The core team is fresh off a fabulous session on Bowen Island (a short ferry ride from Vancouver, B.C). Very nourishing to return to Dave’s gracious hosting and home, the site where many of the patterns were born, and where inspiration crystallized to publish the group pattern language as a deck of cards!
A core purpose of this session was to ‘go meta’, to reflect on—and celebrate! —all that has been achieved in the past six and a half years since Tree founded the project in 2008. The project has never really truly paused to take a deep breath together, especially since the first Group Works printing at the end of 2011, so this gathering was special.
With Nancy White’s artful facilitation we gained new perspective on our overall trajectory, and discerned ways to simplify back to essentials. Clarity about the minimum work required to keep decks moving out into the world opens up space for rest and renewal for core team members. Deleting tired old task/to do lists (along with the guilty consciences that went with never getting to them!) frees energy to focus on emergent initiatives such as nurturing the quickly expanding community of Group Works enthusiasts—that would be all of you reading these posts! ;-)
While we have decided to take a break from organizing Group Works workshops for the coming year, we are putting out a call for any of you to organize one yourself in your home community! For ideas on how to construct an experiential workshop of your own, check out the “workshop segment compilation” handout on our resources page. Feel free to ask for our consultation if need be, and/or invite us to come design and facilitate a custom...
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