Our February meeting falls on Valentine’s Day. Rather than writing it off as a bad evening to hold a professional event or changing our regular second Thursday meeting time, we have decided to take advantage of it. Whether you hate or love Valentine’s Day, there’s something for everyone at our OD & Community Open Space!

We will be exploring three love-oriented issues:

• How to use OD skills to help (directly or indirectly) under-served communities
• How to use OD skills to build community within organizations or systems
• How to create and sustain communities of OD practitioners so that we are nurtured rather than depleted by our own efforts

There is much rich overlap among these issues, so we hope you will come out instead of staying home eating bon-bons–and be sure to bring any loved ones who might otherwise feel neglected.

We have seeded the meeting with established “experts” in community building to attend and get some conversations going, but at the same time we acknowledge the expertise that all of our participants bring. We all belong to many communities, including the one here and now. Open Space offers the flexibility for whoever wants to to lead a discussion, but all are equally free to participate, listen or just flit around or hang around–all learning and participation styles accommodated.

Julie Benesh, Program Chair