Occupy Your Agenda: An Introduction to Open Space Meetings

Thursday, April 5, 2012, 5:30 PM

Morrell Meeting Room Curtis Memorial Library (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=23+Pleasant+Street%2C+Brunswick%2C+ME)

23 Pleasant Street, Brunswick, ME (edit map (https://www.meetup.com/portlandpermaculture/events/57096532/))

Parking is on the street or in the library parking lot on the street behind it http://www.curtislibrary.com/about-us/directions/ Price: $5.00/suggested donation @door

Refund policy (https://www.meetup.com/portlandpermaculture/events/57096532/)

Please join us for a 3-hour introductory evening workshop with Lisa Fernandes on how to plan, convene and get results from Open Space meetings. Open Space Technology (not "open space" as in land preservation) democratizes and decentralizes the meeting process and harnesses the passion and creativity of participants to create astoundingly effective outcomes. Many people from around Maine are expressing interest in experimenting with this technique.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3063/2919311068_b8629e0994.jpgThis session is suitable for anyone who would like to re-energize the work of their group or organization, find ways to engage more people in meaningful efforts and action, and those who are eager to experiment with this technique to see how it could work for them. This is not just for people who find themselves in the facilitator role but for all people who want to get good work done in groups!

Far from being unstructured, Open Space provides just the right amount of structure so that the participants' energy and passion turn the meeting into an effective vehicle for engagement and effective outcomes.

5:30 Welcomes & Introductions (All) 6:00 to 7:30 Nuts-and-Bolts of Open Space (Planning, Convening, Follow-up) 7:30-8:30 "Mini Open Space" 8:30 Closing Co-hosted by Portland Maine Permaculture

Pls use the "comments" space to organize carpools if needed!

http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/c/7/9/e/event_103071102.jpegMore about Open Space:

Open Space Technology is one way to enable all kinds of people, in any kind of organization, to create inspired meetings and events. Over the last 20+ years, it has also become clear that opening space, as an intentional leadership practice, can create inspired organizations, where ordinary people work together to create extraordinary results with regularity.

In Open Space meetings, events and organizations, participants create and manage their own agenda of parallel working sessions around a central theme of strategic importance, such as: What is the strategy, group, organization or community that all stakeholders can support and work together to create?

With groups of 5 to 2000+ people -- working in one-day workshops, three-day conferences, or the regular weekly staff meeting -- the common result is a powerful, effective connecting and strengthening of what's already happening in the organization: planning and action, learning and doing, passion and responsibility, participation and performance.

Learn more at Open Space World (http://www.openspaceworld.org/)