The little History of ENexus (as seen through Ria’s eyes)
The idea of ENexus was born in the head of George, a long time ago. In the months and weeks running up to Evolutionary Salon 2 it became more into reality, Ria supported the idea and in an email conversation Finn said he would love to join.
George and Ria did some co-Presencing work on it between Christmas and New Year. In the mean time George was doing most of the practical work to have the site up and running just in time when the Salon started.
It was only on the Salon itself that the three of us were able to meet in person. We talked most on the relationship between EvoNexus.org and EvoNexus.com, as a possible form to get money into the system.
Then the Salon took over! We engaged ourselves during the Salon and after; and ‘forgot’ how to be or become a true collective.
There was a meeting scheduled with the techies and one with the stewards, which happened to be most women. But there was no building up of the hosting collective.
Finn, George and Ria had some forum conversations on Principles and Commitment, but for Ria it was ‘too heady’. This conversation died and the outburst of activity in the first weeks after the Salon slowly diminished…
Finn wrote on Febr.8th:
“I would rather focus on the few principles that are specific to who we are, our work, at this time. That would be the principles that we discover "in the flow", and that we surface and give voice to become aware of them. Right now the principle "slow down" may have some value.”
Ria wrote on the same day:
"radical trust" and "listening to the middle" could also be good principles.
We wrote it, but we didn’t live up to it.
Then there was an email message from Bill (proposing an agenda for a next stewards meeting, nobody responded), an email from Ashley (asking for more response) and finally a big letter from Tree, the heartkeeper for the next Salon.
Finally I heard it and could step out of the little box I had placed myself in.
slow down – radical trust – listening to the middle
not just George, Ria and Finn;
but with everybody who cares for the mission and vision of ENexus
I started with a call with Ashley:
Highlights from a call between Ashley and Ria:
(Sunday March 5th, 2006)
We began by starting in silence with the awareness of a line from the EvoNexus mission statement: "Sensing from and acting on the biggest context"
Ria noted that the habit of starting our real time engagements in silence could be carried over into the online space. We noted the importance of silence for emergence. We also noted the importance of simplicity in online space.
Ria noted the need for a collective to hold space for a bigger collective.
Much of the conversation returned to this idea of a collective, needed to meet regularly (regular phone calls) and coming to know itself as a collective and working/generating together.
We noted the need for clear intentions. "How can we bring this into being" . . . ‘this’ being the mission and vision of the site. An invitation to be a collective, consciously listening to what is emerging and giving voice to it.
Pattern of hosting:
We agreed on adapting the format of weekly phone conversations (as used by the ES3 hosting team and the Moving the Edge team), which invites all the stewards that are interested in participating to show up on a weekly call and then in that space we sense into what is calling, and when there are action steps to be taken, those who feel called will steward those projects. . .
We explored the notion of starting with (a part of) an online space that has all of the qualities that we want right now. And then, as it grows and matures, the bells and whistles that we think are most valuable can be added. By qualities we mean the essence of what the space is, not the content structures that it supports (like a place for information, news, conversation, etc).
4 main lines or essential parts of being were defined:
1. A site that is beautiful, warm, inviting (user friendly and seducing to come back), simple, honors silence
2. A place where knowledge is shared and that is searchable
3. A site that is sustainable... money: Awareness of time, effort, and energy spent.
4. A site that facilitates relational connections and engagement
These are all aspects of hosting.
The community of stewards will need to look at all 4 and integrate them!
Ashley talked about the process of vision becoming manifested reality and Ria said how the physical is always more slow than the thinking and visioning... and we have to pay attention to the presence of such things as emotions. We looked at the process of bringing this site into being as similar to the vision growing a body.
An exciting idea that came after the call (Ashley in conversation with Thomas) was that prior to entering into the forums (the area where the most conversation and dialogue occurs) there could be a screen whose only words are "We invite you to rest in a moment of silence, connecting with the collective presence of this space." or something like that.