Agenda
- Check in
- Weekly event logistics
- Opening Blessing
- Review WWWs
- Year Plan
- Spring Equinox
- Eclipse
- Trip to Canada
- Review Agenda
- Tactics Talk
- Evaluations
- Closing Blessing
Check-in
- Petra … purrrrr
- Ben … I am having a good weekend, and will probably work on some concepts for a logo this morning for Backbone Campaign's electric rail campaign, which should be fun.
- Brandon … Making it through the weekend
- Eric … Having a fun weekend. We had a very not-vegetarian dinner last night. All sorts of exotic meats. Mostly from animals that had been hunted by members of the group that put it on. I feel like I’m getting a lot of progress done on the wall.
Weekly Events Logistics
Service rotation: Eric, Ben, Brandon, Rico, Shelley
- March 4 Service: 8:00 AM PST / 11:00 EST … Brandon
- March 5 Business Call: 8:00 AM PST / 11:00 EST
Opening Blessing
For the short period when our various lives intersect, we come together from vastly different experiences to combine our experience into one and do the work together. May our work be guided by empathy and wisdom and fueled by passion. --Blessed Be
WW(W)s from last time
Ongoing
- Brandon … Bedtime at 9:30 every night, wake up with alarm at 5:30
- Brandon … spend 15 minutes every day on Machine Learning
- <s>Brandon … make a daily 1 minute video check-in for Ben and Eric</s>
- <s>Brandon … Meditate regularly with Eric or Ben</s>
- Ben … meditate regularly with Eric
- Ben … spend at least 15 minutes a day on Flight in a Cage
- <s>Ben … Send Brandon/Eric a video message each day about what I did</s>
- <s>Eric … Watch videos and make mine at 8:45pm before Ben calls
- Eric … Send Brandon/Ben a video message each day about what I did
- Eric … Work on Buckleberry at least 15 minutes a day
- Eric … Meditate regularly with Ben
- Eric … Meditate regularly with Brandon</s>
Time-specific
- Brandon … add Nag! Or something similar to phone … by today
- Brandon … see if I can switch meditation times with Eric … by today
- <s>Brandon … talk with Shelley about the eclipse, Summer solstice, and September trip … by next call</s>
- Brandon … research our legal status as an informal religious organization … by next call
- <s>Brandon … put together a plan for a YouTube ad … by next call</s>
- <s>Ben … look up sushi places for the Equinox … by next call</s>
WW(W)s
Ongoing
- Brandon … Bedtime at 9:30 every night, wake up with alarm at 5:30
- Brandon … spend 15 minutes every day on Machine Learning
- Brandon … make a daily 1 minute video check-in for Ben and Eric
- Brandon … Meditate regularly with Eric or Ben
- Ben … meditate regularly with Eric
- Ben … spend at least 15 minutes a day on Flight in a Cage
- Eric … Send Brandon/Ben a video message each day about what I did and watch theirs
- Eric … Work on Buckleberry or Auberge Paradis at least 15 minutes a day
- Eric … Meditate regularly with Ben
- Eric … Meditate regularly with Brandon
Time-specific
- Ben … check if the local Sushi Land has a conveyor belt … by next call
- Brandon … talk with Shelley about the eclipse, Summer solstice, and September trip … by next call
- Brandon … research our legal status as an informal religious organization … by next call
- Brandon … Work on the YouTube ad … by next call
Year Plan
Spring Equinox March 20th
It's a Monday … we'll celebrate the Saturday before
- West Coast
- March 18 Sanders will come to Seattle … up and back on Saturday … in Seattle noon-7:30
- Sushi for lunch
- Walk in Ravenna Park
- Play Evolution if there's time, or wait until after storytelling
- Storytelling (connected via Skype) 4 PM PDT
- Gatineau/Ottawa
- Go to a sushi place in the east end for dinner 17:00 to 18:00
- Travel back to Auberge 18:00 to 19:00
- Storytelling (connected via Skype) 19:00 EDT
- ? Play Evolution?
Eclipse August 21st
- Ben will be in a rented house with relatives near Deschutes National Forest, Thursday the 17th through Tuesday the 22nd
- The Sanders might be able to camp in the backyard, but more likely just drive to the Oregon State Fairgrounds and connect up with the OMSI party
- Eric has an ethical dilemma that he doesn't feel good about traveling to the U.S. this year, and there don't seem to be any cruises, so maybe he'll charter a sailboat (or just miss the eclipse altogether…)
Fall Equinox September 22nd
The Sanders and Ben will travel to visit the Saumurs and Buckleberry somewhere around this time
- Shelley has asked for time off from the 22nd to the 26th or 27th
- Eric would like us to rent a car (or the Saumurs could rent two)
- Things to do
- Be tourists, e.g. visit Parliament Hill
- Go to Buckleberry
- Celebrate the Equinox
- Play Martian Rails
- Hang out
Tactics: Growth ideas that are relevant to the times we live in
Eric
- I feel that the work we are doing is relevant to the times we live in. Creating a vision that is beautiful instead of greedy is as relevant as you can get.
- The biggest problem with what happened in the States is that people started to just live with visions of fear and greediness and self-protection and feelings of not being safe.
- If we keep pushing our vision that is hopeful and beautiful, we're fighting in the best way we can.
- There might be short-term things that are more important in the short term. But we are a long-term group and somebody needs to stay on the long-term.
- Ben: How do we know what kind of long term we are going to have?
- Eric: We don't, but we offer a vision of the long term.
Brandon:
- We're strategically a long-term organization, but our tactics are shaped by what's happening in the moment, and this is a great opportunity for us because people are awake in a way that they're often not.
- They can see that narrative matters and that we're not living a good story. We can help offer a better story that they can live and share.
- The assault against science and the Earth, and to a lesser degree the assault against Social Justice, are opportunities for us to speak about. Unitarian Universalists are better placed to focus on Social Justice.
- Ben: The Social Justice direction we can use is that we value diversity above all else. The main reason that we value Life is because it creates diversity.
- Eric: So we need to link diversity of life in general to diversity of humanity.
- Brandon: But diversity of life is much more about embracing science and cherishing the Earth than about human politics.
Ben:
- I’m hesitant to propose Empirical World as a SolSeed tactic because it really wouldn’t be talking about space hardly at all. Does it make sense for us to choose tactics that don’t focus on our unique aspect of The Destiny and Life spreading beyond Earth?
- Brandon: There is no SolSeed without embracing science. Our whole story is science-driven, and one of our most defining elements is that we seek to build a religious narrative in which science is powerful. This feels like work that is consistent with SolSeed.
- The other reason I’m hesitant is that for Empirical World to succeed on a large scale, it needs to avoid being associated with entities that are not reputable (e.g., tiny new religions).
- Brandon: Consider the Christian Science Monitor. Christian Science itself is crazy, but that publication is great, and people trust it.
- Ben: I’m not sure I want to put a lot of energy into this because it seems to have very low probability of success.
- Brandon: We could do a pilot and see what the response is.
- Ben: The issue I'd want to cover first is democracy. How bad is the problem of democracy in decline? What are the main components of the problem and the major causes? Who is working to solve the problem and what methods are having the most success?
- We can count how many people aren't allowed to vote, and how many people can vote but choose not to.
- Brandon: The confidence various generations have in the democratic process.
- Brandon: Start with a question and go wherever it takes to answer that question, even if the answer doesn't match our hypothesis. If it doesn't, that actually gives the show more integrity.
Closing Blessing
The three of us are very different people, with shared values but different preferences for how to realize them. This diversity can be problematic, but it is also our strength. May we continue to do the work together, embracing our varying viewpoints as we seek a shared path toward our highest aspirations. -- Blessed Be
Evaluation
- Brandon … I like it when the whole gang is together
- Ben … me too! I wish we could have a bigger gang.
- Brandon … me too!