May 8, 2011: Online Work Bee

Ben ... trying to get less scared and more excited for the trip ... leaving Saturday ... Shelley asks Ben to take pictures and do a slideshow
Brandon ... made it through a hectic week ... very excited about Symphony of Science connection ... looking forward to having work bee meetings in person
Shelley ... normally really hate Mother's Day, but had a wonderful Mother's Day this year ... brunch with family
Sequoia ... has an incredible vocabulary, new words every day ... seems to be thriving

<s>Shelley ... invite Jerry to do the next service ... by tomorrow
Shelley ... identify and contact the one person she signed up ... by Thursday (possibly Monday)
Shelley ... take a picture of the lettuce ... by Monday
Shelley ... create a lettuce picture reminder system ... by Tonight
Brandon and Shelley ... finish community stories ... by next call
Brandon and Shelley ... finish reading the book ... by next call
Brandon, Shelley, and Ben ... review the book, by next call
Brandon ... get the data on the sign-up sheet to Shelley and Ben ... by Monday
Brandon ... write one paragraph about the "Orbital Railway Act of 2012" ... by next call
Ben ... identify and contact one or possibly two people who signed up ... by Monday
Ben ... create a page for the Earth Day 2011 event on the wiki ... by next call</s>
Ben ... send a link to Gus of the newly created Earth Day page with another hearty thanks ... by next call
<s>Ben ... create a "SpaceWiki Calendar" (or something) page on SpaceWiki.com with our plans ... by next call
Ben ... recontact the Space Elevator guy at Microsoft ... by next call</s>

6:30pm Friday, May 13, 2011 ... Shelley Rotation: Brandon, Jerry?, Shelley, Ben

Questions

Statements

We would have to agree to everything on their charter; then to be "in SolSeed" members would have additional constraints (believing in science; wanting to bring life into space)

Cons

Ben:
Embedding a space-related sub-community seems challenging
Would be nice to all be next to each other, if possible
Weird power dynamics with the larger community leadership
Still quite pricey to move in, especially for Ben (who can't sell a house to help pay for it)
Brandon:
Miss the garden
Proximity to park and school (Daybreak does have its own small park and children's play toys)
Shelley:
North Portland location -- is it safe? It's further from my family.
School for Sequoia -- Spanish immersion available but 10 block walk vs. 1 block for arts school
Day care for Sequoia is in N Portland through year 3, but we'd planned to be in walking distance for ages 3-6 and now would NOT be.
Weird social dynamics with people not understanding our vision
Attached to house where we birthed Sequoia; garden too
Love my current commute -- not sure if this one OK for bike
Spending a lot of work hours in meetings and on the grounds of a community that takes "second place" in our hearts compared with SolSeed

Pros

They do have lots of existing infrastructure (opportunity cost)
We wouldn't have to build anything
We wouldn't have to develop the legal entities and those sorts of things
Would help us solve the problem of where Sequoia would live when he's older, etc.
Brandon:
Get to live with Ted; he is a SolSeed member and would probably contribute if we lived together; one of my best friends
New, sustainably developed, unlike our house
Maybe someone there will discover us and become a member
A lot more flexible for Ben's timeline (move in date; also if he starts a family)
Shelley:
Potentially a lower mortgage; fits my values of spending less on ourselves and more on "projects" we care about
Less hassle with construction (disruption to our lives)
SolSeed events could occur in the shared common space
Three other kids Sequoia's age; could share childcare and raise our son in a village

Brandon is working on a partnership where the Symphony of Science videos will include links to SolSeed
The link to SolSeed would include another video about the circles of commitment and "an alternative to religion"
From there, link to a sign-up for a small monthly donation
Goal: 0.01% of people who view the video donate
We would create a nonprofit that John would work for, which would own the rights to his content
The result might not be SolSeed ... the SolSeed Movement would be a subset?

Ben ... we discussed a variety of stuff ... it worked, although it was a bit long
Shelley ... the intellectual content gets precedent over the emotional content ... we should consider at least naming the emotional content more often
Brandon ... pretty good call

Brandon ... decide whether to submit abstract for Space Elevator conference ... by Monday
Brandon ... schedule an in person with John Boswell for Memorial day weekend ... by Tuesday
Brandon ... send copy of invoice to Ben ... by Monday
Brandon ... draft agenda for Power, Decision-making, and Governance section of meeting ... by next Sunday
Brandon ... contact the remaining people on our list from Earth Day ... by Wednesday
Shelley ... schedule with Todd and Casey for Memorial day weekend ... by Tuesday
Shelley ... if U expresses interest, suggest and orientation meeting with Brandon
Shelley ... to F: want to clearly communicate our vision and clearly understand hers so that we can route people to each other, currently overextended and unable to co-convene, happy to be members of the meetup group
Shelley ... draft agenda for Vision and Goals section ... by next call
Ben ... test Kindle with EtherPad ... by Friday
Ben ... mail a check for 1/3 of the invoice amount ... by Tuesday
Ben ... draft agenda for Personal Inventories section ... by next call
Ben ... move these notes to the wiki ... by Monday