Day Five - Actioning
Welcome and check-in
Welcoming Eric Solomon of the Vancouver Aquarium, who was drawn to the roundtable by its purpose, the diversity of participants and the connections to his own work as Director of Nordic Programme and connected to many of the aquarium's educational efforts, the day got off to an excellent start.
Then the stories from the week were the focus of the open circle. What stories will we remember and share from this week? What actions have they inspired?
In addition to the projects identified with concrete implementing steps the previous day, additional ideas for concrete activities to undertake.
Other reflections were about something to change in the approach to one's work, a few new collaborations, a fresh resolve to carry the spirit of the workshop into our next plans and activities.
The harvest of the four previous days was rich in quality as well as in quantity of activities, some already underway and more planned.
Write a short letter
Ngaio then invited everybody to write a short letter to oneself or to a participant of the roundtable, mark the address on an evelope and hand it to her. She encouraged to include some feelings or idea they wanted to capture.
She promised to post the letters in six months time as a way to remind each one about the roundtable, its atmosphere, the energy in the room and what participants had agreed to do.
As Dana Miller explained from a previous occasion where she had written a letter to herself as a child which she retrieved recently, the experience was amazing. It helped to cast light on the state of mind earlier and was a powerful reminder of hopes and dreams, some coming true, others not or transformed.
So the participants might be surprised about what we'll read in six months time – or not.
Wrap up
Rashid, Sarah, Cornelia and Ngaio spoke one after another about their gratitude for the wonderful collaboration everybody had demonstrated. This together with preparations among the organisers, including the friends from the The Living Wholeness Institute, Maria Scordialos and Vanessa Reid, had been the key to making this innovative meeting format a good experience. This was not only felt atmospherically, but also in terms of agreed practical activities spawned out of the conversations.
The organisers promised to deliver an illustrated newsletter and follow-up on the other commitments.
Closing circle
One by one, participants spoke about, where they had started, where they positioned themselves now and how they intended individually and with others to move from call to action. All expressed awareness about the difficulty of carrying on once back to their everyday lives, but thought of practical ways to overcome the risk.
The last words were of thanks to the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies for generously feeding and funding the gathering. Cornelia extended special thanks to Ngaio for skillful hosting.
With that the roundtable closed and participants dispersed back into their ordinary working environments. As this chronicle is being written, contacts continue in pursuit of leaving a mark well beyond the walls of the comfortable settings of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies.
Further reading similar to what inspired us to use the format and composition of the roundtable by Richard Loveless is here: