Open Space being used at Beyond Borders’ Annual Open Meeting this past fall (above) and being used at a conference in Haiti on making education more liberating (below).

acilitating exchanges is essential to who we are and what we do as an organization. Our recent annual meeting at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, Pennsylvania, (outside Philadelphia) was another opportunity for such giving and receiving—in discussions, relationships, and vision building. Since 1998 we have held our annual meetings in Open Space format, which allows participants to create the meeting’s agenda by proposing topics for discussion. It also creates a space where participants are free and responsible (no excuse for boredom!) to come and go between sessions and seek those discussions that most engage their interests.

But our annual meetings aren’t the only place where we use the Open Space format. Open Space principles of passion, responsibility, and egalitarian (non-hierarchical) structure guide all of our work, meetings, and gatherings both in Haiti and the U.S. Staff members of Limyè Lavi Foundation, our sister organization in Haiti, regularly use Open Space in their work with Haitian communities and other organizations. Like a good virus, the use of Open Space has spread well beyond our own organizational borders in Haiti. Open Space meetings have been held in the past few months on issues like democracy, children in domestic servitude, and education, all without requiring financial support from Beyond Borders.

Newcomers to our annual meeting, as well as those well practiced, were equally invited to actively share ideas about shaping a better world. Gladys Metz, a firsttime annual meeting participant from Mt. Holly, New Jersey, said after the day, “This was my first time experiencing the Open Space format. The sense of freedom was a significant factor in allowing such open discussions to take place.”

If you were able to be apart of the exchange this year, we thank you for your contributions. If not, we hope you make space to join us later this year at our annual meeting at Temenos from September 10th through 12th, 2004!

Please contact us by email to let us know if you would like registration information for our next annual open meeting.