Hi
My name is Tom Conlon and I help with others to organise a discussion
community based in London (as you can see from the piece below).
We have recently used an asynchronous’ email conference to enable members
of the group, who cannot attend face to face meetings, to participate.
We had a mixed experience, some members saying they would prefer to have a
Yahoo Group type experience where they could pick up their messages on
demand rather than receiving individual e-mails, others saying that would
prefer the closeness and immediacy of the Instant Messaging technologies
(such as MS Messenger 6).
The aims of our group are, within an atmosphere of respect and support,
to:
* Build a community of interest among professionals from a wide range of
disciplines who have a common interest in exploring human potential;
* Learn about, share and develop constructive tools and techniques for
enabling people and groups to change or develop and apply them in a
variety of settings including (but not exclusive to) business, public
sector, voluntary organisations and family;
* Provide a space for the sharing and discussion of ideas and offer a
safe and supportive environment for self exploration, expansion and
development.
I would be very appreciative of any views you may have on the best online’
technology to use in order for us to achieve our aims. I would also be
grateful for any links to any papers/written material on this subject.
Many thanks, Tom
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Conlon at The re-Surgence Partnership
[mailto:tom@re-surgence.com]
Sent: 20 October 2003 13:01
To: 'Liz Conlon (conlon@nildram.co.uk)'
Subject: Notice of next Dialectic Group meeting + on-line conference
Dear all
You are invited to join the next meeting of the Dialectic Group to be held
on Thursday 20th November 2003. The speaker will be the consultant and
author Aidan Ward who will speak on the subject of "Community and Trust."
Trish Bowie will be in the chair for this meeting.
Aidan describes his talk as follows:
"Many of the freedoms we value most highly are part of community and yet
many of the choices we make tend to deny and destroy community. I would
like to explore the ways in which our quest for safety destroys our
chances of building trusting relationships. There are ways of
reclaiming our control over these situations and they all involve
considerable personal risk and trust. The last Dialectic session
explored some of the modes of this personal risk. I will try to show
where my own learning about this path has led me and the questions it
throws up for working life. On the way I will have severe criticisms of
our education’ system and of corporate life as we know it."
The format will be as follows:
6.15 Meet in the upstairs George Room at The George Inn’
(http://www.georgeinn-southwark.co.uk/index1.htm) near London Bridge
7.00 Supper
8.00 Talk by Aidan Ward
8.15 Moderated discussion chaired by Trish Bowie
9.30 Close
Please feel free to bring a guest (we had five new members at the last
meeting!). The cost of the meeting at the George is £13 to cover the
costs of the meal and a tip. The choice of main course will be: Steak
Pie, Roast Beef, Fish and Chips, Roast Chicken, Vegetable Lasagne
On-line Conference
The last Dialectic saw the introduction of an on-line’ conference and
members who participated found that it raised a number of interesting
issues over and beyond what was discussed at the George.
Consideration is now being given to a second on-line conference on the
subject of "Community and Trust." . Phillip Spencer will be organising
this session so please contact him directly (phillip.spencer@wanadoo.fr)
if you would like to be involved. He aims to review feedback, costs and
ease of use to see whether to propose the same e-mail approach as the
previous session (Shadow conference) or an alternative, such as a Yahoo
Group. If anyone has any additional input or recommendations around this
please let him know.
Signing up for the George/on-line conference
Please print the form below, complete the relevant sections and return to:
Susie Walter
26 West Park Avenue
Billericay
ESSEX
CM12 9EF
England
Contribution
My name is:
I wish to attend the George event on Thursday 20th November.
Yes/No
£13
My choice of main course (see above for choice) is:
N.B. Cheques should be made payable to The Dialectic Group’ I'd be
grateful if you would send your cheque to Susie in advance of the meeting
in order that we can pay the good folk at the George!
Regards, Tom Conlon
P.S. Notes for previous Dialectic meetings can be found on
http://www.re-surgence.com/dialectic.htm. Our thanks to Kennedy
Hendershot who is maintaining the site for the group.
--"Tom Conlon at The re-Surgence Partnership" <tom@re-surgence.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.