has not had movement for 3 months. The following Bin has not yet been adjusted to update as per this recommendation - perhaps this will be a good thing to quickly review at the start of our next meeting]

Remaining in Bin:

Logo - any updates? - Peggy

Inviting Kai Degner to the Board - updates? - Peggy

Haiti donation status 

Bin Gardener Each Meeting (also discuss recommendation for 3 months' presence in the Bin for items)

Next Meeting Time

Downloadable audio for Understanding OS - Harold

Learning Map - Harold

Teleconference for OSI-US Membership in Feb/Mar 2010 - Harold

Clarify the focusing question Open Space Manifest-ing - Harold 

Convene call about the OS US Web site (Government w/Ed; Corp w/Suzanne) - Christine

Schedule meeting to draft the Open Space Manifest-ing Invitation, design a process for inviting - Harold & Doug

Host a clean-up of WIkipedia OST entry - Harold

Revise the about page – Peggy, Harold & Lisa review

What guidelines do we adopt for what per percentage of our funds go to any one project?  

Present: Christine, Karen, Doug, Suzanne, Ed and Lisa (briefly)

Facilitator: Christine

Notes taker: Suzanne

There was a moment of silence followed by individual check-ins.

1. First story, start providing content, with an invitational feel

The intent was for Suzanne to publish a summary for the OS community of what transpired at our face-to-face retreat in Florida conveying the essence of our conversations. We wanted the write-up to have an invitational feel that would attract others everywhere (facilitators, groups and OS institutes) to join as we plan future initiatives and projects.  This write-up was posted on April 13, 2011.

2. Purchase Skype Premium

Harold purchased this on behalf of the board. We look forward to testing it at our next monthly board meeting.  Doug expressed he would like the opportunity to do a dry run from his location to confirm that it is working for him.

3. Barry Owen to join the Board

We were delighted to hear that Barry will be joining the Board.  Suzanne to follow-up on Peggy’s initial outreach to him explaining that we are in the process of choosing best day/time for future meetings and also to connect by phone as a way of making his first meeting as welcoming as possible.

4.  More efficient meetings

We agreed that an email will be sent out prior to our meetings to determine ahead of time who will be facilitating and who will be taking notes rather than discussing this at the actual meeting. A copy of the “bin” which serves as our basic agenda will also be sent. Suzanne to handle on a monthly basis.

5. On Line Web presence

Christine will be reaching out to Ed for government audience and Suzanne for corporate audience groups) as we seek to have tailored materials about Open Space for their needs.

6.  Reimbursement by board members to cover expenses from face-to-face meeting

Board members will cover part of the cost (food and a few miscellaneous expenses) ; the Board will assume the rest.  All members paid for  their own travel costs.

7. Schedule meeting to draft the Open Space Minifesto-ing Invitation

Doug has scheduled a meeting for Tuesday April 19^th to discuss this initiative which is briefly described in the summary proceedings from our face-to-face Florida sessions.

8. Revise the About page - Peggy, Harold and Lisa - 30 April 2011

By way of email, Lisa has indicated that she sent a draft to Peggy and Harold and was suggesting that much of the text created for the Board welcome one-pager could be used for (also) the 'About' page.
 

9. Next meeting (to be determined)

Christine will be sending out a doodle to determine preferred time/date for our monthly meetings.

Remaining Items in the Bin

·         Downloadable audio for understanding OS  Harold Shinsato

·         Learning Map Harold Shinsato

·         Bin Gardener Each Meeting

·         Host a clean-up of Wikepedia OST entry Harold Shinsato – 2 June 2011

·         On line web presence (Government - Ed; Corporate - Suzanne) Christine

·         Get a draft logo image  Peggy Holman – 30 April 2011

·         Revise the About page – Peggy, Harold and Lisa to review – 30 April 2011

OSI-US Board Retreat 2011: Topic: Really %@$*&#^$)-y facilitated events that participants feel frustrated / unhappy / pushed  rushed / unproductive / upset etc. about that are called Open Space but really weren’t

1) What does well prepared, well-facilitated, thoughtfully held Open Space offer to participants?

2) What are the things you’ve seen / heard / noticed done by a facilitator that make it not Open Space (even when its called Open Space)?

3) What are your feelings about that?

4) What does it mean about our / OSI-US’s role / purpose / responsibilities?

Discussed learning the basics of Open Space, and how to support the form plus the substance (as some forms enter popular culture - the form often stays without the substance). About how some people want to 'improve upon' Open Space. Or take just parts that do not hold together as form or process, but call it Open Space. Or rigidly hold to it.

Have been in ‘Open Space’ events where the organizers did not set the container. You could not even have a marketplace. Although could see that it was well-intended and it was better than other events I have been in that were not done well.

The real depth of what Harrison offers is so rich and juicy and it would be even more rich and juicy if people were doing the pre-work and understood the depth and understood the importance of ‘Maybe you need to get some training.  Maybe facilitation is something you learn over a lifetime.’ 

What’s at the heart of Open Space - and the means of committing to that core as a pledge. A self-organizing, self-selection kind of quality about that.

There is this thing we call Open Space Technology that’s solid. That’s been tested over time. Would like to preserve that core.

All humans all have different perspectives - all look at same object differently. We all have a core of Open Space. We still have a core.

Something that happened that started the Agile movement was a manifesto . 

Co-create a manifesto about what is good core Open Space - invite co-creation, invite people who convene and facilitate Open Space to join this pledge.

Explore archives for Appreciative Inquiry into Open Space session at 2004 WOSonOS in Goa. Explore also in archives 'what is Open Space and what is not'.

Cannot imagine our community would create a police state with a ruling. But the flow of information about what creates good Open Space - thoughtfully planned and held Open Space - is something to share and something to know.  There is a lot aside from what is visible to the eye.  The same is true about facilitation in general. And also important to share is that there is indeed learning and wisdom to be shared, and some thinking, research and experience about that. Good to increase the flow of that knowledge about how to use and facilitate the dialogue method of Open Space.

Board Notes — OSI-US, Thursday, 17 March 2011, 8:00–9:30 PST

Present: Harold Peggy Lisa Doug Ed Phelim Suzanne

Facilitator: Lisa

Notes taker: Doug

There was a moment of silence followed by individual check-ins.

1. Teleconference:

No further work was done on this; leave in bin.

2. Downloadable Audio:

Looking into options; leave in bin

3. Learning Map:

Work is progressing but seems to be slowing a bit.

4. Online Web presence:

There is a schedule for transferring the OSlist to our Website, and that is working out well; this will allow us to transition into a more active presence in the community.

5. OpenGov:

About 30 events will happen. GovLoop has been helping and might be a container. Most of what remains is about technology and data.

Drop from bin.

6. Mikk Sarv:

We have not heard back from him for help with the book.

7. Gift letter:

Time for us to make our contributions

8. Loan support:

Keep in bin

9.  home for osi-us papers hard and soft copies
We have a bunch of this stuff;
Soft: perhaps Harold could create a space for it
Basecamp has a place for files
Perhaps have it a couple of places
Could bring to face to face

10. Finance

ask Harold to bring update to face to face

11. Online bookstore:

Leave in bin

12. Potential for strategic collaboration:

Keep in bin

13. Purpose of Board:

Good thing for the face to face meeting.

14. Privacy issues:

Keep in bin

15. Next meeting time:

May call: 19 May, usual time

16: Face to Face Board meeting:

A fair amount of our time was spent on logistics for this meeting.

The meeting adjourned following check outs.

Board Notes — OSI-US, Thursday, 20 January 2011, 8:00–9:30 PST

Present: Christine Whitney Sanchez, Harold Shinsato, Phelim McDermott, Ed LaBoy, Peggy Holman, Lisa Heft, Douglas Germann, Karen Davis, Suzanne Daigle

Absent: None

October 2010 OSI Board Proceedings

Board Notes — OSI-US Tuesday, October 19, 2010 1:30 – 2:30 PDT

Present: Douglas Germann, Suzanne Daigle, Harold Shinsato, Christine Whitney Sanchez

Meeting on August 17, 2010 (1:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m. PDT)

Present: Christine Whitney Sanchez, Karen Davis, Harold Shinsato, Doug Germann, Phelim McDermott

Absent: Peggy Holman, Ed LaBoy, Suzanne Daigle, Lisa Heft

Notestaker: Harold Shinsato

Moment of Silence marked the beginning of our meeting

1) Online Web Presence and Identity

Present: Peggy Holman, Lisa Heft, Karen Davis
Absent: Doug Germann, Phelim McDermott, Suzanne Daigle, Harold Shinsato, Ed Laboy, Christine Whitney Sanchez
Notestaker: Lisa Heft

1) New Monthly Meeting Time

To accommodate our shifted availabilities and to include the fabulous Harold, we are going to seek a new meeting time.

Board Notes -- OSI-US Friday, April 16, 2010

Present: Ed Laboy, Peggy Holman, Douglas Germann, Karen Davis, Harold Shinsato, Lisa Heft, Suzanne Daigle
Absent: Phelim McDermott, Christine Whitney Sanchez
Suzanne will be taking notes for us today.
Started with silence, then check-ins.

WOSonOS in Berlin

Peggy, Lisa and Suzanne will be attending this year

Lisa will be contacting US attendees to see if anybody wants to share rides from airport etc. if schedules align. She has been working behind the scenes with the Berlin Host Team and they have very communicative with Access Queen to assure that financial support for housing, transport and suggested ideas for additional fund-raising reaches those who need assistance; there is no specific source at this time however for larger amounts of funding such as for Asker flight expenses. Many individuals are being helped through the Access Queen program

Brian Bainbridge Memorial Scholarship

Many people involved including Lisa, Larry and Viv

Lisa assisting under the umbrella of Access Queen

A recipient has been selected for the scholarship (announcement at a later date)

In future, Viv is exploring with Australia and New Zealand how to continue this scholarship;  Lisa as Access Queen is the informer, funds representative and communicator with the selected individual, as it both presents an international community face to the award plus aligns with Access Queen’s support of the recipient’s other access needs. However should this scholarship continue into future years, she can take the same roles (including being able to receive the scholarship money once it is collected) but cannot be the one who announces, invites and collects the funds specific to the scholarship - as it’s hard to do both this and the general Access Queen invitation and activities each year.

Open Space Institute membership donations

Peggy reports that $450-$475 has already come in following the contribution request  letter from Christine that went this past week on the OS list.  This money typically goes to a general use fund to support the growth and use of Open Space around the world. There may be special requests directed to particular projects i.e. Ning site, Brian Bainbridge Endowment) and this is on a case-by-case basis.

OS Institute Board Notes

Discussion and decision that in future the Board meeting notes will be posted to the OSI-US’s Word Press site rather than on the openspaceworld.net site. This is one of the action items in a series of what we will be doing to further establish OSI-US’s identity and resources on the web.

A link to prior Board meeting notes will  appear on our the openspaceworld.net wiki directing people to the Word Press site.  Harold will be setting this up so the OS board members can edit/revise notes once they are posted in the event something is missing or needs to be changed. Michael Herman had indicated he would be happy to assist us in this transition of anything we need to migrate such as this.

Ask letter from Haiti

Initial discussions regarding financial request for their Annual Open Space scheduled for June 24^th-27^th with an expected attendance of 30 vs 20 Haitian Open Space facilitators last year. In light of the size of the financial request, board members will continue their discussions via email in order to provide a timely response taking into consideration available funding in the account currently.

Words of intention for a successful WOSonOS

Lisa Heft will be conveying our best wishes to our friends in Berlin from all of us in the US

______

Bin

Potential for “strategic collaboration in open space community” (deferred until Christine is back)

Annual meeting (all)

On Line Web presence and identity

Special thank you to Tree and Gabriel (honoring them in gratitude for their dedicated contributions and work during our moment of silence at the beginning of our next meeting)

______

Next meeting: May 21st - 10:30 am PDT / 11:30 am MDT / 12:30 pm CDT / 1:30 pm EDT / 9:30 pm GMT

Karen will send us out a reminder with the call-in phone number a few days ahead of each meeting date.