Open Space Exercise
"How can we support Transition in our Communities"
Hearts & Minds - "How do we organise meetings to sustain ourselves and each other?"
Ground Rules - 1 conversation not 2 - listen
Learning how to listen is a key point
Elders - Hard Yards without being acknowledged - invite in, deep appreciation - deep wound about being on the outside for years & years - honour their work - build into our meetings
So excited when we discover something - we think we know it all
Encourage older people to join because they know how to survive
Personal invitations to early environmentalists
How do we engage people who have been working/thinking/doing in transition ways for decades?
Importance of indigenous - so important in Oz
New indigenous - immigrants (who also know about survival / other traditions / other spiritual traditions)
Local History groups
Connected to how we sustain - respect diversity - sensitive to where we are - don't try to talk others into my beliefs
Conflict - sit it out - work through it
Young, new, energetic - encourage & 'hold' that energy
Burnout avoidance: remember what we set out to do --> hold a vision
Small groups so everyone can be heard
Hand signals a brilliant idea
Hold up our achievements -- > drive to achieve
How do we do everything?
Smaller expectations for agendas
People taking responsibility for their big ideas
Linearity - here's the list cyclical nature or what we're doing
Synchronicity - go with the flow - pull not push
Look for the right time
I Will Do List not To Do List
Check how people are going regularly
Honesty about what we can do
How we help people feel they can do things
Check if people feel they can do
Say if we don't feel it is possible for the group
Listen more deeply to myself - takes time - days
Moment of silence
Desiderata - Go placidly
Calls for silence - use the hand signal - arm up straight
Start with a minute of silence
Heightened energy in discussion
Speakers list - and idea from the Greens - no immediate responses
Respect - established rules - e.g. look at someone when they are talking - have compassion - name them
