Re: Sharing Circles | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Cheryl Charis-Graves (ccharisjeffco.k12.co.us) | |
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 23:57:22 -0500 |
I have found the following book useful for the "circle process": Calling the Circle, by Christina Baldwin. Rob Sandelin wrote: > Sharing circles are simply a tool, and like any tool, its use can be modified > to meet your needs, at least to some extent. I would encourage you to hold > guiding sharing circles and include newcomers and visitors. Make the topics > interesting (in a guiding sharing, the guide suggests the topic) stuff like, I > want Liberty Village to be a place where ________, or my favorite relative, a > story from my childhood - topics where people share their histories, their > hopes and dreams. This is very bonding stuff, this sharing, and very few > opportunities arise in most peoples lives to share this in an intimate > setting. I was a visitor at a fancy retreat center in Hawaii once, and people > paid $2,000 each to spend the weekend having sharing circles! > > I would advise to keep sharing circles for dealing with feelings about > community issues somewhat closed to committed members to encourage safety. How > you define committed members is up to you. I have not much experience with > Sharing Circles in forming communities. I stole the notion from already > existing communities, thus the dichotomy of whose in and whose not is much > clearer. The idea works both ways, people may not open up with first timers > watching for fear of scaring them away, and if they do, they in fact may scare > new people away. > > You can open them up if you wish but pay attention to how people react. It > would be a good idea to start with them closed for the first few times just to > have a sense of what they are like before opening them up, so you have > something to compare to. > > But. as always, feel free to ignore me and experiment. Each group gets its own > mileage out of these tools. > > Rob Sandelin > > ---------- > From: cohousing-l [at] freedom.mtn.org on behalf of Paul Kilduff > Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 1998 11:11 PM > Subject: Sharing Circles > > from Paul Kilduff, Liberty Village, Libertytown MD, moving in, we hope, > Nov, 1998. > > We are using guidelines for sharing circles taken from an article by Rob > Sandelin in CoHousing Journal, Winter, 1994. We just did our first one > last week. Most wonderful experience. > > One thing I am wondering about is "Rob's recommendation" number 1, "No > strangers; members only." > > For one thing, I found the process so powerful that it seems hard to > believe that strangers could screw it up. For another, I wondered when > people got to be non-strangers: when they pay their $6,000? Seems kind > of a strange standard, but it's the definition we're using. I also > wonder, looking at it from another angle, how people can become > non-strangers if they're not allowed to participate in the sharing > circle -- kind of a chicken-egg thing. How do you define strangers and > members, and how does a stranger become a member without participating > in the circle? > > I would have sent this just to Rob, but I thought I'd also like to get > others' reactions. > > Thank you, > Paul > .
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Sharing Circles Paul Kilduff, May 12 1998
- RE: Sharing Circles Rob Sandelin, May 12 1998
- Sharing Circles Sharon Villines, May 12 1998
- Re: Sharing Circles Cheryl Charis-Graves, May 12 1998
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Sharing Circles Becky Schaller, June 18 2001
- RE: Sharing Circles Rob Sandelin, June 19 2001
- Re: Sharing Circles Ken Collerman, July 4 2001
- Re: Sharing Circles pattymara, June 18 2001
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