SOS Asheville

The four-day Open Space Technology facilitator’s workshop finished yesterday.  When it was done, Liz Logan and I stayed a while at the pavilion.  I learned some things and crystalized some questions I’d like to share.

Liz has done a great deal of research about Peak Oil, and from her location near Atlanta she is preparing to provide both facilitation (”space holding”) and also content expertise for communities seeking to re-localize as a response to the peak oil reality.

Having just emerged from a 4-day facilitator’s workshop and from the SOS, we were both thinking about methodology and containers for transformation.

One question we explored was whether it is advisable for someone who takes leadership to hold space for transformation, whether in person or online, to also engage in content.  My experience is clear that the facilitator of an OST meeting is most effective if he/she doesn’t attend breakout groups or otherwise engage on a content level.  But I am interested in the question of the role of a space-holder for a blog like this one, or like Liz’s blog.  Does an online collaboration space need a space-holder who doesn’t engage in content or action on initiatives?

I also enjoyed Liz’s stories about the strength of the relocalization movement in Northern California.  I was not aware of this term as a movement, which is for me a wonderful alternative to, say, “anti-globalization”!  We went on to get excited about the potential of SOS Communities and SOS Councils as a powerful tool for community relocalization. 

I love that SOS Asheville will focus primarily on local actions and the local/regional sustainability community.  And I am re-inspired to develop SOS as a model that small groups of local leaders can apply to their own communities.  It also makes even more sense to me that the “circle of authors” for this SOS Asheville blog be the local folks who come to the seasonal SOS events.

Relocalization isn’t an idea.  It’s a living reality that grows from local roots.

Chris

Also, send me website links you would like to either add to reports or add to the “blogroll” on the menu bar. (For example, I just added to the blogroll Janell’s Kleiwerks and, thanks to Clare, Common Sense at the Nuclear Crossroads & the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance.)

Chris

Hi Everybody!  The reports from our SOS event are now up!

Every post appears chronologically on the main part of the blog.  For ease of use, click on the CATEGORIES on the menu bar on the right to get to reports and any messages posted about particular topics.  Also, try out the SEARCH function…it’s easy to find messages related to particular topics and people that way.

If you see anything on the site that needs editing, feel free to make the edits in an email and send it to me - It is easy to change what’s already on the blog.

If you wanna be an AUTHOR, click on BECOME AN AUTHOR! under “pages” on the menu bar.

Enjoy, and THANK YOU for your inspired participation in the event this week.  Onward we go!

Blessings,
Chris

This is a set-up post to activate the categories.  Here we go!