Signes World

Marshall Rosenberg Seminar

2007-03-15T21:39:00.000-07:00

Marshall Rosenberg - the creater of Non-Violent Communication (NVC) - is coming to Vancouver this weekend to do a 3 day seminar! The people from the team going (me including 8 others) have got a deal set up where we only have to pay 50% of the price so we can actually afford to go to the whole thing. Im really looking forward to it as I've come to know it through others as an extremely positive and powerful tool in conflict resolution, peacekeeping and change processes.

The first day will be focused on NVC in relation to social change. The second day focuses on interpersonal relationships (privately and professionally) and the third day puts NVC into a world perspective and looks at it's use in relation to political and religious conflicts.

I will let you know how it goes. Im very curious about it my self :-)

Happy News

2007-03-15T21:18:00.000-07:00

SO! The amazing thing happend and our client approved our strategy with focus on implementation and action. We did a vision process with the executives yesterday and after that had a meeting with the president and his right hand to discuss the further progress of the project. They we're very positive and supported our idea. That means that we get 4 workgroups within the themes of Energy, Materials, Food and (probably) Education. The theme of the last one is still a bit unsure as the administrative coordinater right now is working on finding the participating staff. We are hoping for approximately 4-6 participants in each group. We will then function as project leaders till we leave in May, with the intent of leaving well progressing projects behind that can easily be carried on till the goal of becoming more sustainable is reached.

Also they have asked us to come and teach our facilitation methods at a weekend course in the end of April. Apparently there is a group of members in the union that are ready to take action on climate change in their local communities and want some help developing a campaign strategy and the methods within that. It is the first time I am given the opportunity to actually teach some of the methods that I have learned to others, so I am very excited.

One of the executives have further more offered us to stay in his appartment downtown while him and his wife are away for a month in April. All he needs for us to cover is basically whatever we use of electricity, heat etc. This is an extremely good deal, especially when you know the general downtown pricing (sky-high). It is extremely nice of him and it comes at a very good time. 3 people from our team still haven't found places to live and we are living very close in our appartment. We've figured out that the 3 people can live there + there will be an extra room that maybe 2 people from our appartment can occupy. Fantalastic baby yeah!

The Outpost Website

2007-03-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

By the way...if you wanna check out how the team is doing in general and read about the different projects and areas of sustanability check out our common website www.kaospilotoutpost2007.com

My client: the BCGEU

2007-03-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

Thought it might be time to share a bit about my client project. As most of you know I am working with an organisation called the BCGEU which stands for the British Columbia Government Employees Union. What they want us to help them with is getting started with a Climate Change Action Plan, that can make all their work practices enviornmentally sustainable. We're talking everything from printing on both sides of the paper to build sustainable buildings (a very big thing overhere right now: buildings get certified and can win awards for being build environmentally sustainable). The way we go about it is to involve the diffrent levels of the organisation as much as possible to create the greatest level of ownership. We therefore started out this wednesday with doing a process for 20 of the employees pumping them for all their ideas on sustainable actions that could be taking within the organisation. Our assumption was that all the knowledge needed is already within the organisation and it just needs to be released and organised. So far this seems to hold truth. The amount and quality of the material we took home wednesday was impressive. And already today we received a forwarded mail that showed that some of the participants from the workshop have taken action by sharing their new knowledge with ALL their colleagues via the intranet. They had even made an action plan that they encouraged everyone to follow. This organisation is just so ready for implementation! It is therefore our strategy to actually focus more on implementation than recommendations for the next 6 weeks. We have made a proposal/strategy that we are going to share with the executive committee (president, directors and secretary treasurer) on wedneday at noon - i really hope they go for it! It will require quite a lot of ressources from the organisation in terms of employee time, but is definetly the thing that will bring them forward fast and effectively AND give us great projectleader experience at the same time. Exciting exciting. Will make sure to keep you updated on how things go.

Appartment - Adrienne Clarkson - Party

2007-03-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

Ok so it's been a while. That is only because a lot of things are happening!
We came home last thursday from a great trip in Tofino. The day before i left i went on a scenic flight on the smallest water airplane i've ever seen! Me, Kathrine and Fanny (our teammanager) found this guy that did 20 min flights over the island and it was great! Got pretty (pretty, pretty) fly-sick becuase of the unsteadyness of such a small plane but the view was amazing.

On the friday after coming home we were spontanously invited to an event by a friend of the school Peter McLeoud. He really lives in Toronto but was in Vancouver as co-arranger of something called the Lincoln-Baldwin Symposium. It is a yearly event that goes on for a weekend, where prominent speakers come and give lectures within the theme of citizenship. The key speaker this year was former governor-general Adrienne Clarkson - and boy could she draw perspectives together! She spoke for about 1,5 hours on how to co-exist peacefully in a diverse society. Very interesting views that could freshen up the integration debate in Denmark a lot. The whole thing was held at this fancy hotel called the Fairmount Vancouver Hotel which is somewhat equal to...well a very fancy hotel. Gold everywhere and everyone wearing suits and evening dresses. Yeah, we didn't 100% fit in but it was a great experience, and Peter McLeoud did what he could to introduce us to the rest of the people there. cool!

From that event we went to sign the contract of the appartment we will be moving into on sunday. Together with 4 others from our team (Maja, Kathrine, Tobias og Peter) Anders we are going to live in right in the heart of the city on the 10th floor. We have 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room and fully equipped kitchen. Besides that there is a jaquzzi, steam bath, sauna, gym, pool room and library that we share with the rest of the building. Seems like a really nice place and will be nice to live somewher with a bit more soul than the YWCA Hotel we are at now.

Today we are arranging and having a party for all our contacts in Vancouver at our homebase on Cordova Street.We have invited around 70 people so i think it will be quite big. The idea is to let all our clients and other contacts have a chance to mingle and get to know each other and US better. The event will start of with an old first nation (=indianer) lady coming and blessing the space with burning cedar wood. After this there will be some different speeches and then just PARTY!

Tofino here we come!

2007-02-26T19:00:00.000-08:00

Today we left for a 4 day get away to Tofino on Vancouver Island. It is a beautiful, beautiful place with amazing nature and wildlife. The oppotunities for whale and bear watching are endless, and the vast variety of birds keeps your eyes peeled to the sky. Just today we saw 3 big american eagles floating across the sky only to take a soft landing on a bank on the mountain lake. The horisont is covered in snowy, mountain peaks and contrasted by the clear blue sky. Simply majestic. Ahhhh!!! The purpose of the trip is primarily teambuilding which we all know relly means relaxing and having fun hi, hi. We are staying in the Botanical Gardens of the Island. Here they have a nice wooden cabin with room for all of us. Right now people are cooking, chilling and haning out in the common area with their books and games. Think I will join them :-))

49 Cordova Street

2007-02-21T10:53:00.000-08:00

Ok so the address is actually 49 Cordova Street and not 65. Not that it REALLY matters but this gives me an opportunity to mention the homebase again. The thing is that it basically needed a helping hand when we got here. The raw material - the rooms, common space etc was great, but the condition was...well poor, AND there were no furniture. As our first mini project we got 1000$ and 2 days to make the place look great with all the utilities we needed. Just to give you a feel the place contains around 7 rooms for group work, 2 big common space areas, 2 bathrooms and a big kitchen and dining area. So 1000$ wouldn't take us long with all the furniture, paint and cleaning remedies we needed. We therefore started looking into getting stuff for free and it was actually amazing how friendly people were with giving away their stuff. We also went to the dump yard and got lots of stuff that we made into tables, bences and so forth. When the two days had passed we ended up having a very nice space for the rest of our stay. Cool. It was such a cool team effort. Everybody chipped in and worked long hours to make this thing happen. Now it looks great. Yipeee!!

65 Cordova St.

2007-02-17T16:45:00.001-08:00

65 Cordova Street is the address of our homebase while we're here. The place to meet with clients and classmates, have lectures etc. The area of Vancouver where it is set, is the one with the highest rate of illiteracy, homelessness and drug addictions in the country. And you see it. Actually to a degree I have never experienced before. Everytime I walked in and out of the door to the homebase yesterday I was pushing the feet and legs of a homeless person, who had set camp right outside the premisses. He was lying curled up in a black sleeping bag with only the top of his head sticking out. Beneath his eye was a tattoo of a tear. Walking one block down to Hasting Street things get more intense. It is the only street in the Lonely Planet guide that is recommended not to visit. It's hard to find people not either homeless or on drugs. Some shoot up in the open street. Some lie on the ground, some stumble around in their own daze and some beg. There are many. And the street is long. Why set homebase in a place like this? The thought is to let ourselves be confronted with the challenges of social sustainability, in a city that is so diverse that it would be so easy to focus on something else. Now we see it, smell it and experience it. And maybe we will even be able to make a small difference. The destinies in this area need more than good intentions.

Quiet City?

2007-02-16T12:50:00.001-08:00

”I can’t figure out whether I still have plugs in my ears from flying or if this is just a very quiet city” my friend Kathrine yesterday when eating lunch

The sound of Vancouver

2007-02-16T12:45:00.000-08:00

After 13 hrs of travel we finally arrived in VC on tuesday. What first stroke me was the very quiet and peaceful atmosphere of the airport. Highly unusual. Airports generally seem to be busy, buzzing places but here it was strangely calm. A big waterfall connected the different floors with tranquil water sounds and 3-meter high native wood sculptures filled the open spaces with a strong, grounded presence. When sharing this with one of my friend Kathrine, she told me that Vancouver among her musician friends is known to have a special sound. A city with a sound. Of course. I just never thought of cities having their own sound. But I guess everything living has it’s own inherit sound. Even people. Me. You. I would like to think so at least.

Welcome!

2007-01-20T11:35:00.000-08:00

....both to you and me and this brand new blog! I just set it up today and feel kindda proud for that reason. I thought it was time that I joined my friends in cyberspace to see what this whole shabangs is about. Also it will be great to keep my peeps here in Denmark up to date when I leave for Canada very soon. Im going there as part of my school program at the Kaospilots. For three months all thirty of us will be bustin' our chops to rock Vancouver one or the other way. The theme for the trip is Sustainability. We will focus on the five main areas of culture, urban development, economy, education and environment and work with different clients within these areas. Exciting! Over and out.