Open Forum

[Peter Howie]

Dear Ed and others,

There is much in what you are suggesting. I would suggest a few more  
workshops as well to compliment this one.

Firstly I find great value in making a space for people to present  
themselves and their thinking. I have experience of this in some men's  
gatherings. They are often a bit hokey with a talking stick and other  
devices to make room for the less demonstrative folks but it very  
often produces some good cross fertilisation, reflection and group  
learning.

I would suggest two more programs as well - one would be an  
explorative sociodrama that looks in the widest possible terms at the  
sub-groups in yours or whichever society - maybe going local, state or  
global. From there taking care to warm up in small groups to being the  
others groups not present present and begin a dialogue in this way.  
The other groups such as the other professional groups - sociologists,  
social workers, nurses, doctors, academics, managers, entrepreneurs,  
various unions, teachers, school principals, mainstream political  
groups, fringe political groups, environmental groups, climate groups,  
legal support groups, sustainability groups and others. I think the  
psychologists/psychotherapists/counsellors are well enough represented  
in our various memberships but you might want to add them in as well.  
Sociodrama often goes well with a decent question and the question  
might be something like "What do we (ASGPP and practitioners and TEPs)  
need to do to allow you to see and utilise the value of Morenian  
methods for yourself and your group?". This kind of sociodrama can  
really clarify what are some of the blocks that we inadvertently put  
in place of people working with us. It would likely throw into focus  
some of the general ways we can assist other groups that would then  
lead them to be interested in what we do. I guess my general principle  
here is that we wont be doing the doing as our expertise is in working  
with others - if this expertise was brought forward to the  
revolutionaries that abound in order for them to develop wisdom,  
compassion or to understand others then this would be a good thing.  
Sort of - rather than work at the grass roots - work with the grass  
roots organisers.

Another workshop would be about discovering what has worked for people  
entering into other arenas of influence. Who has managed to work with  
different groups and what makes their work attractive to others. Some  
of the attraction is all about the relationships that people have  
developed which gets them invited in. Some is also about how the  
Morenian methods can be tailored to suit different groups.

Cheers

Peter in Brisbane




On 12/07/2009, at 7:55 AM, Edward Schreiber wrote:

> How about this for a workshop for the ASGPP Conference in  
> Philadelphia?
>
> Town Hall - Open Forum on How to Bring the Method to Humanity More  
> Fully
>
> I would be happy to moderate or someone else could.
> We could have an open mike and each person would have about 5  
> minutes to speak.
> After that we could have comments given back from the group about  
> what was heard
> and we could work sociometrically to find where there are  
> connections to further the
> interest, work, advances, connections.
>
> If that sounds good to anyone interested I would be happy to place  
> it in the ASGPP
> Conference call for proposals.
>
> Ed
>
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>