Photos

Notes on the Design Workshop, May 6-8, 2003 at the Quaker Center in Ben Lomond, California.

Front row, left to right: Jane LaPointe, Chellie Kew, Ruth Mota, Nancy Glock-Grueneich, Amer Araim, Tom Munnecke, Joan Condon, Bliss Browne

Back row, left to right: Michael Mitchell, Orion, Jenny, Bruce Seeley, Mac Odell, Joy Tang, Richard Gabriel, Clare Hedin, Andrius Kulikauskas, Shawn Murphy, Sergio Lub, Heather Wood Ion, Paul Chaffee, Liza Behrendt

Missing: Joyce Diamond, Jack Park, Saadia Sabah, Rob Stephenson, Jon Larson, Brian Hamlin

This conference was held at the Quaker Center in Ben Lomond, California, in the Santa Cruz Mountains Redwoods. An Invitation Letter attracted about 30 people, of which many activities were triggered, including a Love to Iraq project. Jane LaPointe also recorded some notes. Richard Gabriel offered to teach a follow up workshop July 21-22, 2003 on Pattern Languages.

	The meetings were held at Casa de Luz conference room which had a spectacular view of the redwoods and the Santa Cruz Mountains. From left to right: Paul Chaffee, Bliss Browne, Liza Behrendt, (hidden), Ruth Mota, Bruce Seely, and Shawn Murphy. (photo by Rob Stephenson)
	Mac Odell facilitated the meeting based on his Appreciative Planning and Action model which was used successfully in Nepal. His "do it now" admonitions resonated, and an Uplift Iraq Peace Package initiative got started before the first day ended.
	Dr. Amer Araim, former Iraqi diplomat and former UN Secretariat official, currently the imam of the Dar-Ul-Islam mosque in Concord, California presents some of his ideas for Uplift Connect for Iraq. His presence was a delightful gift to the group, and he helped us understand the Iraqi perspective. Amer subsequently organized a kickoff event to support the Children of Iraq.
	Mac Odell, Amer Araim, and workshop organizer Tom Munnecke after Amer opened the meeting with a prayer in Arabic and an explanation in English. (photo by Sergio Lub) Tom wrote a follow up letter to the participants.
	Jon Larson details his ideas for shipping packages to school children in Iraq from school children in US. Following the "do it now" philosophy, within days he had organized his first shipment to Iraq and was asking for donation letters. This morphed into the Love to Iraq program.
	Richard Gabriel's brief but tantalizing introduction to pattern languages inspired us to schedule a future workshop with him on Uplift Pattern Languages. Many complimented him on his precision in thinking about patterns of uplift, and thought that this may provide a bridge between information technology and humanitarian development. Richard will be teaching the next workshop.
	Bliss Browne, founder of the Imagine Chicago, pointed out her vision for "Imagination as a Movement" and suggested that we reserve the name "Imagine Iraq" for a group which might emerge from within Iraq. Bliss is an incurable community organizer and slipped off after the meeting to discuss an Imagine Santa Cruz group before catching a red-eye flight home to continue her Chicago work.
	Joy Tang of One Village Foundation also coordinated the music for the evening. She also prepared some background material.
	Chellie Kew, author of African Journal, a Child's Continent, told stories of her personal transformation after visiting the children of Africa. There seems to be something about folks who learn things from children...
	Heather Wood Ion, co-author of Against Terrible Odds: Lessons in Resilience from Our Children, eloquently described the many other areas beyond Iraq which required our attention. Chellie looks on. Heather also spoke of her experiences traveling around India with villagers in Third Class Ticket. She also expanded her ideas in a paper Appreciating Paradox.
	Orion provided the perspective of a three year old, not that different from many of the older folks in the room. We had three generations actively participating in the event. (photo by Sergio Lub)
	In addition to supplying Orion for the meeting, Jenny helped with the cooking. Mike Mitchell is also quite a musician. (photo by Sergio Lub)
	Liza Behrendt spoke of her desire to go to Iraq and left with many new paths to explore...things were a still unstable in Iraq, so she ended up a month later in Jordan making many new friends and gaining insights.
	Bliss Browne lead an impromptu drama group with Jane LaPointe, Heather Wood Ion, Ruth Mota, and Joan Condon
	Saadia Sabah, a Moroccan-born anthropologist with a specialty in informal community networks, looks over Chellie Kew's book. (photo by Sergio Lub)
	(From left to right) Mike Mitchell, Saadia Sabah, Clare Hedin, Chellie Kew, Shawn Murphy, Joy Tang, Bliss Browne, Rob Stephenson, and Sergio Lub watch one of the presentations
	Joyce Diamond presented her ideas on paper, but we missed her talents as a jazz singer in the evening music session.
	Jane LaPointe was a quiet but enthusiastic participant... she was at the original dinner in Amherst, Massachusetts in which the Imagine Iraq effort was first discussed. (photo by Sergio Lub)
	Joan Condon spoke of and demonstrated the work of Capacitar. (photo by Sergio Lub)
	The redwood circle provided a beautiful if somewhat chilly meeting area for Amer Araim, Mac Odell, Bliss Browne, and Saadia Sabah. Jane LaPointe is in the background pointing her camera. (photo by Rob Stephenson)
	Rob Stephenson did a magnificent job of capturing the scale, texture, canopy, light, circularity, verticalness, and interdependence of the redwoods in this image.
	There were many paths to take through the Redwoods. Many people commented on the quality of the conversation from the lodge to the Casa de Luz conference room. (photo by Rob Stephenson)
	This photo was taken in India on Feb 28, 2001 by Tom Munnecke. She is holding her 1 kg premature daughter, torn between accepting free health care being offered by a doctor to her right and her agitated husband to her left. Their poverty and circumstances made them refuse the health care, and the baby died that afternoon. On his 48 hour trip home after this event, he churned the question, "What is the simplest thing I can do to create maximum humanitarian uplift?" which lead to the formation of GivingSpace.

photos by Tom Munnecke unless otherwise noted.

This workshop was supported in part by the Stanford University Reuters Digital Visions Program and the Omidyar Foundation.

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