Opening Space for Occupy.

Hi all!

Notes from most recent Opening Space for Occupy meetings are below:

Meeting one:

 

               Minutes to the 6/18/12 Opening Sace for Occupy Planning Meeting

 

Present were Sadananda Kaur Khalsa, Stephanie Jennings, Wendy Sue Biegeleisen, Raffi Aftandelian, and John P. Falchi.

INTRODUCTION

We began by each selecting a Zen Osho Tarot card, thinking about it, and then revealing what the card was telling us about "What I want to pay aattention to in this OST Occupy Meeting."

Mine was "Suppression."  I had suppressed some of my feelings about the continued need for healing in San Diego Occupy.

Another had The Dream, and she felt the need to focus on the dream and unsolicited self love.

Another had Consciousness, and felt the need to keep consciousness open, and to be aware of a a potentially really big paradigm shift.

Another had Control, and said that there are many subtle ways we try to maintain control.

PRINCIPLES OF OPEN SPACE TECHNOLOGY

Whoever comes are the right people;

Whenever it starts is the right time;

Whenever it's over,  it is over;

Whatever happens is the only thing that could happen;

Remember the law of two feet--if  you find yourself in a situation where you can neither learn or contribute, you can move on.

Be prepared to be surprised--let go of expectations.

_______________________________

We first dealt with the question:  What are your hopes and fears for the planning meetings and the event we are looking to organize?

The fear was expressed that we are not representative of the regulars who take part in occupy.  To this it was responded that: 

-Before the last OST Occupy meeting on 5/05/12 some of the planning group members visited various occupy groups.  

-In addition, those who could not attend planning meetings were invited to submit written suggestions. 

- It was recommended that we do both of these things again this time, in addition to further inviting key people who we know are regulars at some of the occupy groups.

 

One hope that was expressed was that:  As we come together in process we get to trust each other more, and that when things heat up, we then have enough trust to hang together.

The fear was expressed that there was some unwillingness to go therough this whole process again.  A response was that,

- while some of us are not able to engage with the negativity involved, it was going to be necessary to come together with people of divergent, non-occupy tendencies .

 

Another fear was the unwillingness to engage those who disagree with us.  It was then expressed that:

- in order to really advance the goals of occupy it's going to take a multi-sector collaborative approach, in an ongoing constructive manner, in order to get the work done.

 

One hopeful thrust was the concept of Resilience Dialogue.

It was suggested that Occupy may be at a crossroads--that there was still quite a bit of conflict, and that it was time for occupy to grow in trust.  It was said that there is a need for healing and that we need to support each other.

 

It was mentioned that we need to think strategically and identify the right people to help get the work done.  

- Here several names were suggested:  Jeanell King, Kay Vogt, and Karen Dietz.  

-We also may have some people who, while they don't want to be part of the planning committee, may have a connection with others who it would be important to include.

 

It was consensed thata Mapping Exercise would be helpful.  It should include:                       -Why we are here?  

-What actions we want? 

-Who are the key actors to invite to what we are planning?  In this connection it was mentioned that we dont have the younger occupy folks here!  The majority of us are over 50, except for Raffi.

 

It was mentioned hat within occupy there's a lot of mistrust.  

-The original joy and trust that was experienced early on has somewhat dissipated and a whole lot of this has broken down.

-Particuarly on the facebook pages peope are sniping at each other rather than working through things. 

 -Therefore, there might be a certain amount of distrust of new people like us coming in.

 

In re to conflict, it was mentioned that conflicts are never really resolved, but we can relate difficulty to conflict.  

-In this connection would we need to have an OST meeting just to get our act together?

-It was suggested that much of this conflict could be absorbed as the movement progresses, so let's not focus on the petty conflicts.  

 

One member questioned whetherOccupy is necessarily a movement.  Couldn't it be considered more of a process.  Otherwise, occupy would culturally align us only with the progressive forces, but isn't it bigger than that?

 

Raffi mentioned a United Kingdom group of process artists who brought together a diverse group of people when the economy really tanked back in 7/2008.  We could learn from them about dealing with difficult situations like this.

 

Hopefully we can reach out diversely to:  -interfaith groups, -electoral groups, the punks, et al.

 We can learn from other types of groups, e.g. the GLBT groups moved from Socialists, to Parades, to Pride.

Hopefully the stereotypes between the police and occupy can be broken down.

A piece of the healing is helping the young folks learn from this experience that we are not a failure becausethe cops broke down the encampment.

The more dialogue we have, the more concreate what we are creating becomes, it becomes real rather than just an idea.

 

We are creating a good and coherent container.  In this we would get away from the tendency for mob rule, where it is difficult to get to something important.

There is as saying that" what resists, persists."

 

Our next meeting will be Thursday, 6/28/12, 1:30--4:30 p.m. at the Urban Grind.

P.S. the book on Sacred Economics by Eisenstein is highly recommended.

 

 

 

 

Meeting two:

Notes

Opening Space for Occupy- planning meeting two

Thursday, June 28th

Urban Grind Cafe

 

Present: Wendy Sue Biegeleisen, Sada Anand Kaur Khalsa, Raffi Aftandelian

 

1. Afternoon news- opportunity to check in with one another.

2. Hopes and Fears-

 

We wrote down the following additional hopes and fears:

 

Hopes

Rejuvenate OSD and the local Occupy movement

OST process is inherently healing- focusing different ways, effective ways of being together

[lots of energy is currently coalescing vs. TPP]

to have the proper focus to capture people's passion

connect to the local and global Occupy community

use available energy wisely

be careful not to over-volunteer

accept that some things won't happen or can happen without me

really embody the OST principle, “Whoever comes are the right people” during the planning phase

to recognize that the three of us gathered do represent Occupy

to continue doing the inviting for planning meetings

to see where this planning takes us

to take responsibility by being active in taking this planning forward

go with the flow

remind myself that we are creating something new

let all ideas play out

give space to all conversations

 

Fears

Occupy is losing direction, people are falling away, collective energy is dissipating

the energy may not be there to plan this event

[Saturday's OSD meeting in Balboa Park was low energy]

[It is hard to connect with some of the people in OSD who have psychiatric disabilities]

[we may not get far today]

feeling pressured to organize a meeting where we invite too diverse a group-- bringing corporate and government people in for example. I want to connect on a deeper level with people within Occupy; left the last meeting feeling overwhelmed, the idea of connecting with other groups was too much.

 

 

 

3. Storyline diagram

 

As part of the work of context-setting and clarifying whether an Open Space Technology meeting is right at this time we used the Storyline diagram (available on request) to clarify both what led us to consider planning a highly participatory event for Occupy and also to look at what we imagine would happen after an OST event devoted to Occupy.

What led up to planning this second Opening Space for Occupy event

• liked that at the May 5th event we broke bread together.

• It was the healthiest, most productive time I've spent with Occupy

• I will go back to Hilo; I want to bring back tools to share; it was another way of bringing together Occupy folks; it felt right; it felt like part of the process of what we are creating with Occupy

• event had me wishing Women Occupy meetings were like this; felt so much more comfortable in terms of interacting

• we tried to incorporate some of OST in the latest Women Occupy meeting

• there was not enough time available at the last Women Occupy meeting; it felt rushed

• at the May 5th event I felt a longing to continue the process; I wanted more

• got a lot out of the first OS for Occupy event; I want to explore how OST works

• felt similar to consensus process

• OST gave me a bigger picture of how to communicate, plan, get things done in a different way

• felt inspired at the OST for Occupy meeting

• began to see a process that could be valuable to us in Occupy; made me thirsty for more

• seemed like a more feminine process- belief is that feminine by its nature is highly creative in an inclusive way.

• First time- it was important for Occupy in San Diego County- to interact in a positive way- it was more intimate

 

What do you see happening after an Opening Space for Occupy event 4-6 months from now?

• common projects- at least the beginning of some

• we'd want to plan another OST meeting

• a thirst for more, that feeling I experienced from that 1st meeting

• inspiring, impassioning, barriers broken down, get to some actions that we feel passionate about

• continued more open communication

• would have built/established relationships within our own community and the larger community- good communicaion, common goal/goals, respect

• we've created a deeper trust, deeper trust in process- as well as individually

• larger community will begin process of identifying Occupy as humanity-based movement

• if we expand to other communities, these communities will connect with OST, their communities will open to OST and want to bring this form of communication to their communities

• OSD and Occupy Movement become more cohesive with countywide OST

• see an expanding of shared resources- we do need each other

• expansion of networking

• deeper engagement of faith communities with Occupy- Eastern religions, UU Church, Reformed and Reconstructivist Judaism

• non-Occupy co-sponsors of event; we will not hit them over the head with Occupy

• walks in nature during event

• 2-2 ½ day event

• dissolve barriers between Occupy and other communities

•  

 

4. Grief Cycle

   We began a conversation using the Grief Cycle as part of the work of context-setting. The aim was to clarify where each of us is on the Grief Cycle and where Occupy is locally. This work will continue in the next meeting.

5. Closing circle- we shared closing thoughts.