Welcome to 2012! In keeping with our belief in science, the SolSeed Movement hasn’t been preparing for the end of the world. Here’s a quick rundown of what we ''have'' been working on:
[[Image:Dancing at 2012 Spring Festival.JPG|480px|left]]Our [[Spring Equinox 2012|Spring Equinox celebration]] at the Seed Village was a spectacular success, featuring seed planting, arts and crafts, a demonstration of how seasons work, dancing and music provided by the incomparable [http://www.reverbnation.com/lorihenriques Lori Henriques], and a festive brunch for all concerned. Over fifty people showed up, about evenly split between kids and adults, making this the largest single SolSeed event to date.
We’re excited to welcome a new active member of the SolSeed Movement: Eric Saumur from Ottawa, founder of [http://sites.google.com/site/biosphericcommu/ Biospheric Communionism]. He’s joined some of our [[weekly service calls]], inviting family and friends to participate, and he contributed [[Growing at the Speed of Gaia|a whole new chapter]] to the book we’re working on.
The first draft of [[SolSeed book|that book]], the big one that will do a thorough job of describing what we’re about, is almost finished. We did some reorganizing of the table of contents, and then got Eric’s new chapter, resulting in further adjustments to the plan. But as with any evolutionary process, we’re adapting to the changes and the book is becoming stronger as a result.
[[Image:Smokerville.JPG|260px|right]]Brandon and Shelley have a new baby on the way! That means they’ve decided not to take any big trips this year, so I’m representing the SolSeed Movement by myself at a couple of space conferences. The first one was the [[Contact Conference]], which took place the last weekend in March in Sunnyvale. It featured many inspiring speakers, including our friend Gus and SETI luminaries Jill Tarter, Seth Shostak, and Frank Drake, but even more amazing was the [http://contact-conference.org/c00b.html Cultures of the Imagination] project, in which two teams invented [https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=5fc9cd5ea201996e&sc=photos&id=5FC9CD5EA201996E%21583 alien cultures] from scratch and then acted out a first-contact scenario on stage at the end of the event.
Our work with kindred “topical communities” has begun to pay off. Members of the [http://www.meetup.com/cfi-sfn/ Secular Families Network] attended our Equinox celebration, and our plans for Earth Day include an in-person meeting with the leader of the [http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/168117373276247/ West Coast Ecovillage/CELSS Planners] Facebook group. (Again, CELSS stands for Closed Ecological Life Support Systems; we’ll hopefully get to visit one that’s under construction near Silverton, Oregon.)
In the upcoming months, we’ll continue to work on our book and start on planning an event for the Summer Solstice. More updates coming soon!
Thanks for reading!<br>
Ben Sibelman