OpenSpaceInstituteUSA
At the end of our BoardNotesApril2004 conf call, we mentioned that there are a number of financial and non-financial things OSI might do and has at times been asked to do to support OS practice and development. Here is the beginnings of a little inventory of these, so that the Board can consider which of these might be appropriate and what conditions, criteria or qualifications might be associated with these things. These are so-called 'structural assets' -- things we can offer in support of individual and organizational efforts -- above and beyond simple 'member benefits' or 'practitioner aids.'
The following list is not an offer to provide these things, but working notes for the Board to determine how we wish to handle these sorts of real and potential requests.
- financial support, from membership donations and sales proceeds
- fiscal agency, online/check collection of donations and disbursment of collected funds per some letter of agreement with a projet leader/liaison. see ProjectFundingMktPlace? and/or OSISpaceCorps? for more on the development of this.
- sponsorship of space contracts, for trainings and/or events, in situations where having a non-profit partner would make securing meeting space more affordable
- sponsorship/endorsement of an event or other activities, perhaps in conjunction with other similar sorts of community organizations
- use of isbn numbers once secured for the publication of Practice of Peace book
- linking to individuals, Open Space Institutes, and other organizations from the .ORG and .NET websites, is already allowed and supported on the basis of 'passion bounded by responsibility.'
- online working space for posting proceedings and group project plans, already available worldwide via the .NET wiki space
- online working space for Open Space Institutes is specifically offered via .NET homepage.
- online resources publishing and community development space for non-English language communities is openly offered and supported, via wiki web set-up and hosting of self-organized web presence at .ORG web address.
As of April, 2004, the Board is working to develop policy and procedures for these and perhaps other forms of structural supports for individual and organizational development projects.
Once the list above is settled, we can post here what kind of recognition, payments, or other exchange we might expect in return for support offered. Some of these things have some historical precedents already established.
- financial... in the past Board has asked grant and scholarship recipients to write up their stories in a format suitable for sharing online as part of the public OST record.
- agency... (wide open)... perhaps some smaller percentage of donations might go to OSI for administrative handling of such things. elsewhere, david smith's film project is perhaps only precedent to date.
- sponsorship... (wide open)... the example was the international Practice of Peace conference at the Whidbey Institute in November, 2004. A number of OSI(US) board members volunteered time. OSI(US) acted as fiscal agent for handling donations for bringing young people and participants from Africa and Asia. OSI(US) received a major portion of the monies earned by the conference for its active role and sponsorship.
- isbn numbers... board considers individual requests, has required materials to be in alliance with OST practices and principles, OSI would be listed as publisher of record, OSI has in past expected some compensation for costs originally incurred to procure these numbers, perhaps 7 of these numbers currently remaining for $25 each.
- online space... already offered free of charge, as much as possible on a 'passion bounded by responsibility' basis, in partnership arrangements as developed with osw webmaster.