This may just be a question in some folks' minds as they (you) peruse the various pages of the Global Open Space Institute Web-site. Initially, I had no intent whatsoever of putting anything here about me because I truly believe that this is the site for the institutes . . . that the relevance of my "life" beyond this page is marginal, yet I have heard from some folks who have asked me to put something up . . . so, here goes . . . 

I think I can get all of the "particulars" done in one short paragraph and then on to some story-telling of how I came to be the "webmeister" of this site. Born in 1962 in Baltimore, Maryland and moved almost immediately to Nashville, TN. I grew up in Nashville . . . attended an all-boy high school (Montgomery Bell Academy) and left for college at Centre College of Kentucky (a small Liberal Arts school in the center of Kentucky) where I majored in English and minored in swimming and fraternity (Beta Theta Pi) and joined the Army ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) at the University of Kentucky Lexington. At the end of my third year at Centre, I realized that my minors were getting more of my time than the major . . . and I saw most of my senior friends struggling to find employment with a liberal Arts degree, so I left Centre and transferred to the University of Tennessee at Martin to study business. I completed the ROTC program and was commissioned in the Tennessee Army National Guard where I served for 8 years as an Engineer Officer . . . I spent time in Panama, Ft Belvoir (DC area), Ft Benning, Ft Riley, Ft Leonardwood and resigned a unit command to pursue real estate consulting as a career (final rank of captain) . . . As I was doing the Army thing, I was managing restaurants and may have served you at Hardees then Wendys then Applebees and finally KFC . . . KFC finished me on the restaurant management thing . . . and so Real estate consulting (sales) had always been interesting to me, so I found someone (Sue Chilton) who mentored me for about 18 months and have been happily selling real estate for the past 5 years. 

But something happened a little over 2 years ago . . . I had been struggling with the real estate and decided to attend the seminar of a motivational speaker (Joe Stumpf) . . . I liked his message . . . it was along the lines of "Have a successful career and actually LIVE - have free time . . . enjoy life." That seemed to make sense to me. Why couldn't we all have all of that? I started to read . . . I read everything I could lay my hands on . . . . I read all of the books of motivational business speakers and sucked every bit of meaning I could from them . . . but my thirst was not quenched . . . so i continued to read. I wasn't really very sure what my Dad actually did for a living, and curiosity got the best of me one day and I picked up the copy of "Spirit - Transformation & Development in Organizations" that had been sitting on the shelf for years . . . I was floored . . . now THIS made sense to me, so I called Dad and asked how I could learn more. He suggested that I attend a training for Open Space in Seattle (Seabeck Conference Center). I made the arrangements, scraped up the change from the bottom of the clothes hamper, grabbed my friend Buck, and flew out to Seattle for the training. This was a life-changing event. 

I was not prepared for the power of it all. 

The absolute power and beauty of the process of Open Space Technology . . . 

The mastery my Father demonstrated . . . 

I was absolutely blown away on many levels . . . 

I knew that Open Space became a true passion for me, and I began to travel that road of discovery. 

I think each person must travel many parts of this journey alone, and that there is much darkness along the way. I know that I laughed and cried  . . . yet I have learned from all of it, the sheer power of PASSION and RESPONSIBILITY. 

I studied quietly . . . and decided that simplicity was the only way I was going to make it happen, so I started simplifying. That included ridding myself of many of my "materialistic" possessions (including the TV) and moving to an apartment (without room-mate) very close to my office. 

I attended some other Open Space events and soon realized that I was actually beginning to LIVE in Open Space . . . that "holding the space" is something that we all do for each other and that we each do it differently . . . and I began to see that it was the folks who are completely truthful with themselves and others . . . follow what has heart and meaning . . . show up and are fully present in each moment . . . and when it is time, let it go (Thank you Angeles Arrien - The FourFold Way) . . . these are the folks who live effortlessly in Open Space . . . these are the "holders of space" for all other beings . . . these are the folks who operate with passion and take responsibility for that passion and appear to effortlessly manifest the most wonderful changes. 

These are the right people (Why ELSE would they be HERE?) 
When it starts is the right time (Let creativity and Spirit flow rather than shoving them into our scheduled boxes) 
Whatever happens is the only thing that could have ( We don't lament the past . . . simply receive the gifts) 
When it is over, it is over (Acknowledge the end . . . and move on to a new Spring) 

And we notice that such an integral part of the entire way of Being is the Law of Two Feet . . . that if at any time you find yourself in a place where you are neither contributing nor receiving, than you alone have the responsibility to remove yourself from that place and find a place where you can contribute or receive. 

As my passion became clear to me, I received notice that 2 new Open Space Institutes had formed - Australia and Germany . . . and so Open Space is "officially" global (it was already international with the USA and Canada) . . . I also knew that the Open Space Institute of the US was maintaining a Website and was looking for someone to expand it. I knew that my passion is to find a way to hold the space for the planet through these times of uncertainty . . . I knew (especially with the plethora of solicitations I get in the mail) that there are plenty of organizations out there looking for donations  . . . quick fixes to major world problems . . . I wanted to make a difference, yet I thought there had to be a way that would be more global-reaching than joining one organization . . . and then I heard of the 100th Monkey. 

The 100th Monkey is a story I tell quite often . . . I do not know the exact particulars (dates and people involved in the study . . . and may even be fuzzy on the details . . . but the story is grande . . . so) There was a study on a group of Islands of monkeys. The monkeys ate Sweet potatoes straight from the ground, and one day one of the researchers decided to teach a young monkey to wash his sweet potato before eating it . . . of course, the potato was much better without the dirt, and so that monkey taught other monkeys to wash their sweet potatoes . . . The fascinating thing was that after the 100th monkey learned to wash the sweet potato before eating it, all of the monkeys on ALL of islands began to wash their sweet potatoes . . . This was a shift in consciousness . . . a universal shift. 

This story tells me that each and every "effort" or cause is equally important in the quest for a global shift of consciousness in the "saving of the planet" . . . How is the 57th monkey any less important than the 100th monkey? My passion then . . . is to "hold the space for more monkeys." I wondered how We could co-create a community in Open Space . . . a community which would be interconnected globally . . . a community which would be out there teaching people to fish (rather than giving them a fish) . . . a community which would be limitless in its reach . . . bounded only by passion and willingness to take responsibility for this passion . . . a community in which people teach others to hold the space on a global level . . . my suspicion is that many of the issues of the day would become very small and insignificant in this arena. 

In light of all of the above, I looked at my budget (no dollars in the account) and decided that the one thing I do have is the ability to learn . . . and so I buckled down and began to learn html . . . and I found a place for free web space (Geocities) and I began to create this community working under the assumption that "If I build it, they will come." All I knew for sure was that I had the "blessings" of the OSIs US and Canada and the amazingly energetic support of Birgitt Bolton . . . so I began the construction process. In a matter of 3 weeks, we took this site from being a one page text-only document to what it is today (March 15, 1998) . . . We did this in Open Space . . . there were no committees, no budget, no votes . . . it has been plenty messy . . . and it has a long way to go . . . but what it has certainly already done is create community . . . People are banding together around this thing and are showing true passion in its development and are taking responsibility for this passion . . . 

My friend Juan Lopez told me (at our first meeting in Washington, DC while attending the OSonOS - Open Space on Open Space) " I re-invent myself every 5 years . . . I'd do it every 3, but that's too much work" 

And so I am sure this story will be told differently the next time it is told . . . Once in transformation, always in transformation. 

Simply living the FourFold Way in Open Space