Welcome to the 21 of you who have, so far, shown interest in this study and exploration of Margaret Wheatley’s book, SO FAR FROM HOME. Tonight, Tuesday, February 3, 2015 at 5:00 pm Seattle time is our first gathering. Helen Wythe will be sending out invitations and how to connect later today.
If you have not gotten your invitation, send an email to
We know that some of you don’t have the book as yet and that others of you cannot easily join us on line tonight. We intend to keep a lively and expanding community conversation going with your active participation, initiative and creativity – via email, website, online sessions, face to face encounters, social media and whatever else we all come up with.
We have scheduled 2 online “getting started” sessions so far: tonight (February 3) and next Tuesday (February 10). By the end of these “getting started” sessions, we will have a common overview of SO FAR FROM HOME, and a grasp of the questions and interests we share that can drive our exploration. We will also have a framework for HOW to proceed that fits all of us in terms of times and places, methods and technologies and, most important energizing personal connections that can sustain us for the length of this journey (4 weeks? 5 weeks? . . .)
Here is our draft of the flow of the session. All times are Seattle (Pacific time zone, you will need to adjust to your location)
4:30 Final Prep “Before’s” (30 minutes in advance) Log on / call in when you can to check your equipment, get a drink, find your book, paper, pencil, favorite app, etc. WARNING: GoToMeeting has some capacity for video, so take care of what you wear, where you sit, etc.)
5:00 START PRELUDE: Welcome to GoToMeeting. Helen would do this, get people connected, explain the screens and how to navigate, etc. the icons and all. 10 minutes
5:10 MVT 1 Introductory go round: name, location, 1 thing attracted you, where you are in the book. 10 minutes
5:20 MVT II An overview look at SO FAR FROM HOME. Either using Jim’s chart of the book, or a section from the introduction, just to get a taste. Participants, singly or in small groups will each choose a chapter of interest to go into for the next session (might use some of the formats from the book charting sessions at recent ToP Network gatherings) 15 minutes
5:35 MVT III Conversation on the mechanics of this, how we might operate, subgroups, how to make this an active and productive participatory study and conversation — perhaps a couple of people could offer to come back with some recommendations for next week 15 minutes
5:50 POSTLUDE A brief review. We thought to save the last 5-10 minutes for a collective summary and reflection and next steps. 10 minutes
6:00 AFTERS Coordination team (Gordon, Helen, Jim, others) will stay on a bit to debrief and wrap up. 10 minutes
Next week we will probably dip into a couple of the parts to get a sense of the address and impact of the book and outline steps and a time line to proceed, with special attention to how we enable a broad range of folks to dig into SO FAR FROM HOME and the questions it raises.
For example, I am going to offer to do a “book charting” session with our local Arizona Community of Practice in March . . .
We will put a report and notes up either on this website or in drop box or googledoc folder
Questions? Reply here or email me