BRETTON WOODS, Gatherings of Active Practitioners: Email packet of
information including (a) logistics overview, (b) letter describing focus
and intent and (b) RSVP Response and Registration Form.
Logistics Overview:
BRETTON WOODS
Gatherings of Active Practitioners
1995
What:
A convocation, i.e. calling together, of colleagues for inquiry and
practice of concepts and principles of learning organizations and learning
communities.
When:
April 9-13 and November 5-9, 1995
(an additional West Coast gathering tentative dates of December 4-7 on the
California coastline)
Start:Sunday
Afternoon tea 4:00pm
Dinner 6:00pm
End: Thursday
After lunch 2:00pm
Where:
The Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, New York
Larger Stream of Conversation:
Continuation of an on-going conversation in the domain of:
"Creating Learning Organizations and Communities of Learners":
* A deep conversation into what we are learning.
* Inquiry together into What is needed next? and What is emerging?
1995 Focus:
How (on a daily basis) can we practice concepts and principles of learning
organizations and learning communities?
How can we embody the concepts and embed the principles in fundamental
structures of our work and family?
Experiments in generative learning, i.e. new ways of being, a kind of
"learning and knowing together."
Participants:
Friends and colleagues who are personally practicing--in their own life
and in their own organizational settings--disciplines related to
organizational learning and who are interested in the exploration of
collective learning and the deeper creative process in groups
Size of Each Gathering:
We anticipate they could be anywhere from 100-150 people per gathering.
Sponsorship:
Noninstitutional and nonorganizational sponsorship. Instead, the series of
gatherings will be brought into being by a community of conveners, i.e.
people who deeply care that these types of gatherings take place, and who
will actively help make them happen.
Group Composition:
A broad diversity of cultural and life experiences with cross section of
organizations, institutions and sectors represented. We are extending
special invitations to colleagues and friends living outside of the USA or
who have lived for a period of time outside of the USA or the dominant
American culture.
We are also putting out a call for colleagues to join us who refer to
themselves as "closet inventors, scientists, writers, artists, musicians,
photographers, filmmakers, naturalists, and poets" as well as to
colleagues with strong affinity for creating bridges between the sciences
and the arts, the scientific and that which is soulful in organizational
life, linear and wholistic world views."
Price:
Program Fee: (per gathering)
$900/person for the April gathering
$700/person for the November gathering (if postmarked by April 15, 1995)
$900/person for the November gathering (if postmarked on or after April 15,
1995)
Room and Meals Package:
At Mohonk (Full American Plan; daily package price includes three meals,
afternoon tea and lodging) $173/night (single occupancy); $135/night
(double occupancy); Third person in room: $70/night. (plus tax and
gratuity)
To Register:
Check or credit card for tuition (VISA, MasterCard or American Express).
Fax credit card payments to: 508-650-0184. Make check payable to: TURNING
POINT FOUNDATION, and send to: P.O. Box 1108, Framingham, MA 01701-0206.
Refund Policy:
Notification of cancellation must be in writing. If notification is
postmarked at least 45 days prior to the first day of a gathering, 50% of
paid tuition will be refunded. No refund will be given on cancellations
with less than 45 days notice.
To Register at the Hotel:
Call The Mohonk Mountain House at 800-772-6646. Ask for the special
package rate for the "Turning Point Gatherings."
To Arrange Transportation:
The Mohonk Mountain House is 25 miles from Stewart International Airport
in Newburgh, New York: 70 miles from the Albany, New York Airport and less
than 100 miles from the New York City and Newark Airports.
With advance notice, Mohonk drivers will meet guests at nearby bus and
train stations as well as flights at Newburgh, Albany and New York
Airports. There is no charge for the service for flights arriving at
Stewart International Airport.
TURNING POINT, P.O. Box 1108, Framingham, MA 01701-0206 Fax:508-650-0184.
Tel:508-278-6603
Sheryl Erickson <SEErickson@aol.com>
_____________________________________________________________
Letter Describing Focus and Intent:
BRETTON WOODS
Gatherings of Active Practitioners
February 18, 1995
TO: Friends
During the past six months, many of us have continued to hear and speak
about the voices we heard at Bretton Woods. They were voices of concern,
of hope, of aspiration. And they came to us, not only in the form of
theories and concepts, but also in stories, poems and song. Many were
nourished, hearing these voices, and expressed a desire to gather again in
a place of reflection and inquiry where we can listen once again.
Mohonk Mountain House was chosen as the gathering place and, to honor the
tradition of allowing our reflective conversations to be ongoing, several
dates were set. In December an announcement went out to let you know that
something was stirring. Many have answered on the strength of what has
gone before.
Since that time, we have continued to meet and talk, and this letter
further clarifies our intention for this time together. We are writing
now to let you know what is stewing in the pot!
What we now see more clearly...
"By the year 2000, the words managing and learning will be replaced by the
word authoring. People will treat their lives and companies the way that
authors treat their ideas--as stories they have made and can remake, not
as prefabbed, received reality."
These words were written recently by Harriet Rubin, founder of Doubleday
Currency and editor of many successful business books, including The Fifth
Discipline and The Heart Aroused.
When we become the author and creator of our lives, we no longer are
content to live in a "hand me down world." Life demands more. It asks for
our willing participation. It wants our own unique spirit to imprint our
own authorship--our own authority and originality--on life's events. To do
this, we must step fully into the stream of our own life.
But how do we create the stories of our own lives, as well as write a new
story for the organizations in which we work?
Is it possible that from these stories, we can build a new economic myth
for our time?
How can we more skillfully enable compelling connections between passion
and action.
How can we mentor others?
These questions unfolded as organizing ones for our April gathering at the
Mohonk Mountain House in upstate New York. We invite you to join with us
in exploring them.
Through the simple gift of sharing our stories, we hope to step outside of
the limiting boxes that our practices sometimes take us into. We can
rediscover the larger context within which our stories live.
We believe those of us who choose to gather are pioneers in the field of
learning in community. We are people who desire to embody the spirit of
the creative process and to learn collaboratively. We are people who
desire to go beyond the need for external experts--those increasingly
willing to connect with their own true voice. In so doing, we connect
with the authentic voices of others, and offer our own contributions to
the new myth being created in our time.
So what is going to happen at Mohonk in April?
In our minds' eye we see 100-150 people gathered within the large
comfortable parlor room of the Mohonk Mountain House. We can imagine our
colleagues and friends unpacking the bags they have carefully prepared for
our time together. They unpack tangible items, as well as questions,
images, memories, puzzles, dilemmas, packets of anticipation, sweet
things, bitter roots, things deep in decay and others bursting with the
new shoots of Spring. There are pieces of writing, pictures and the
sounds of voices - a collage that speaks of the whole. We come with
active minds and rich vivid experiences to share.
We want to create an environment where mind, body, spirit and emotion can
be held in the creative tension required to give birth to the new. We want
to explore a space together where something truly collaborative,
insightful, magical and mysterious can occur.
Creating a new myth involves opening more fully to the imaginative
dimension of our own lives. To help us open to this imaginative
dimension, we will be joined by poets, musicians, writers, dancers,
storytellers, and artists. (At this point in time, those who will be with
us to co-create the exploration include: Shawna Carol, Betty Sue Flowers,
Peter Hawes, Leilani Henry, Joan Lederman, Susan Lightcap and Harriet
Rubin. What is most needed, however, is for each us to acknowledge the
artistic dimension in our own lives and to enter into this exploration
with an adventuresome spirit. We welcome your presence and hope that this
is a journey of which you would like to be part.
This is work which needs each of us to fulfill a part. It takes all of
our voices to bring this work fully into the world.
The conveners and designers for these gatherings will create a simple
elegant structure for our time together. But we are also mindful of that
"something else" that Harriet Rubin describes in speaking of the creative
process with aspiring writers.
She tells of successful authors, i.e. those whose books became classics,
as having found a quality in their writing that went beyond skill and
practicality. They intentionally sought out the unfamiliar. When things
became too predictable, they tried to go somewhere else. They discovered
how to speak from what they didn't know, and learned how to let their
writing be their play. In so doing, they created a space for something
truly magical and deeply mysterious to enter their work.
This is our invitation to us all. Perhaps deepening our ability to think
with our hearts, as well as our heads, is a new and emerging step in human
capacity and evolution.
With warm regards and deep respect from the circle of colleagues committed
to creating these gatherings of practitioners in 1995,
Linda Booth, Andy Bryner, Darla Chadima, Sarita Chawla, Sheryl Erickson,
Geoffrey Hulin, Harry Hutson, Michael Jones, Susan Jordan Kertzner, Ron
Kertzner, Dawna Markova, Ken Murphy, Nancy Margulies, Bill Schrum, Terri
Seever and Leslie Shelton.
Sheryl Erickson <SEErickson@aol.com>
___________________________________________________________
RSVP Response and Registration Form:
R S V P (Please return this sheet by fax, mail or email)
Name________________________________Telephone:___________
Organization______________________________Fax:______________Email
address_______________________________________________
____YES, I will attend the gathering in:
_____April at Mohonk
_____November at Mohonk
____Please send me information about a West Coast gathering (tentative
date of December 4-7 at a location on the California coastline)
____YES, I want to be a convener for the gatherings, i.e. to assist in
making them happen, to invite others and to add my perspective on the
design and content of the inquiry and exploration.
____NO, I will not be attending any of the gatherings in 1995.
____YES, I would like to be interviewed and audiotaped by telephone or on
videotape in order to add my voice to the inquiry and exploration of the
gatherings although I will not be present in person.
____Please send me a copy of the audiotape, A Sound Painting Describing
Bretton Woods '94, i.e. a composition and weaving of followup telephone
interviews asking colleagues from the gathering this past June how they
would describe their experience of Bretton Woods '94 to friends or
colleagues. ($10)
____________________________________________________________
_____I would like to register at this time. Fax, mail or email of this
form with payment:
April 9-13, 1995 at Mohonk Mountain House: $900 program fee
Both April and November at Mohonk Mountain House: $1600 program fee (if
postmarked before April 15, 1995)
November 5-9, 1995 at Mohonk Mountain House: $700 program fee (if
postmarked before April 15, 1995) $900 program fee (if postmarked on or
after April 15, 1995)
_____I would like to make a contribution (in addition to payment of my
program fee ) that will be used to enable colleagues to attend from Third
World countries or to support others who could not attend without some
level of financial assistance.
Program fee $_________
Audiotape, A Sound Painting
Describing Bretton Woods '94 ($10) $_________
Donation to assist others
with financial assistance $_________
TOTAL AMOUNT of payment $_________
( ) MasterCard ( ) VISA ( ) AMEX #_______________________ Exp._____
( ) Check or Money Order made payable to TURNING POINT FOUNDATION.
Mail to: P.O. Box 1108, Framingham, MA 01701-0206. Fax: 508-650-0184.
Sheryl Erickson <SEErickson@aol.com>