Issues and Opportunities for a Sustainability Learning Community:  Proceedings from Conversations in MRCSE Open Space

Facilitated by Sheila T. Isakson at the 2009 Summer Workshop

As part of the Midwest Regional Collaborative for Sustainability Education's 2009 Summer workshop attendees participated in a Open Space conversation on the sustainability education.  Open space (more often refered to as Open Space Technology) facilitated a self-organizating discuss that offer the opportunities to engage in deeper conversations that are often not possible in traditional meeting or conference settings.  Open space, developed by Harrison Owen in 1985, uses Four Principles and The One Law of the behavior of the self-organizing discussion.  The four principles are:

MRCSE Open Space Discussion Topics:

1.     Playing with Systems Loops Convened by: Mary Kluz

2.     Local and Regional Sustainability Initiatives Convened by: Todd Osman

3.     Listening Point Convened by Stacy Craig

4.     Balance Between Being and Doing Convened by: Sue Anderson

5.     “Higher” ↔ “Lower” Education, What Learning Convened by Gerry Slater

6.     Strengths-Based Approaches to Planning (and How I Use It Around the World) Convened by: Jason Kauffeld

7.     Economics: Basic Theories Convened by: Matt Ray

8.     How Do We “Insert” the Creative, “Build-it” into Making Sustainable, Regenerative Communities Happen? Convened by: Phyllis McKenzie

9.     Children’s Gardens Convened by: Monica Ray

10.   How to Talk Sustainability to Other Cultures Convened by: Carol Waskovich

11.   Yoga, Belly Dance, Stretch Convened by: Erin Scneider and Alcine Wiltz

12.   Conversation on How to Encourage the “Un-allied” to Stay in the Game of Sustainability Convened by: Phyllis McKenzie

13.   Play and Fun in Community Sustainability Convened by: Jeremy Solin

14.   Media and Fostering a Sustainable Community Convened by: Chani Becker

15.   Lessons Learned About Community Building Convened by: Krista James and Joan Menefee

16.   Urgency/Peace Convened by: Drew Cramer

17.   Faculty Development in Higher Education Around Sustainability; Issues of Sustainability in Higher Education; Sustainability Coordinators Infusing Sustainability in Curriculum Convened by: Amy Schiebel and Kelly Cartwright

18.   Sustainability and Medicine Convened by: Eric Anderson

19.   Social Change Technique which evolved into Participatory Design Convened by: Patrick Bixler and Marian Farrior

20.   Imaging a Sustainable Future Through Story Convened by: Tom Wojo (Wojciechowski)

Playing with Systems Loops

Convened by: Mary Kluz

Participants: Steve Sandstrom, Marion Farrior, Lynelle Hanson, Krista, Susan, Matt R.

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      There are many ways to loop.

2.      Loops are a new way to tell a story.

3.      We helped each other clarify stories.

4.      It’s about interrelationships.

5.      Don’t use elements that don’t add to the story.

6.      Think about using more elements if people aren’t understanding the connections.

Local and Regional Sustainability Initiatives

Convened by: Todd Osman

Participants: Cassie Bodette, Mary Maller, Steve Sandstrom, Ted May, Todd Hudzinski

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Overview tying vision of a sustainable community to actual existing community and its various elements.

2.      How do we get there?

3.      Review the history of Alliance for Sustainability through Steve’s and Ted’s collective memory.

4.      Extremely useful especially from the perspective of Todd H. and Todd O. looking for templates for their own communities.

5.      Mary adds the experience of the Steven’s Point area – vibrant, yet sporadic – like Ashland.

6.      This important point seems to beg both patience from organizers and concerted outreach and connection in education efforts.

Listening Point

Convened by Stacy Craig

Participants: Cassie, Patty Dryer, David

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Belonging to a space, creating a space – being part of creating your habitat

2.      Listening Point – what is it for people who don’t connect with nature?

3.      How do I connect to a space? Grow things.

4.      Terrain as inspiration i.e.: power, vastness

5.      Public Space. As 3rd place – connected to the body politic. Public Space not seen as a need.

6.      “The Life and Death of American Cities” by Jane Jacobs - reference

7.      “Green” is out of place when it doesn’t allow us to express our public selves.

8.      Physical design tactics to create space that spontaneously draws people

Balance Between Being and Doing

Convened by: Sue Anderson

Participants: Sue Anderson, Jesse Haney, Chani Becker, Mary Maller, Linda M., Monica Ray

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Have…..Do…..Be = conventional way to see it

2.      Be…..Do…..Have = truly what happens

3.      How do we just “be” and balance it with “do”?

a.      “sit with an issue – meditate”

b.      “rest my mind – let the answers enter as they will”

c.      “go on a hike, do yoga, go out in nature”

d.      “soothe and distract”

e.      Take a moment – a now moment – breathe deep

f.       Breathe deeply in the morning

4.      Simplicity, slowing down, present moment, fully present, siestas

5.      Find a practice that gets you back to the present moment

"Higher” ↔ “Lower” Education, What Learning

Convened by Gerry Slater

Participants: Fletcher Brown, Nancy Wiltz

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Language as “in the way”

2.      Commonality of core values but a few words can strip away the commonalities

3.      Engaging and doing as essential

4.      Process of engagement and action

5.      High value of collaborations accrues

6.      Educational institutions as vehicles for behavioral change

7.      What behavior and outcomes to do we want?

8.      Is trades and technology education low?

9.      Is early childhood education low?

10.   Is there a neutral zone to bring together

11.   Importance of genuine respect among ALL educators

12.   Envisioned/imagined a “campus” within a community from preschool age through adult education

Strengths-Based Approaches to Planning (and How I Use It Around the World)

Convened by: Jason Kauffeld

Participants: Judy Butcher, Susan Ermer-Schuller, Jen Cirillo, Allison Mills

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Focus on strengths and only strengths in planning. If using processes like SWAT, drop the W and T (weaknesses and threats).

2.      Look for collaboration instead of focusing on competition.

3.      Need buy-in.

4.      Capture and use institutional knowledge and history. Wise elders, mentors!!!

5.      Work with grandmothers and young women to create true community charge.

6.      People are the true strength of any project.

7.      Be respectful and you will be respected.

8.      THIRTEEN GRANDMOTHERS (Google it) http://www.grandmotherscouncil.com

Economics: Basic Theories

Convened by: Matt Ray

Participants: Todd, Linda, John Ikerd

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Bartering – can do more with others than alone

2.      Limiting nature (scarcity) give economic value

3.      Price – how economics values things

4.      International Trade

5.      Create activities to lead to a big picture that economics involves resources and social interdependency

6.      Economics involves individual needs, social needs, and ethics

7.      Young people have an understanding, an opinion, and a voice.

How Do We “Insert” the Creative, “Build-it” into Making Sustainable, Regenerative Communities Happen?

Convened by: Phyllis McKenzie

Participants: Me, Myself, and I

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      It is difficult to be interconnected when you’re alone.

Children’s Gardens

Convened by: Monica Ray

Participants: Christopher Feider, Gerry Slater, Nancy Wiltz, Monica Ray, Tasha Niemi, Jim Zaffiro

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Identify goals – what do we want it to do for us – vision

2.      Have children write proposal

3.      Lobby for more space – have children do it

4.      David Kahn – children and nature? [David Kahn, executive director of the North American Montessori Teacher’s Association,]

5.      Get parents involved

6.      Involve entire curriculum – English, History, Math, Art, etc.

7.      Plants that will grow and harvest late – kale

8.      Havenwoods State Forest – Sherman Blvd. and Silver Spring Dr., Milwaukee http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/specific/havenwoods/

9.      Community Gardens – field trip? – find Melinda Meyers

10.   We need to get momentum

11.   Use connections

12.   Garden is a great laboratory

13.   Make a statement that garden is part of curriculum

14.   Networking with community gardens

15.   Social responsibility with regards to garden (donate food to food bank)

16.   Incorporate 5 senses

17.   Seed saving – watermelons are easy. http://seedsavers.org/ – Decorah, IA

18.   Check out “Edible School Yard” – Alice Waters

19.   Have children decide what they want to eat at the end – harvest celebration

20.   http://www.nwf.org/campusecology/

21.   Show difference between dirt and soil

How to Talk Sustainability to Other Cultures

Convened by: Carol Waskovich

Participants: Regina Maibusch, Carol Waskovich

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Values – understand them – ex: very respectful of moms, religious, housekeeping, gratitude for receiving things

2.      Food Pantry – large group – do you want to save money?

3.      Overwhelmed by their needs and can’t be concerned with sustainability if basic needs aren’t met.

Yoga, Belly Dance, Stretch

Convened by: Erin Schneider and Alcine Wiltz

Participants: Stacy, Mary, Allison, Stacy, Cassie, Erin, Kelly, Todd, Marian

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Delayed message that hurt body

2.      Had to go slower and use memory to not reinjure self

3.      Different styles of yoga and belly dance

4.      Trusting the Universe

Conversation on How to Encourage the “Un-allied” to Stay in the Game of Sustainability

Convened by: Phyllis McKenzie

Participants: Alcine Wiltz, Mary Plaster, Carol Waskovich, Allison Mills

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Bumblebee who pollinates/provides services for various sustainability groups

2.      How do groups connect with bumblebees? Network

3.      How do we encourage more cultural diversity in sustainability discussions? (Are people of color allied with sustainability?)

4.      Integration with communities: personal, institutional – esp. campus and town/city

5.      Role of communication – citizens, government, experts

Play and Fun in Community Sustainability

Convened by: Jeremy Solin

Participants: Nancy, Mary, Kelly, Sue, Alcine, Tasha, Jen, Angie, Phyllis, Judy, Erin, Patrick, Matt R.

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Can any game be related to sustainability?

2.      Debriefing is important

3.      Analogy and direct learning

4.      Having Fun

5.      Systems thinking, emergent qualities, self-organization

6.      Play is fun – even for adults.

 Media and Fostering a Sustainable Community

Convened by: Chani Becker

Participants: Sunshine Buchholz, Matt Groshek, Jesse Haney, Lynelle Hanson, Jim Zaffiro, Fletcher Brown, Susan Ermer-Schuller

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Media is the “credible” source for popular culture

2.      Advertising owns the media

3.      Truth within media and advertising

4.      Greenwashing is prevalent – but not totally a bad thing – at least rouses the awareness a little bit and in subtle ways

5.      Using “new media” (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to subvert the media hierarchy. It is viral and spreads out to a mass audience, but older generations are using it, too.

6.      Media literacy/education is key to teach people how to deconstruct advertising and be aware of the messages/hidden agendas – see through the greenwashing.

7.      Language can shut out or include huge groups of people – the sustainability movement has lots of ‘loaded’ words. Different words reach different target audiences.

8.      Images can reach people in ways language cannot.

9.      We need to incorporate themes of sustainability throughout all types of media – narrative, documentary, journalism, photography, social media, and literature.

10.   A course on ‘Media and the Environment’ (or ‘Media Making and Sustainability’) where students learn to ‘read’ the media and advertisements, deconstruct the meaning/messages and also create their own commercial or ‘uncommercial’ would be a powerful way to address these issues.

Lessons Learned About Community Building

Convened by: Krista James and Joan Menefee

Participants: Steve Sandstrom, Sue Anderson, Jim Lorman, Amy Schiebel

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      How to engage people

a.      Opportunities for gathering

b.      Study groups

c.      Specific organizations that offer expertise

2.      How to build enduring regional alliances

a.      Geographical proximity

b.      Issues/themes of priority

c.      Work style

                                          i.     Identification of interested people

                                         ii.     Analysis of possible relationships

                                        iii.     Alliance-specific pitfalls

1.      Territory impingement

2.      Responsibility gaps

3.      How to deploy MRCSE in organizing regional collaboration efforts

a.      Need for systems analysis of this problem

b.      Facilitation of Alliance Training

c.      K-12 systems training work group

d.      Preparation for policy intervention – city council

e.      Grant writing consultation

f.       Training templates

4.      How to work with UW-Extension to answer their questions

5.      How to create K-12 alliances

a.      Attend to teacher issues

b.      Figure out what gets parents involved

c.      Think about how stakeholders are systems thinkers

d.      Think about how new languages influence stakeholders

Urgency/Peace

Convened by: Drew Cramer

Participants: Sunshine Buchholz, Jesse Haney, Clare Hintz, Mary Kluz, Mary Maller, Christopher Feider

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Gratitude list

2.      “Common Fire” by Larry Daloz, “Presence” by Otto Sharmer

[Common Fire: Lives of Commitment in a Complex World by Jim and Cheryl Keen, Larry Daloz Parks, and Sharon Parks Daloz; Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society by Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers, 2004]

3.      “Be in a hurry, without feeling in a hurry.”

4.      Hurricane

5.      Urgency not emergency

6.      Action without action

Faculty Development in Higher Education Around Sustainability; Issues of Sustainability in Higher Education; Sustainability Coordinators Infusing Sustainability in Curriculum

Convened by: Amy Schiebel and Kelly Cartwright

Participants: Ted, Wojo, Kim, Jim L., Clare, Kelly, Amy

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Make part of new employee orientation

2.      Some role models – compensation for work on sustainability and putting this in the curriculum

3.      Faculty can be rather intractable and inflexible – faculty feel the need to be experts in everything and do not admit easily to not knowing something

4.      ‘Green’ brownbags

5.      David Orr

6.      Present Problem – have the group work on problem solving from their disciplinary perspective

7.      In-service is not necessarily a good time for this

8.      Things have to be the faculty’s idea, and it has to come from them.

9.      The word ‘sustainability’ can get in the way. You need to start with their disciplinary language, values, etc.

10.   Encourage faculty to team teach – both teaching each session together.

11.   Blocked classes - then work together is a way to do a “team” teach but that might work with the administration.

12.   4 course block as in Northland

13.   Team faculty with staff and pay staff as adjunct.

14.   How do we pull stuff into this?

15.   Ask different offices/people what they are doing for sustainability

16.   Celebrating sustainability efforts.

Sustainability and Medicine

Convened by: Eric Anderson

Participants: Regina, Sunshine, Judy, Christopher

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Without personal health – not much else is important.

2.      Health is affected by and affects many aspects of sustainability.

3.      There is a deep and intimate connection between health, the environment and personal/collective choices.

4.      Prevention is far preferable to crisis management

5.      Death of an individual is an inevitable part of life on this earth, and yet 40% of Medicare health care costs are incurred during the final year of an individual’s life – and half of that is spent during their final 2 weeks (desperation).

6.      Addiction of substances (alcohol, tobacco, food) is evidence of a system out of balance – and is promoted by businesses and culture at large.

Social Change Technique which evolved into Participatory Design

Convened by: Patrick Bixler and Marian Farrior

Participants: Patrick, Stacy, Matt, Marian, Tom, Kelly, Fletcher, Matt G., Sue A., Jim, Christine, Eric

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      Resources and Processes:

a.      Participatory Photomapping

b.      Assets Based Community Development

c.      Appreciative Inquiry

d.      Participatory Evaluation

e.      Social Mapping

f.       Jay Harmond’s  writing

g.      Participatory Design

2.      Ongoing Projects:

a.      Healthy Neighborhoods

b.      Healthy Kids

c.      Center for Whole Communities

d.      Greenmap.org

3.      How to interrupt or disrupt – for truth telling – in a way that doesn’t set up ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ and instead flows into a generative/transformative dialogue.

4.      The notion of an ‘expert’ sets up a dichotomy.

5.      Center for Whole Communities has a retreat that invites a diversity of folks

a.      Elements: set up the space, experience silence, do individual rejuvenation practices, willingness, commitment, trust in building relationships, healthy food, play and creativity

6.      Identify stakeholders; make sure process for community building works for everyone; build personal relationships; take risks and enter into communities

7.      May feel we have a common vision, but don’t feel empowered about solutions; conflict happens in the articulation of the solution

8.      Hold tension regarding decision-making processes and structures – allow this to emerge out of relationships

9.      Ask people to diagram what they are experiencing to reveal deeper meanings (re: decision-making, etc.)

10.   Include diversity as part of the design

11.   Elements of participatory design: research, constructing an approach, modeling, implementation

Imaging a Sustainable Future Through Story

Convened by: Tom Wojo (Wojciechowski)

Participants: About 12 people, including: Mary, Linda M., Allison, Drew, Amy, Tom, John J., Jim Ramsdel, Jim L., Eric, Gerry S.

Summary of Key Points and/or Conclusions:

1.      We tried to imagine our lives in the year 2025.

2.      Positive vision is an important need

3.      We tended to get toward utopian ideas

4.      Story creating was fun

5.      Some aspects of life were much easier to envision

6.      Values – quality of life