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. I deleted the chunk that tries to summarize our answers to the questions from the unconferences b/c I just found it confusing, and I think people who attended the conferences already know what happened and people who weren't there won't be interested enough to read in that depth (and it's making the newsletter too long). Let me know what you think!
[[User:Shelley Schoepflin Sanders|Shelley Schoepflin Sanders]] 16:46, 3 January 2010 (UTC)
Welcome to the first SolSeed 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==
2009 was an important year for the SolSeed Movement.
*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. We discussed what we really mean by “The Destiny of SolSeed Is to Take Root Amongst the Stars”, setting a tone of inquiry and a direction for action for the rest of the year.
*Over the following months, we 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, [[Sol 2009]].
*[[Sol 2009]] took place on the Oregon coast in June, with the theme question “Who are we?” In addition to more philosophy, watching videos, and having a great time out on the beach (with Bob Sanders' giant papier-mache rocket thrown in for good measure), we started developing a [[OnePagePlan|One Page Plan]] and concrete strategies for where to go next.
*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.
*We staffed 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. We developed a display (thanks again to Bob Sanders for crafting the Life Ship), a brochure (thanks to Ben Sibelman), and gave away 30 copies of Octavia Butler's _The Parable of the Sower_, (see the [[SolSeed Book Program]]).
*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 attendance 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 Winter Solstice party.
==Where we are now==
This is how we're doing on the action items for 2009 from the [[OnePagePlan|One Page Plan]]:
*Publish children's book -- Brandon
:o Text complete
:o Several pages of art by Kevin Fitzpatrick complete
:o Kevin continues to work on illustrations as his busy schedule permits
:o Next steps: finish the art and then self-publish the book
*Finish “Pick a Future” video -- Ben
:o Rough draft complete
:o Next steps: tweak a bit and finish credits
:o Longer term goal: get permission to use certain copyrighted material (especially the music)
*[[Two Year Conference Plan]] -- Shelley
:o 6 conventions listed
:o Next step: sign up for NorWesCon
==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:
* Spiritual Community: Regular, impactful ceremonies in Portland, led by multiple people -- Shelley
:o 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.”
* Income run rate of $100,000/year (~$9000/month) by year's end -- Brandon
* Place: Ownership of a site for the nucleus of a SolSeed Village by Winter Solstice 2010 -- Mark
* Media: Publish two SolSeed books, a 15-minute video, and a great website -- Ben
And here are the 3-year targets:
*Place: We can point to a SolSeed village
* Resources: Yearly budget is $1 million
* Industry: We are making money from something core to launching life to another world, eventually another star system
:o What discipline? (rocketry, power beaming, biotech, water filtration, server farms in space?)
:o Can it support people with reasonable confidence?
:o Win prizes, Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants, possibly some venture capital?
* Vision: Our vision is clearly articulated in all core media
:o Website, books, videos, events, Facebook page
:o Possibly a blog and/or other Web 2.0 madness?
Thanks for reading!
Ben Sibelman
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