ABSTRACT
Since 2002 in Melbourne, the Creative Organisational Systems (COS) Group at RMIT University has been exploring the community system in its annual Group Relations Conferences. The 'community system' is a systemic level within the organisation, parallel to, but different from other systems such as the task, sentient, political, economic and socio-technical systems. The community event was conducted alongside a small study system and following an institutional system event. The community system event attempts to explore the community system in the temporary organisation of the conference. The idea in the conference is primarily to explore the 'community level' of the work system. The community system provided a space for members to find ways of depicting their experience rather than in traditional study or discussion groups. The local staff who have worked in the community system event over the past six years have come increasingly to regard the event as a transitional space within the conference.
