2011 Annual Retreat - Tackling the Bin

2011 Annual Retreat - Tackling the Bin

Host: Peggy

Attending: Doug, Lisa, Karen, Christine, Ed, Suzanne, Harold

Peggy asked: What do the items in the bin tell us about ourselves and our larger intentions that would help us handle it more effectively?

ORGANIZE AS A NETWORK

Doug noted most of the stuff doesn’t have much energy, just stuff.

Morphed into exploring the notion of an executive director – paid staff.

That led to a juicy conversation on networked organizing models.  Suzanne described the lively way her organization works.  Project based, with young people doing work that excites them, supported with respectful, adult-adult mentoring.

Harold spoke of another model of organizing --  Gangplank, Derek Neighbors.

Later, Peggy mentioned Hacks and Hackers using meetup.org and is taking off.

CREATE OPEN SPACE INSTITUTE FELLOWS

The networked organization conversation led to the notion of “fellows”.  Lisa sparked the conversation.  The idea is we offer up invitations to contribute to Open Space by doing a project as an “OSI Fellow”.  The projects could come from us or from the person.  The fellowship provides a certain panache for acknowledging contribution or adding panache to a resume.  

The fellowship lasts for a year and/or the length of a project.

Two items we mentioned but didn’t resolve:

• What criteria create a fertile container for being a fellow? (e.g., have done OS, are passionate about the project)
• How might mentoring support fellows?  (Is being a mentor another form of fellowship?)

CLEANING UP THE BIN

We ended by looking at the specifics in the bin and agreed:

• Every item has a name (or two) or is deleted
• We’ll update the bin in real-time during OSI board meetings, with someone acting as the “bin gardener”
• If an item hasn’t been touched in 3 months, it goes.  If someone wants to re-invigorate it, they can bring it back later.
• A back-up idea: set a “work in progress limit”: only a set number of items can be in the bin.  If we reach capacity, something goes.