Below is a rough draft. Ben, I've pasted your content and then made a few modifications in my next edit -- that way if you don't like what I did you can go back in "history" to fix.
-Shelley
Welcome to the first SolSeed monthly e-newsletter! This email will update you on what's been going on in the SolSeed Movement for the past month, where we stand now, and what our plans are for the future. For this first issue, I'll summarize our history and plans to provide the baseline for those updates. Later issues will be much shorter mostly consist of “recent changes,” a wiki concept that should serve our wiki-based movement well.
Where we've been
The year that just ended was a phenomenally important one for the SolSeed Movement. After existing as nothing more than a website for four years...
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In January we had the first official in-person “un-conference” gathering, Seed 2009, on Mount Hood (many of you were there, of course, some coming all the way out from the East Coast as well as Denver, Chicago, and Seattle). The discussions and debates we held there about what we really mean by “The Destiny of SolSeed Is to Take Root Amongst the Stars” would set the tone for the rest of the year.
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We then started a program of regular conference calls, shifting gradually from general philosophical discussion toward action items like group book reading, trash pick-ups, and planning for the second big in-person event.
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Sol 2009 took place on the Oregon coast in June, with the theme question “Who are we?” and was even larger and more successful than Seed 2009. In addition to more philosophy, watching videos, and having a great time out on the beach (with Bob Sanders's giant papier-mache rocket thrown in for good measure), we started developing a One-Page Plan and concrete strategies for where to go next.
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After that, we continued the SolSeed phone-based book group, started the highly successful Peer Coaching Triads program, and started work on the One-Page Plan action items developed by SolSeed Movement founder Brandon CS Sanders, who decided to focus more on the literal interpretation of our epic story about a future where humans seed the galaxy with life.
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We signed up for a table at the OryCon science fiction convention at the end of November, in hopes of attracting more like-minded folks from the Portland area. It was great fun for Brandon, Shelley Sanders, and Ben Sibelman (Mark Hansen also stopped by briefly), and we learned a lot (which is another way of saying “we'll do a better job at the next convention”).
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Finally, we rounded out the year with a third, much smaller official gathering, the Longest Night Festival Open Space at Brandon and Shelley's home in Portland, where attendence ranged from four to eight people over the course of the three-day event. With the theme questions of “Who are we becoming? What are we doing next?” we got into exciting discussions of concrete plans for everything from a SolSeed Eco-Village, to Keith Lofstrom's paper-thin server satellites, to local food production like what Mickki Langston is working on in Denver. The event ended on December 21st with a non-SolSeed-specific Winter Solstice party.
Where we are now
This is how we're doing on the action items for 2009 from the One-Page Plan:
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Publish children's book -- Brandon
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Text complete
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Several pages of art by Kevin Fitzpatrick complete
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Currently held up somewhat by Kevin's schedule
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Next steps: finish the art and then self-publish the book
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Finish “Pick a Future” video -- Ben
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Rough draft complete
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Next steps: tweak a bit and finish credits
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Longer term goal: get permission to use certain copyrighted material (especially the music)
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Two Year Conference Plan -- Shelley
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6 conventions listed
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Next step: sign up for NorWesCon
And this is how we're doing on the focus questions from our first three Open Space events:
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What does it mean to “Bring Life” to ourselves, each other, our communities, and the entire galaxy?
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“Bringing Life” is one of those terms that's hard to define, but you know it when you see it. One decent description is “life creating the conditions for more life,” organisms helping ourselves and each other to thrive and grow.
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It includes everything from spiritual soul-searching, to charity work, to bringing up children, to planting the seeds of new biospheres on other worlds.
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The SolSeed Movement is about all of these ways to bring life, but with a long-term focus on the last one.
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Who are we as Life? As individuals on a spiritual journey? As members and friends of the SolSeed Movement?
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The first two parts of this one are a little too deep for a monthly newsletter.
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We decided that members of the Movement are those who see the epic story of the Destiny as a source of inspiration. But we'll still work hard to include friends of the Movement in our activities, people who share our values and have become part of our virtual SolSeed community, but don't share this excitement about spreading life beyond Earth.
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Who are we becoming? What are we doing next?
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The SolSeed Movement wants to become a collection of more official organizations, ranging from for-profit space hardware shops, to a nonprofit charity called The SolSeed Society (whose constitution and bylaws were finished not long after Sol 2009, thanks mainly to Kim Edwards), to a company organized specifically to build the SolSeed Eco-Village, and perhaps even a church with a science-based gospel about the value of all Life and the SolSeed Destiny. But for now, we haven't made any firm decisions on that front.
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As for the second half of the question, it segues nicely into the third section of the newsletter:
Where we're going
Here are the current 2010 goals from our One-Page Plan, with the names of people who will drive the work for each:
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Spiritual Community: Regular, impactful ceremonies in Portland, led by multiple people -- Shelley
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Although we're currently not defining ourselves in religious terms, the meetings will be modeled after church services because that format is very good at both bringing communities together and “meaning-making,” which in our case will be a group exercise rather than a matter of listening to one “preacher.”
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Income run rate of $100,000/year (~$9000/month) by year's end -- Brandon
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Place: Ownership of a site for the nucleus of a SolSeed Village by Winter Solstice 2010 -- Mark
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Media: Publish two SolSeed books, a 15-minute video, and a great website -- Ben
And here are the 3-year targets:
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Place: We can point to a SolSeed village
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Resources: Yearly budget is $1 million
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Industry: We are making money from something core to launching life to another world, eventually another star system
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What discipline? (rocketry, power beaming, biotech, water filtration, server farms in space?)
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Can it support people with reasonable confidence?
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Win prizes, Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants, possibly some venture capital?
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Vision: Our vision is clearly articulated in all core media
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Website, books, videos, events, Facebook page
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Possibly a blog and/or other Web 2.0 madness?
Thanks for reading!
Ben Sibelman
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