time for a quaker unconference?

[simon gray]

in the activity which i do which pays for my lavish lifestyle - being
a local government web officer - i go to a fair number (at my own
expense, not the taxpayers') of events known as unconferences, which
are organised according to a principle known as open space technology:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology

to summarise the wikipedia article, an ost event is one in which none
(or very few) of the sessions are planned in advance - everybody turns
up to be greated by an empty timetable, and the first activity of the
day is where the participants themselves create the agenda, (usually)
by people queuing up at the front and suggesting topics to talk about,
and potential interest being gauged by a show of hands from the
audience.

it strikes me as vaguely odd that a way of running conferences which
is highly compatible with quaker ways of doing things is endemic in
the public sector digital communities is almost entirely unknown[*] in
quaker communities.

[*] 'i've heard' that ohio yearly meeting (conservative) discerns it's
yearly meeting agenda on this first day as a meeting for worship,
though i don't know this for a fact.

anybody think a quaker unconference might be a valuable thing to do?

it could be entirely open to whatever sessions people turn up to
suggest, or it could be given a theme - say, an unconference about
outreach, or an unconference about quaker theology, or whatever.

wodjasreckon?

--
www.star-one.org.uk ~ www.winterval.org.uk ~ www.birmingham-alive.com

[John]

I only attended Ohio Conservative YM once. I do not
remember the agenda being set during the opening Meeting for Worship
(Surely all Meeting are Meeting for Worship although some may be
devoted to business.) I would not have thought it odd if items were
added to the agenda during the opening worship at Ohio (C) but do not
remember it happening. The Yearly Meeting sessions of small Yearly
Meetings are more open to spontaneous movements of the Spirit. Yearly
Meetings like London (is it now Britain?)are very large and have to
be much more programmed and inflexible. What I remember about Ohio
Conservative YM was a long silent worship until the Clerk of the
Elders informed the Clerks of the Meeting that he thought the Meeting
was now ready to consider business. Only then did the Clerks start
to consider the items on the agenda.

There is a lot to be said for small YMs. They can combine
for joint action in organizations like FUM, FGC, EFI etc

John Taplin
Disowned for writing a letter to the Clerks complaining about what I
saw as a lack of right ordering. I was disowned and later the Elders
told me that everything that happened in a Mtg for Worship for
Business must by definition be the will of God and could not be questioned.


At 07:26 PM 9/01/2013, simon gray wrote - in part:

>................................

[Pam Lunn]

There was a session on sustainability at YMG in Canterbury run on OS principles, facilitated by Cliodhna Mulhern.
Pam

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[Chris Roberts, Newton Meeting, Camden NJ USA]

We probably all share a concern that there are so many concerns.  I remember Maireid Corrigan (Nobel Peace Prize) responding to BIll Moyers' question "but what should I do?".  She turned on him with an Irish ferocity.  "Shame on you, shame on you for asking that question.  Do something for Christ sake."  That was a life lesson for me.  Adopting Psalm 100 as my text, I now pick what makes me most effective and happy in my work and I don't have to feel guilty.

Open Space Technology looks a little unstructured for me.  At least I need a purpose.  Check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_engineering.  It's a workaday methodology but it fits quite well with a lot of philanthropic endeavour.

Peace,  Chris