January 6, 2013: Online Work Bee

Ben ... not feeling as good as I was yesterday morning ... saw two movies yesterday that were somewhat depressing
Eric ... I am pooped ... really hard workout hauling my groceries home through the snow on a cart with a slightly flat tire (shelley can relate ... flat tire on bob stroller)
Brandon ... Good ... on day six of my moving picture fast and day six of my coffee test
Shelley ... very sleepy, and I'm considering getting more sleep (as I have been for the last 6 months)
Sequoia and Ren ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ... WAaaaAAAAaaaAAAaaa.

Eric ... follow your topical community protocol for this week ... ongoing
<s>Eric ... meditate and keep track of which days ... ongoing
Eric ... ask family about using their cottage for the Summer Solstice ... by next call</s>
Ben ... follow your topical community protocol for this week ... ongoing
<s>Ben ... meditate and keep track of which days ... ongoing</s>
Shelley ... follow your topical community protocol for this week ... ongoing
<s>Shelley ... meditate and keep track of which days ... ongoing
Shelley ... read and provide feedback on the/a book ... by next call
Brandon ... follow your topical community protocol for this week ... ongoing
Brandon ... meditate and keep track of which days ... ongoing
Brandon ... start the budget (going forward) ... by next call
Brandon ... consider how we can schedule a retreat to plan the future of SolSeed (childcare, etc) ... by next call
Brandon ... spend 9+ hours on the/a book ... by next call</s>

Eric ... follow your topical community protocol for this week ... ongoing
Eric ... meditate and keep track of which days ... ongoing
Ben ... follow your topical community protocol for this week ... ongoing
Ben ... meditate and keep track of which days ... ongoing
Ben ... put images on newsletter and send it out using mailchimp ... by next call
Ben ... find out whether there are any details on my work schedule for June ... by next call
Shelley ... follow your topical community protocol for this week ... ongoing
Shelley ... meditate and keep track of which days ... ongoing
Brandon ... send credentials to Ben and an email on how to use mailchimp to send the newsletter ... by Monday
Brandon ... follow your topical community protocol for this week ... ongoing
Brandon ... meditate and keep track of which days ... ongoing
Brandon ... check about 1/13 or 1/27 with Carol and reply to group ... by Tuesday

Service Saturday January 12, 9:00am PST 12:00 EST (Brandon) Rotation: Brandon, Eric, Shelley, Ben

Work-Bee Sunday January 13, 1:30 pm PST 16:30 EST

In-person service with Vliets: Saturday the 12th, 10:30 am Seeing Nature Readings and Practices: next is 2013-01-20 13:00 EST

This season, we focused in on our priority projects and took a few big steps.

We moved toward publishing the big SolSeed book (title under review) by translating the text into LaTeX format, which allows us to define margins, title pages, and so on. We even had a partial test copy printed to find out what it would look like.

The CD of songs about science that we helped to produce, Terra Lumina, was released on December 18th! John and Will should now have some time to work on the SolSeed song, using lyrics that I completed in November.

We all had a great time launching rockets to represent The Destiny, as part of the Portland and Ottawa Solstice celebrations on December 21st and 22nd. The map of the United States on the asphalt was a nice touch, allowing the Portland contingent to imagine the city as the site of a major spaceport. Each celebration also featured a potluck dinner with family and friends.

This winter, we will:

continue work on the book
have a retreat to revisit and refine our overall purpose
go skating in February to celebrate Snowball Earth
hopefully get the finished song from John and Will and start working on a new music video!

We'll work on the yearly goals and Yellow/Green/Super-Green goals at the retreat

Eric says we have approval for a 2-week period
Later would probably be best (i.e. start just before the Solstice) because Patrick could join us (unless he's in summer school) and the weather would get warmer
Shelley has requested time off, and the Sanders would prefer to travel on Wednesday June 19th and return on Sunday the 23rd
Eric plans to rent a passenger van

Brandon sees my outline as a separate book from the one he wants to create
We have different work styles
Brandon works on small segments of text first, then links them together later
Ben prefers to start with an outline of the whole and then fill in the content
One solution is to have "The Gospel according to Brandon," "The Gospel according to Ben," and "The Gospel according to Eric"
Brandon would like to offer us veto power on anything in his "Gospel" that we feel uncomfortable about.
We could send small pieces to each other for review

Ben ... I'm okay with the new direction on the book, although I am concerned with the number of new different directions we've gone through with this project
Ren ... awwooo <screech>
Eric ... feeling good, more rested than at the start of the call (restful call for me)
Shelley ... glad we got the scheduling nailed down ... distracted by Ren who is a little needy right now
Brandon ... still well caffeinated; still feeling good.