FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

First New England Sustainability Open Space Community Event

February 3-4, 2007
at Sirius Community
in Shutesbury, MA

Petersham, M.A. -- For the first time in New England, the meeting methodology “Open Space Technology” (OST) will intersect with the sustainability community -- that is, anyone interested in or concerned about creating a sustainable future in this region -- in a free two-day event, open to the public, on February 3-4 in Shutesbury, MA.

OST is a simple approach to running productive meetings, with five to 2000+ people, and a powerful way to lead any kind of organization in everyday practice and ongoing change. OST was formalized by organizational consultant Harrison Owen, who shares credit, he says, with over 3000 practitioners and the millions of participations who have contributed since he first articulated the meeting methodology in the mid-1980s. It has been used successfully by organizations as varied as the World Bank, the Presbyterian Church, and Honeywell.

While the upcoming New England Sustainability Open Space is literally generated by participants, it was conceived by Frank Deitle -- gardener, former student of agro-ecology, and current lodge coordinator at an environmental education and program center called Earthlands in Petersham, MA.

“I was introduced to OST about two years ago and fell in love with the methodology,” Deitle says. “I instantly saw its potential in many different areas and was inspired last spring by a series of events in North Carolina that brought sustainability leaders together in Open Space.”

“There are a lot of folks out there working on various aspects of sustainability -- economic, environmental, social, political,” says Deitle. “We’re working on a very complex issue with a great diversity of opinions about what the issues are and how to approach them. OST is very effective in these kinds of situations, and I hope that the New England SOS will inspire both powerful networking and collaboration across ideological boundaries and also create a strong sense of community.”

Participants can expect that within an hour of the event’s opening, they will create and manage the weekend’s agenda of parallel working sessions around the theme of creating sustainability; they will spend the weekend talking about exactly what they are passionate about and willing to take responsibility for -- with others who feel the same way. The event is designed so that Saturday is devoted to open discussion on the issues, and Sunday to honing in on the action plans based on Saturday’s conversations.

“The result,” Deitle anticipates, “is that all of the important issues will be discussed, recorded, and compiled in a book of proceedings, which is generated live as the event is happening on our wiki website, so it will be public. Participants will have each other’s contact information, and the action plans that grow out of the event will be available to each person upon leaving the event for future networking and collaboration.”

Additional information about the New England SOS is available online.

Contact: Frank Deitle
Tel: 415-992-2555
Email: commoikos@gmail.com
http://newenglandsos.wetpaint.com

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