World Cafe Community

Contribution/s from Japan

We recently received a most welcome and moving letter from Mr Tomoyuki Tsunoda and the Art of Hosting/World Café community in Japan. It contained a check, and this note:

"Art of Hosting in Japan held a Charity Dialogue event on January 18th, 2012, in Tokyo. We called for donations to the World Café Community Foundation to say "thanks" because the World Café process is easy to use and provides a lot of fun that is needed now to recover our communities against the damage that has been done by the Tsunamis.

We Japanese need a lot of conversation, a lot of dialogue, to rebuild our communities and everyday life. The World Café process helps us hold such conversations.

So we say, Thank you World Café!"

To know that our friends in Japan are thinking of us and wanting to support and acknowledge the Foundation even with all they have to deal with there at home, means everything to us. These are true friends, and we are so grateful for their many contributions to the World Café, financial and otherwise. Our hearts remain with them as they go through the joyful and painful work of rebuilding their homes, communities, lives, and country after the multiple disasters of last year.

The letter was signed by:

Kazuaki Katori
Tamio Nakono
Hidetake Enomoto
Chizue Takeuchi
Rie Kuroi
Syuu Uraya
Tomoyuki Tsunoda
Mami Yoda
Nao Ashida
Misuzu Ninomiya
Yoshihiko Suko
Emiko Taguchi
Kaku Suzuki
Izumi Takii
Kazumi Yagi
Emi Owada
Yoko Itagaki
Kazue Takashige
Naoki Ishidoya
Ryota Yamauchi
Mamoru Oosone
Masaru Kojima
Kouya Nakaoka
Kouhei Noda
Tsuyoshi Kurosawa
Hiroyuki Matsumoto
Takashi Nisio
Toshiko Iwashima
Ayako Satou
Daiki Hayashi
Akikazu Hayashi
Hiroshi Okuyama
Kentarou Fukui
Syouko Matsumoto
Yuka Kamoshida
Yuuko Takahashi
Yoshiko Fukase
Kayo Fujiwara
Misato Matsubara
Takuya Murakami
Masaaki Mezaki
Hiroshi Ooki
Hiroko Nakajima
Miyako Sakatsume
Masaya Furuse
Ryoutarou Hayashi
Bob Stilger

What the World Café Makes Possible

From Ben Roberts of weDialogue, on what his engagement with the World Café has made possible for him:

On the occasion of this “Harvest Fund Drive,” I find myself reflecting back on what has been an incredible personal journey in which the Foundation has played a key role. A year and a half ago, I began an inquiry into the power and joy of engaging in “conversations that matter,” in the context of my involvement in the political initiatives of “the Coffee Party.” This led me immediately to The World Café as a process and to the work of the Foundation. There I found an inspiring array of resources and an incredibly responsive, sincere, generous and dedicated community of practice that was eager to support me. Talk about “creating hospitable space!” You can read a series of posts in the StoryNet section of our wonderful Online Community describing my efforts; here are links to part 1, part 2 and part 3).

As I learned more about the magic of large group dialogic processes, my interest quickly morphed from excitement about finding a set of tools to apply to this specific political initiative to a sense that I had discovered new and fertile ground for my life’s work in a much broader context. I became especially taken with the possibility for weaving these processes together with the incredible convening power of the internet. Here, the Foundation’s director of global communications Amy Lenzo proved to be particularly supportive. One of the world’s most experienced hosts of emergent dialogue online, Amy generously volunteered to teach me, connect me with resources and even to co-host many of my earliest efforts in convening virtual conversation.

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.

 

From the Heart

World Café Community Foundation board member Samantha Tan speaks from the heart in support of the Harvest Fund Drive:

So many of us are longing to speak from our heart about what we care most about in our lives and in our world today. The World Café is the most powerful and successful method I know to connect people through authentic conversations that ignite our courage and spirit to act - to make a difference and be the difference. It is my honor and privilege to serve on the World Café Signature Learning Programs team. My wish is for everyone to experience the satisfaction and profound joy of the
"World as Café".

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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.

 

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 Makes the World Café Important Now?

In support of our Harvest Fund Drive, Frances (Muryah) Baldwin shares her perspective on what makes the World Café so important now:

"For more than 10 years I have been excited about the far-reaching effects of eloquent and evocative conversation and realized how rarely people have such personal or business conversations in the real world. Repeatedly, I have witnessed large groups build upon their diverse perspectives to experience substantial shifts in what they believe about their real purpose, potential and interdependence.  Sometimes I try to imagine the amount of complexity, confrontation, pain, time and waste that is transcended, just because people intentionally practice seven simple but profound principles and take the time to determine the questions that will get them where they want to go. We are just beginning breakthroughs that translate the most  acknowledged and finest practices (systems, groups and individuals) into practical behaviors that are greatly needed in our relationships, communities and the world-at-large.  We must keep it going."

~ Frances (Muryah) Baldwin, World Café Community Foundation board member and President of consulting group Designed Wisdom

Help us achieve our immediate goal of raising $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!

The Way the World Café Spreads

World Cafe Community Foundation Board President Tom Hurley leads off Week Two of our Harvest Fund Drive with this thoughtful post about the power of cross-pollination:

"I'm continually astonished by how the World Cafe spreads...

• As when it moves virally through a community, conversations in one place sparking dialogues in others. A World Café at the National Native American Economic Policy Summit inspired tribal leaders to take the process home and convene their own Cafés on key tribal concerns.


• As when there's a slow, steady uptake, word percolating through a company about a better way to address key business issues. Over the last year, we've hosted a series of World Cafés for Marathon Petroleum as one leader after another has called after hearing about how colleagues have used the process to engage collective intelligence and shape collaborative action in their teams.


• As when one World Café host seeds transformative conversations around the world, in new and sometimes surprising places. After a World Café training we did for Dr. Jessica Thompson and her Climate Change Education Partnership team at Colorado State University, she hosted Cafés in national parks around the United States and then with communities in Mongolia as well!

Help keep this gift moving. For over sixteen years, those stewarding the World Café have ensured that the core ideas and process are freely available, helping people change the conversation in order to change their world.

Now the World Café Community Foundation needs your help. Please make a donation to help ensure that "the gift continues to move" -- especially if you’ve ever used the World Café and found value in it for yourself, your organization, or your community.

I'm giving. I hope you do, too.
~ Tom Hurley

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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.

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.

 

Chris Chopyak on Miracles

Chris brings us into day six of our Harvest Fund Drive with this inspiring message:

"Miracles happen EVERY Day!  Our abilities to see these miracles are limited by the distractions we experience everyday.  How do we find, uncover, and illuminate these miracles that we seek?  Through conversations that matter.  Your support of the World Cafe Community Foundation ensures that these important conversations can be framed and supported through principles, hosting and design that is proven, that is of the highest quality and that delivers the "miracle" you are looking for.

Please support the amazing and important work of the Foundation."

~ Chris Chopyak, World Café Community Foundation board member, and co-founder of Alchemy: The Art of Transforming Business

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.

Help catalyze the most critical conversations of our time!