OSI US Board Meeting Highlights

OSI US Board Meeting Hightlights – March 16, 2015 (5:30 to 7:15 p.m. EST)

Attending: Tricia Chirumbole, Chuni Li, Suzanne Daigle, Karen Davis, Linda Stevenson, Harold Shinsato, Dan Mezick, Kevin O’Brien

Note taker:  Suzanne Daigle

Bin Gardner navigating the Agenda: Harold Shinsato

Meeting begins with 2 minutes of silence followed by member check-in

1. Bin Clean-up Harold advises that he has cleaned up the Trello bin and walks us through the things that he did moving stuff to done, creating a column of parked indefinitely if there has been no activity, including a column called “stuff to consider” which we can then move into the bin for discussion leading to action. 
    
2. On line Agile Coaching Class for interested Board members and invited Guests
   To date Linda, Karen, Tricia, Harold and Dan are participating. First training call is scheduled for Tuesday the 24^th of March from 4 to 6 pm. (2 hours giving participants time to sort out the technical login, etc). Other classes will last about 1.5 hours.  Tricia asks about inviting attendees and the suggest is that we each try to invite 5 people. Linda asks whether a pre-requisite is a depth of experience in Open Space. The answer is yes. 
    
3. Kudos and acknowledgment of Dan Mezicks Open Space client videos by Linda and others. All agree that these speak to the need and potential of our work and the power of video to get the message across.
    
4. International House Retrospective from January Harold and Karen report that the Open Space Gathering 2015 was a success in terms of participation and financially ($2100 surplus). This was the first year that OSI US officially partnered on this event and it was noted that all OSI members participated and were actively involved. In addition to the financial benefits of using OSI US’s 501C3 as a pass through, it was felt that the goals of this annual gathering fit well with the OSI US mission and that the event itself met all the established guidelines for use namely that there be complete transparency in managing all of the expenses and revenues with no financial exposure to the Institute. 

   While noting all the positive benefits, it was acknowledged that using OSI US as a pass-through does create quite a bit of work at the treasury level and it could become extremely onerous if we were involved in many such events.There was some discussion about expanding the use and value of our 501C3 without increasing work for us at the Board level as a service to other institutes or Open Space groups. Should we go in that direction, Harold says that it probably would require paid staff to handle the books
    

5. OS Hotline Michael Herman requested permission to post the link to the hotline on Open Space World.org.  Everyone enthusiastically agreed noting again the huge value and richness of the discussions that occur on the hotline every week. The group expressed their deep appreciation to Tricia for leading this effort.
    
6. Orientation and Welcome of New OSI Board members: While appreciating the on-boarding procedure document that was developed for new members with information on the mission, vision and values of OSI US, Dan, in an earlier email to Chuni, suggested that a simple, repeatable and perhaps more elaborate group-level welcoming ritual could help by going beyond the informal way that people have of getting to know each other which can potentially be somewhat unwelcoming.

   A rich and enthusiastic discussion ensued from this suggestion leading to a first new ritual of ringing “a bell of awesomeness” to welcome Doug and Dan as new board members. All agreed that having emergent light structures, which provide spontaneity can be highly effective counteracting the fact that we rarely meet face-to-face.  Those who have been on the board talked about how invaluable the off-site board retreats have been. (ie. Florida) in building deeper relationships.  Setting up a bit more structure can help, according to Dan, and as he reminds us, nothing needs to be set in stone.
    

7. Expert Open Space Directory- A Berrett-Koehler suggestion that came from Peggy Holman via email 11/16, 2014, which they call a “distinguished group”. From the BK note to refresh our memory:  “The qualifications to be in a distinguished group are loosely set by the organizers of the group.  They would either submit a list to us, and as people requested membership in the directory, we would consult the list and identify them in this group, or they would reference the organizer of the distinguished group during the application process, and then we would check with the organizer to get a formal recommendation to join.” 

   Picking up on the BK idea, it was felt that such a directory or list of experienced Open Space facilitator/trainers would be helpful. Karen asks if we know what other groups have done (Appreciative Inquiry, Future Search, World Café) in submitting to this list.  Karen who knows Juanita will seek her out to ask. We then had an open discussion of what the possibilities might be on this feeling this will be an increasing need because more and more people will want to know about Open Space in the future.

   We did have some minimal discussion on this topic at an earlier meeting. In the spirit of Open Space, while recognizing the benefit and need of this, it is not evident how a group such as ours would determine who is an expert. The inclination would be that people self-identify instead and that we involve others.

   Kevin talks about the Linked-in model where people can endorse others for their skills. He mentions the W.L. Gore model where others recognize a person’s expertise. What’s nice about Linked in is that it’s easy to endorse. Linda asks if we just couldn’t use Linked in directly and ask the community to use the endorsement feature. Kevin responds that we can’t search by endorsements in Linked in. Harold does not like that Linked in controls the information. Nonetheless he feels that Linked is a good model and thinks that creating something like it connected to a map could be doable. There is further discussion about Linked in that people could be gaming the process or not being as thoughtful or serious in their endorsements. Harold mentions that just because you have a lot of endorsements doesn’t mean that you are good.

   Tricia see this as an opportunity to involve others, to institute something that is superior to formal models. It’s an opportunity to involve the OS community.It invites us look at expertise and also who you actually trust who is doing this work. It’s an opportunity to involve the OS community.

   Karen acknowledges that there’s been some good thinking and good ideas. I think this could be a major move for the Institute but perhaps it would be good idea to step back a bit first. Chuni wonders if this initiative is in the spirit “one less think to do”. Kevin responds by saying: I’m excited by the idea and would be happy to offer whatever I can but I also respect what Chuni just said.
    

8. Spacify – Suzanne mentions that she is working with Mark Kilby (Agile Orlando) who is looking into a possible Open Space tool for the newsroom and that he has asked her if she’d assess it with him and Diana Weber of Valpak. They will be hosting and facilitating Florida Open Space Agile 2015.  Suzanne asks if there’s anyone on the Board interested in looking into it with her.  Tricia volunteers.
    
9. Next OSI meeting We will continue to use ZOOM and the request is that we send a year-long schedule that we can integrate in our schedules. Suzanne to follow-up