World Cafe Community

Anne's Blessing

Everyone may not share her spiritual perspective but those who know Anne Dosher know why we at the World Café Community Foundation feel so blessed to have her hold the role of "Elder" and "Guardian of the Soul of the World Café", along with her more prosaic roles as a Community Foundation board member. Her wise council over many years now and her 80+ years have earned her the title of Elder, and it is her deep understanding of life's mystery and our true relationship with all things that make her a Guardian.

We asked Anne to share some personal words of blessing for this last day of Harvest Fund Drive, and here they are:

"For me, I have been privileged for fifteen years to be asked to be Elder and Guardian of Soul of The World Café and I have called for silence and spoken the blessing at the
beginning of meetings. Every day I call on the Great Spirit who moves in and around all things to be with us. All those who have found this work are blessed. Thank you for
joining us and supporting the work.
Blessings aye, Anne
Elder and Guardian of Soul"

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On this last day of our first ever Fund Drive, I hope you too are inspired to contribute to our goal of raising $25,000.00 by the end of today, November 4, 2011.

Thank you to all of you who have already joined us in making this Harvest Fund Drive a great success. Please make your valuable contribution to the World Café Community Foundation now, and help us bring home this Fund Drive successfully at this critical time for the World Café.

You'll be helping to catalyze the most critical conversations of our time.

 

Culturewheel in Cairo

This just in from Deborah Goldblatt, the World Café Community Foundation's Director of Resource Development, who is travelling in Egypt right now:

"We can clean up the streets, build bridges and skyscrapers, but if we aren't building people, none of that matters."

You can feel Mohamed el Sawy's personal warmth throughout el Sawy Culturewheel, the center in Cairo, Egypt he founded in 2003 as a one-stop venue for music, art and theater.  An architect and engineer by training, Mohamed is the son of a famous Egyptian writer who has a deep love for all aspects of Egyptian culture.  He is a puppeteer, musician and craftsman as well as a supporter of the free exchange of ideas. 

Mohamed's dream of a town hall and community center for the new Egypt became reality during the days of the January 25th revolution.  The Culturewheel stayed on the pulse of the latest events by hosting debates and presentations, in addition to its artistic events, in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect.

His goal is to provide a platform for Egyptians to become even more thoughtful, active and engaged citizens.  In the past months, membership has grown quickly and he is currently in talks to open more cultural hubs in other Egyptian cities.  The spirit of the Culturewheel - and the spirit of el Sawy - is catching on.

Just yesterday, in Cairo, I had the great pleasure of meeting Mohamed.  One of my quests in visiting Cairo was to place a World Café book in his hands. As he received it from me and we spoke about what was possible in hosting World Cafés at Culturewheel, his eyes lit up, he smiled widely and appreciatively.... and his dream expanded right in front of me. 

This is a tiny glimpse into the world of the World Café and the work of the World Café Community Foundation.  Through a spirit of generosity, we keep passing it forward.  We have all read a book that changed our lives and then told as many people as we could to read it.  This was one of those moments in Mohamed's life (and mine) and I am excited to hear soon about the first World Café at Culturewheel, built under the bridge and over a dump in Cairo.

Please help us now to catalyze the most critical conversations of our time by making a contribution, any contribution - they are all welcome - and keep the gift of the World Café moving forward.

A Hospitable Space

From World Café steward Donald Proffit, about what the World Café has made possible for him and why he is contributing to the Harvest Fund Drive:

I first met Juanita and David in 2004 at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, California on Tomales Bay. Rolling December storms coming across the Pacific triggered a number of power outages, leaving our group in the dark. Hurricane lamps were placed around the room and candles on small tables. In this setting surrounded by "intimate strangers," I was introduced to the World Cafe, which prior to this moment I had thought was a radio show originating on WXPN-FM in Philadelphia. Juanita welcomed us, in a very true sense, "out of the darkness." And Finn was there and Tom and Meg and Peter and so many more...

This one experience changed how I would work with others from then on. A principal at a large New Jersey public high school, I returned with a gift for my community. Faculty meetings shifted to cafe conversations on what students needed to be successful; diverse groups of students gathered to consider ethics and the school's core values. It was transforming, magical.

The World Cafe Community Foundation has provided me with the generosity of tools and skills to transform a school community. It's time to pay it forward.

Donald

What Juanita's Up To!

More from Juanita Brown, co-founder of the World Café, including some highlights from her recent email on behalf of the World Café Community Foundation's Harvest Fund Drive:

"I continue to be excited and delighted by the potential of this work at the leading edge of conversational leadership around the globe. I’m hopeful that with your support we’ll be able to expand our Wiser Together initiative which is empowering the collaboration of people across generations with the capacities to co-create communities and organizations that embody the wisdom of all generations. Here's an interview from our own personal efforts in this regard on our ¨family farm¨ in North Carolina in collaboration with next generation leaders.

I’m also very intrigued by the pioneering collaboration we’re exploring with the International Storytelling Center that is demonstrating the power of connecting individual and collective storytelling with catalytic conversations, community-building and committed action. We're collaborating with their Staging Change Institute on Nov 3-6, and would be delighted to see others of you there!

In addition, the World Café is joining with others in nurturing inter-generational gatherings of leaders across modalities of conversational work, helping to catalyze a global effort to bring many of the doorways to collective intelligence into the “jardîn central¨---the central garden—of our human experience—and to use these on behalf of movements for positive futures across the planet.

(Click the image to see it larger)

As David and I transition from our role as direct coordinators of our global work into the role of ambassadors for the ¨World as Café,¨ we are deeply grateful to Amy Lenzo, Deborah Goldblatt, Barbara Krohn and the core team who is continuing to nurture the life of the  World Café. We hope you, too, will continue to fuel this incredible movement with your time, your skills, your financial support, and your love.

With gratitude for all that you've helped to happen,

Juanita

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Our immediate goal is to raise $25,000.00 by November 4, 2011.

Thank you to all of you who have already joined us in making this Harvest Fund Drive a great success. Please make your valuable contribution to the World Café Community Foundation now.

You'll be helping to catalyze the most critical conversations of our time.

 

World Café Services: An Update from Deborah Goldblatt

With the launch of our new website on June 1^st, World Café Services moved into high gear with a flurry of inquiries from all directions!

During the month of June and July, I enjoyed many conversations with people from a variety of public and private sectors:  education, energy, forestry, sustainability, entrepreneurship, immigration, climate change and health.  

What is so encouraging for me about World Café Services is being on the frontlines of the World Café world hearing about the diverse communities and businesses who are curious about The World Café – not just as a method or process but as a practice and way of being in all our communications - and are wanting or are already implementing an approach of “learning together through inquiry” in life and work today.

World Café Services, through our professional network, is serving community and business clients everywhere– whether that’s by having a half hour conversation with myself and others looking at the possibilities of convening very small or very large groups in a new way or exploring ways to renew or deepen the conversations they’ve been hosting internally within their organizations.

One of my favorite stories from this month’s World Café Services work is helping an organizing team for a conference in Arusha, Tanzania to find some guidance and support to co-create their World Café design.

Letter to Daisuke and Our World Cafe Friends in Japan

Paper Whites, photograph taken/donated by Stephen Goldblatt

Dear friends in Japan,
 
We in the World Café community want you to know that our hearts are with you in this time of devastating loss and heartbreak.  At the same time, to see the way your citizens have come together to help and support one another in the midst of this tragedy is very inspiring. We can all learn from you about how we can come together as caring human communities in times of trouble.
 
Please let us know if there are ways the World Café community can be of support and we will be sure to let our global friends know.  And, we’d be grateful to learn more of the conversations you are having in Japan in the face of this crisis and how the World Café process can be of service in some small way.
 
We send you our prayers and the wish that these challenging times can strengthen us all to meet adversity with the grace and courage that Japan is showing to the whole world.
 
With warmest regards and best wishes,
 
Juanita Brown and David Isaacs
& the World Cafe Community Foundation
on behalf of our global community

Our Friends in Japan

We at the World Cafe Community Foundation have been feeling the concern and empathy that the rest of the world feels for our brothers and sisters in Japan during this challenging time. Our prayers and thoughts have been with the entire nation as it goes through this difficult re-adjustment period, and especially with our many dear friends in the Japanese World Cafe community.

We got this beautiful letter from our friend and colleague Daisuke Kawaguchi that reveals the invincible charachter of his countrymen and women, even during this time of tragedy, and the courage and valor in his own heart. His words inspire me, as I know they will you:

As you know, Japan has been facing a severe tragedy of Tsunami.

Fortunately, my family and acquaintance were safe, however, we are spending a sad moment to recognize the fact that estimated 20,000 people have died.

Still, we see a good sign in this tough situation.

Although there are a lot of problems to solve, this experience has reminded us of the importance of social capital and the beautiful human dignity at the same time.

People are helping with each other more than ever here in Japan, and we are relearning the spirit of sharing and volunteering. (Some impressive twitters are on this site)

Foreign media surprisingly reported that there was almost no robbery even in this severe situation.

A lot of courageous people in a self-defense force rescued tens of thousands of people (Yesterday an 80-year-old woman and her grandchild were rescued from the rubble after 9 days!).

Lack of electricity in Tokyo has changed our life totally. We are saving the electricity as much as we can. There are no neon lights even in the downtown. Now I go back home from my office earlier than before, which enables me to spend more time with my family.

All of this might be opportunities to think about energy savings and what is important to us in global level.

In addition, we are encouraged by billions of prayers and support from all over the world every day. I just want to say thank you, thank you for letting us know that we never walk alone!

I believe that when we get over this situation, we can be stronger, more gentle to the people and environment, and create the better society which we can be proud of. In order to realize this, conversational leadership will play the most significant role.

I am determined to dedicate myself to the recovery of our society by creating space for reflective and generative dialogue such as the World Cafe offers with our networks of practitioners!

Warmest Holiday Greetings

This lovely video was created by storyteller Bob Kanegis, who shared it with the World Cafe community on LinkedIn as a "ritual of greeting for World Cafe members ... rekindling the Campfire of the Human Heart."

It has been suggested that this simple, universal ritual of greeting could be used by World Cafe hosts and participants all over the world! If you use it, let us know what happens!

"Groups" in TWC Online Community

One of the most wonderful opportunities in the new World Cafe online community space is the capacity we have to gather together in Groups and explore the precise elements of the World Cafe that we're passionate about and/or connect with others in your geographic location. It's not surprising that an international network like ours with so much to talk about have really maximized this opportunity.

After two months of being "live", there are already 23 groups, in 6 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, and Indonesian. I will tell you a little about just two or three of them here, but I can't possibly do justice to the many dynamic groups that have formed and I invite you to explore them for yourself. If you don't find the group you are looking for, talk to me about how to host it yourself.

One of the very first groups to form in this community was Cafe Latino, hosted by Maria de los Angeles as a place to welcome the very special people who host World Cafes in Latin America. All in Spanish, it's extremely active, seeming almost to overflow with the exuberance and warmth of those who have often been described as the "heart" of the World Cafe.

Another group started more recently by Christine Whitney Sanchez is on Methods for Strategic Collaboration. The conversation here is focused and stimulating, going to the heart of what's core to the work we do, no matter what form we use.

For those of us fascinated by graphic recording, there is the vibrant Art of Harvesting group, where a "knowing" beyond words is nevertheless conveyed through conversations about deep listening and reflection.

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If you have not yet joined us in the new online community, we invite you to do it now! Go to www.theworldcafecommunity.org and sign up today.

New World Cafe Online Community Launched!

As new people join the new World Cafe online community every day from countries around the world - Brazil, Israel, Italy, Finland, Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, the United States, Russia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, the Phillipines, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Columbia, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Belgium, Spain, Croatia, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Yukraine, Poland, Switzerland, Peru, Dubai, Slovenia, Tahiti, Venezula, Jamaica, Vietnam, Taiwan, Singapore, Bolivia and Austria - there is a palpable sense of a new kind of community - a truly global World Café - taking form.

If you have not yet joined us in the new online community, we invite you to go to www.theworldcafecommunity.org and sign up today. Find friends and allies, deepen your learning, band together and take action, start the conversations and launch the projects that are closest to your heart - now's the time!

Read on for some of the new features and benefits that are available to us now ...