[Dialogue] The Occupy Crowd Meets the ToP Crowd: a Short Video

[Nancy Lanphear]

Dear Gordon,

You did it!  What a gift to the world to have ToP facilitators and the
Occupiers meet in such a "grand" style. I will send the video out to my
neighbors here at Songaia.

Although I had agreed with Gordon to add my thoughts to some of his
writings, I did not do it.  As I was visiting an Occupy location one Sunday
afternoon, I was impressed with the passion and openness to listening that
seem to be working.  It demonstrated a new style of caring and a new
possibility for "democracy".

In gratitude,

Nancy

On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 12:45 AM, Gordon Harper <gharper1 at mindspring.com>wrote:

>  I know that many of us are engaged in some way with the Occupy movement,
> and it's a subject worth talking about.  We've had Occupiers in our
> facilitation training here in Seattle, and Molly Shaw and I have worked
> with several of their projects.
>
> I caused something of a disturbance in the Force (who, me?) this January.
> I announced at the annual ToP conference in Sacramento that I thought we
> might have some things to learn as well as to share about grassroots
> facilitation through dialogue with the Occupy movement--and that I had
> therefore invited about fifteen Occupiers from Seattle and UC Davis to our
> gathering for an interchange session.
>
> This came about because I had mentioned to some of my troublesome friends
> here in Seattle that I would be attending this conference and then learned
> that a number of them would be on a trek visiting other Occupy groups along
> the Pacific coast during that same time.  It became very clear to me that
> God intended for our two groups to connect.
>
> The ToP leadership team put this on the schedule as a small Open Space
> option on the last afternoon of our conference.  It would be while most
> attendees would be completing action planning in their task forces for
> the year ahead.
>
> However, when I asked that morning for how many were interested in being
> part of this Occupy encounter, over 90% of the hands in the plenary shot
> up.  The leadership team died: there went the prime working time for all
> that planning.  (I may never be invited to another ToP conference.)
>
> Nonetheless, despite shooting me looks that would have dropped a more
> sensitive soul in his tracks, our leaders rebounded gracefully, declared it
> a consensus that the whole conference would adjourn to the hotel veranda
> outdoors for this event and that the scheduled planning would simply start
> earlier, over lunch that day.
>
> As you'll see from the video, I had a ball doing this.  This included
> participating in a little direct action after the session, led by the
> Occupiers, at the Capitol Mall a few blocks away (what's called a Guerrilla
> Mic Check, to use the technical term--not something included in this clip.
> The marching that opens the video is of us on our way to cause that
> trouble).  No, no one got arrested doing it.
>
> Joanna Kohler was our videographer, and Marti Roach and I worked with her
> on the editing.  You'll recognize a number of Order colleagues in the
> group, as well as interesting ritual activity, a great witness, clearly
> stated rubrics for participation and team facilitation being created on the
> spot by people who have just met one another.
>
> Enjoy--and, if you share my sense of its importance, let's talk more about
> just what is going on with this movement and why we maybe should pay
> attention to it.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnjmWcJjET4
>
> Gordon
>
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>
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