|
Issue #24: March, 2012
World Café friend
There is so much going on in the World Café right now! From the fruition of our academic partnership with Fielding Graduate University - we're co-presenting Hosting World Cafés: The Fundamentals in May - to the embrace of "Ubuntu" in South Africa and a remarkable gift from our friends in Japan.
Read on for more and a rich array of other community news, stories and resources!
Warmest Wishes,
Amy Lenzo, World Café News Editor,
For the World Café Community Foundation Core Team and Board
|
|
|
| Make a Contribution |
Your ongoing contributions to the World Café Community Foundation make all the difference in our ability to provide the services and resources you've come to rely on from us.
Please give whatever you can, today!
Your donations are tax-deductible in the US
The World Café Community Foundation, registered 501c3
|
| Upcoming Events |
Every Friday Night
World Cafe at Starbucks
St Petersburg, Florida
Ongoing
Encontro Intergeneracional
(in Portuguese)
Sao Paulo, Brasil
May 6th - June 6th
World Café Signature
Learning Program-
Level Two
w/Fielding Graduate University
Online
__________
Details on these events & more on the World Café Community Calendar.
|
|
Today's Quote
|
"Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought.
Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards."
~ Theodore Zeldin
|
|
| The World Café and Fielding Graduate University present...
Hosting World Cafés: The Fundamentals
May 6th - June 6th, 2012
Delivered Online - 6 CEUs
This robust 4.5 week course, which is Level Two in The World Café Signature Learning Program series, provides a fundamental understanding of the World Café theory and method. Participants will work together to develop the capacity to use the World Café design principles in their own lives and work, and gain a working understanding of basic World Café hosting practices.
The course is the first public project offered from the partnership between Fielding Graduate University and The World Cafe Community Foundation. It will be co-presented by Bo Gyllenplam, Adjunct Faculty and Trustee at Fielding, and Amy Lenzo from the World Café Community Foundation team. The program is part of Fielding's Certificate Programs in Human and Organizational Development and graduates will be awarded 6 CEUs.
Bo Gyllenpalm served on Juanita Brown's dissertation committee for her doctoral research on the World Café, The Word Café; Living Knowledge through Conversations that Matter, and has been instrumental in bringing the partnership between World Café and Fielding to this point.
He has this to say about his vision for the future;
"I am proud and exicted about the cooperation between the World Café Community Foundation and Fielding Graduate University. I have been working on this for the last 5 years and my vision is for Fielding to be the academic home for the World Café like Case Western Reserve University is the home of Appreciative Inquiry."
We invite you to join us in what we know will be a remarkable shared experience of learning and discovery guided by experienced World Café hosts.
Follow the links to Register Now; Read the Course Objective and Outline; Learn more about the World Café Signature Learning Programs, or hear more from Bo and the online pioneering work of both presenters on our community blog.
See you there!
|
Ubuntu and The World Café
Late last year, something amazing happened.
 David Isaacs, co-founder and Global Ambassador for the World Café, had received an invitation to host a World Café at the Nexus for Change conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. When we heard he was going to be in South Africa, we suggested he connect with colleagues Melanie Kiley and Louise van Rhyn of Symphonia and Ivan Overton of ChangeWright in Cape Town.
Excited by the possibilities for collaboration, they arranged for David to co-host two additional World Cafes in Cape Town - one on Active Citizenship, which was open to the public, and the other on Best Practices for Organizational Change Professionals. During that experience, we all learned something about what Africans call "Ubuntu".
As you may know, Ubuntu is a philosophy, common to many African traditions, that describes the interconnectedness of all things.
Chris Arhends, who was a participant in both Cafes, describes the connections he discovered between Ubuntu and the World Cafe in this short except from an article written for StoryNet by Sonja Niederhumer:
"Here, sitting on a stoep (porch) from which fishermen have watched the lagoon for over a hundred years, one is immediately reminded of the profound interconnection between all things. Nature has a way of reminding us of this primordial truth. Ubuntu is what we in Africa call this 'inter-connectedness'... Ubuntu is a declaration that everything belongs and that everyone belongs too. In the world of Ubuntu, there are no exiles. No one is an outsider and no one is excluded from experiencing life-giving community.
I felt this reality at the Cafe you hosted. Very quickly, I sensed the uniting presence of inclusivity, of belonging. Clearly, the World Cafe approach taps into a deeper, more natural instinct that lives in each of us - that we are made for family, for belonging, for conversation and togetherness and that inside this reality - all is possible.
Then, second, the wonderful thing about Ubuntu is that while it honours the collective and draws our attention to the oneness of our common experience ... - it doesn't deny the special place each individual has within the whole.
This too, it seems to me is what the Cafe movement seeks to affirm. Every voice is special and when heard, adds a unique and special note to the great chorus that is our collective hymn of possibility." Read on for the rest of Sonja's story (and more from Chris) in The World Cafe and Ubuntu on StoryNet.
|
|
|
A Special Gift From Our Friends in Japan
Our friends and supporters in Japan held a charity event to raise money for the World Cafe Community Foundation,  and to support the ongoing work they are doing to rebuild the communities devastated by last year's tsunamis; one conversation at a time. The letter that accompanied their check, sent by event organizer Tomoyuki Tsunoda, was deeply moving and we couldn't help being struck by the incredible generosity of spirit that would allow our friends and colleagues in Japan to think of others, even in the midst of the many challenges they are dealing with themselves. Read the letter here, and see the names of each of the kind contributors. We appreciate your care and friendship very much.
|
Community News
News from the International World Café community
Elaine Johnson has published a new book on the neurology of brain function, and we found the material on attention and mindfulness to be of special relevance to World Cafe practitioners. Read excerpts and more about purchasing here. 
Please join Yuya Nishimura, Yuya Harashina, and other friends from Japan at a public event called Restoring Japan from 3.11. The event will be held this Saturday, March 10th, in Tokyo, Japan and Seattle, Washington. If neither location is convenient, you can also register to participate via a live UStream link!
 SPECIALIZED HELP NEEDED:
If you are that rare human being who is familiar with both the World Café and the conventions and rules of Wikipedia... we need you! If you can volunteer to help us re-work the World Café Wikipedia entry, please contact Amy. Thanks so much!
The Group Pattern Language Project has just published the results of several years' work creating a set of 91 full-colour cards identifying elements of the "pattern language" behind successful group gatherings and processes.
Everyone who works with groups will find these cards not only powerfully evocative and attractive, but immediately useful. There is even an app being designed - watch for it; it will be available soon. Meanwhile, order your set now, or download the free pdf on the groupworksdeck website.
WORLD CAFE SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS
from Brittany Hanson
We are so thrilled about the quality and meaningful conversation happening in the World Cafe social media realm. Key information about upcoming events and helpful resources is passing through the air waves -- but that's not all. Intentional conversations full of heartfelt connection and meaning are transpiring on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter. Just a few weeks ago we asked " What is one practical tip you'd pass on to a new #WorldCafe practitioner?" The responses were fabulous; you can check them out here. We'd love for you to stop by.
* * *
|
More World Café Stories
Mary-Alice Arthur created a beautiful harvest document of an event she co-hosted in Bundaberg, Australia. Their framework, which incorporates World Café processes, may offer valuable ideas for your own event designs. Check it out here.
Charles Savage started a StoryNet thread on a Myths and Legends Café he hosted at the Tech University in Munich earlier this year. The story and ideas behind his Café were very exciting in themselves, and the conversation they launched is fascinating! Check it out here.
* * *
MYSTERY STORY
 World Café at Google?? This image was part of a mailing we received from the people who convened this year's Wisdom 2.0 Conference. The caption said "Wisdom 2.0 Participants in a World Café session at Google" We'd love to know more about this event; if anyone reading this was there or knows anything about it, contact us.
* * * * *
Have you hosted or participated in a World Café? Join the World Café online community and share your story in our StoryNet. Read about what is happening around the world and let's learn from each other! |
|
|
|
The World Café Community Foundation
|
|
|
|
