Hello Beret
Thanks for your good work on the archives, and for your questions about Oaxtapec. I’ve scanned my files and discovered that memory will have to suffice. I do have some memories of the event that may be worth recording.
First, the place was gorgeous. However it was selected, it was an excellent choice.
Secondly, there were at least three “outside” notable worthies as guest speakers: Harrison Owens, Jean Houston, and David Campbell.
Third is a story: I was assigned to be on the regulatory to plan the event. Karen Snyder and LeDona Wagner were also on that team, along with others who I can’t remember. We arrived on sight a week in advance and got to work. Most of us had experience of planning Priors Councils and Summer Programs, so it was sort of a familiar task, though challenges were significant: dealing with the dispersed location of the housing and the incorporation of the guests into the program. We worked morning til night in dialogue with the Panchayat and finally came up with a detailed design that seemed to incorporate the activities and dynamics we all wanted to happen.
Sorry, but I don’t have a copy of that design.
Anyway, at the appropriate time, we presented our design to the priory for their modification before finalization. It had assigned times, places, teams, and activities in what we considered a trans-rational format that would get us where we wanted to go. Harrison Owens, who was invited to sit in on the meeting erupted with objections at such structures. This was before he published Open Space, but he was already committed to a structure-less process, and recommended that we ditch our plans and let happen whatever would. As a group wedded to intentionality, that seemed heretical (to me), but that’s essentially what happened. Of course, the guests had scheduled times for their presentations, but beyond that, our carefully crafted plans went down the tubes! 😊.
Later, during the week Harrison and I met on the porch of our cabin for pre-breakfast coffee and informal chats with cordial collegiality, though neither of us managed to convince the other of the effectiveness of our respective dynamics.
Fourth, and this is not for publication, the discussion and decision about dissolution of the Order was never in any of the pre-plans. We had to leave the conference a day early, but nothing about such a move had been publicly discussed before then. The later announcement came as a complete surprise and probably contributed to my “Theology of Surprise” book. What’s happened since has obviously been beyond our wildest expectations, but at the time it came as a bolt out of the blue.
I hope you find these memories useful as background information.
John