It's an obviously great place to hold a retreat for this primarily urban group. There are no distractions. Not much window shopping. One restaurant that everyone frequents. One main street.
People have to talk to each other.
The participants came from a little bit of everywhere, and brought together an extraordinary depth and range of experience. From west to east, participants included Linda Mabalot, Sally Jo Fifer, Gail Silva, Steve Gong, Jim Yee, Robin Hickman, Gordon Quinn, Tom Weinberg, Kate Horsfield, Mimi Pickering, Dee Davis, Ann Lewis, Tony Buba, Charlie Humphrey, Mark Lloyd, Ruby Lerner, Neil Seiling, Lillian Jimenez and myself, with Don Adams and Arlene Goldbard facilitating. The weekend's agenda seemed large and vague, which we were later told was completely deliberate. The operative word was conversation. And the idea was that people needed to be able to get together to have a conversation about where things stood, what might need to happen, and who might undertake whatever might be discussed.