The Salon-Keeper's Companion
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Eric Utne
- Conversation? Exchange of ideas with kindred spirits on topics that people care about. What are you thinking and obsessing about lately?
- Trend-watching? Tapping into the zeitgeist by making explicit your own previously unarticulated thoughts and hearing the thinking of others. This is a primary purpose of Utne Reader's salons.
- Learning? Formal presentations by group members or invited guests on any subject of mutual interest ? a time-tested and reliable way to start the discussion.
- Co-creation? Playful collaboration for the head, hands and heart. Berkeley salon-keeper Jaida n'ha Sandra hosts monthly gatherings for amateur poetry reading (no criticism allowed), collage-making, musical jam sessions with or without instruments, mask-making, contact dance, comedy improvisation, round-robin story writing, even Ukrainian egg-dying.
- Support? Developing your own response to critical social and cultural issues (e.g., clarifying your own thinking, enriching and balancing this with other perspectives, validating what you've been intuiting, filling gaps in your knowledge, etc.).
- Joint action? Collaboration on some action, like volunteering at a soup kitchen, publishing a newsletter, forming a Green political action committee, starting a calypso band, developing a co-housing project, or creating a human/dolphin pod family...whatever.
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Having heard what the others have said, the facilitator could ask if anyone wants to add something. What were you drawn to? Did someone speak to an interest of yours that wasn't articulated in the first round? After this the group should try to identify common threads and see where the greatest interest lies.
It is helpful if the facilitator can model open, heartful sharing at the outset. This will help others to open up. Include your feelings and values, not just your ideas.
The facilitator should check for the group's readiness to formulate a vision and mission. This could take several meetings, especially if the group is large and the objectives of its members are diverse. Members could be invited to write their suggestions for a vision and mission statement to be distributed and discussed at the next meeting.
Another way to zero in on the group's purpose is through holding a group meditation after the individual members have shared. Traditionally, everyone sits in silence, as in a Quaker meeting, attunes to the theme, and shares what comes if and when they are moved to do so. People need to be encouraged to let go of preconceived ideas, be open to the unexpected, legitimate the silence, and 'listen' to their bodies as a cue to when they are called to speak. Another approach particularly well suited to identifying a group's purpose is the council process (see the following section).
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