This taught me not to rush into a room a few minutes late,
scribble my name in the register, inauspiciously find a chair and
make a closed circle expand a little for me and then for a few
other late arrivals.
Dear Editor:
This taught me not to rush into a room a few minutes late, scribble my name in the register, inauspiciously find a chair and make a closed circle expand a little for me and then for a few other late arrivals.
That exercise turned me into Mary Zaup in the list of attendees at the Consensus Building Workshop just this past Friday and Saturday.
But it did not matter who I was. What mattered was that I was expected to think, to distill my thoughts into cogency focused on the questions, and to articulate them to the small group and to the whole group depending on the situation, and to listen to everyone else who practiced the same mental exercise.
It was of the utmost importance that each person be heard and listened to.
Because growth is inevitable, and conflict is inevitable, what came forth was a community of diversity determined to work together for a sustainable Hollister of the future by carrying on the principles of Consensus Building.
Mary Zanger,
Hollister
