Cohousing-L Mailing List: Desperately Seeking New Openers (Too Sleepy Near Seattle?)

[John Gear (catalyst]

>OK , all you meeting veterans out there in Cohousing land, how about 
>sharing some of your  methods for opening a meeting?  I know many 
>groups start meetings with some sort of activity or opening and I need 
>some new ideas for my own group - and of course everyone can benefit.
>
>Some of the ways we have opening meetings at Sharingwood:
>Singing our names
>Assembling on a map of the US by where we were born
>group humming - vocal improvisation.
>Writing out our middle names and matching the middle name to the owner
>Sharing Appreciation's
>Sharing one sentence word goals for the community
>Pantomime our feelings at the moment

There are a lot of good things in "Games Trainers Play" and "More Games
Trainers Play."  I'm sorry that I have drawn a blank on the author's name
right now and can't find my copy -- it's in one of the many boxes NYU (not
yet unpacked).

I don't think these are from GTP but they might be in there too.  But either
way, here are some of my favorites:

*  WHAT DO YOU SEE?  Find an interesting photograph and pass it around.
Give everyone 30 seconds to write down what they think is going on.  Then
have everyone tell the story they saw.  Obviously landscapes are not your
best bet here; shots of people interacting are usually best at evoking
meaningful stories.  (National Geo. profiles of places are a great source of
good shots.)  Can be played meeting after meeting without getting old--if it
gets too dull find more provocative pictures.

*  WHAT WAS YOUR PATH?  With maps:  Give every person a different colored
skein of yarn and push pins.  Have a scissors for cutting off excess.  (If
you have too many people to give everyone a different color, put little
string tags on each with the person's name on it.  But use as many different
colors as you can.)

Have each person anchor their string where they were born and then run it to
where they lived next, pin it there, and then to the next place, and so on.
Eventually all the strings converge where you are--some having gone a
looooong way, some not far at all.  It's fascinating.  Use a world map if
possible.  (You might want to play this once and leave it up--it tends to
draw photographs and letters and stamps from the places.  Have people add
their string when they join the group.)

*  WHAT'S YOUR TOTEM?   Have everyone say what their "totem" is--the
particular animal that they most closely identify with.  (Some people don't
like the sense of "totem"--the alternative is to ask people to say what
animal besides human that they would like to be.)  This is another one-timer
but it's a good one.

*  WHO SAID THAT?  If the moderator is willing to do a little work this can
be a great opener.  Find a good quote or set of quotes related to an issue
of importance for the group (or are just interesting).  Then either give a
multiple choice for "Who Said That? (for a single quote) or have people
match the quote to the speaker (if you use several).  Works especially well
when you find quotes from an unexpected source--politicians and official
publications are great sources from which to mine.

This can be played again and again without losing interest if you vary the
subject of the quotes.  I heard a review of a new book on quotes by women
(Beacon Press--I forget the name) that would be a rich source of great new
material that is less widely-known.



John Gear (catalyst [at] pacifier.com)

The Bill of Rights--The Original Contract with America
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